I'm reading a book full of idioms. I crammed as many as I could into this post 🤞🏼.

"I'm all ears," I said to my parents, unaware of the cropper that was about to come. My mother had put some food and drink on the table to sugarcoat what was about to happen, I guessed, and my father was looking at my twin sister and me in the same way he looked at a shop windows—quite interested but hesitant. He had never come to grips with me, but it was no skin off his nose. My sister, on the other hand, was more like the male son he had dreamed of but never had.

So there we were. My thicket-headed father and my trigger-happy mother were about to reveal the unvarnished truth at the kitchen table. Such as they were.

"So what is it?" I asked. My mind had warned me off, but I started the conversation anyway.

"What we're about to tell you, girls, has been in the back of our minds for years, but_" my mother said, but my father stopped her by raising his hand. Just a little was enough to silence her. He removed the napkin slung over his shoulder and wiped his mouth with it before beginning to speak. My mother looked down at her cup of coffee. My sister stopped scrolling through her phone.

If I hadn't known my father so well, I'd have said he was playing for time, but knowing him, I was sure he was just being himself.