Page 23 of Whiskey Wednesdays

“Uh-huh. He said some bad words, but he did it.”

I wished I could have seen that.

“How are the letters coming?” I asked while we set the table.

“Good. And do you know what? I can write a big E now.”

“That’s the first letter in your name. And I bet you can write the next two letters too because one is just a line and the next letter is a circle. That’s half your name.”

“Ooh. Let me see.” She dropped the forks and ran over to the desk to pick up her notepad. She’d just sat at the table and was starting to write when the doorbell rang.

I glanced at my dad. He looked a little sheepish.

“Who’s that?”

“I forgot to mention Connor’s coming over for dinner too. Will you set an extra place?” He walked to the door.

Shaking my head, I set the extra place.

Elodie brought her paper over. “Like this?”

I sat down next to her. The E looked like a drunk, blind person had written it, but the first three letters of her name were decipherable.

“Nice. Your hard work is paying off. You just spelled half your name.”

I gave her a high five, then she threw her arms around me. I patted her back and looked up to see Connor studying us.

My smile dropped a little, but I beckoned him over. “Come look what Ellie did. And her hair looks nice, by the way.”

He rolled his eyes, knowing I was being sarcastic.

He looked down at the paper. “Wow. You spelled half your name.”

She grinned. “Javy showed me the big E.”

Connor smiled, and I did a doubletake. The man did have a nice smile.

Dad started bringing food to the table, and I jumped up to help.

He pointed at Elodie. “She’s been working hard on her letters this week. We want to make sure you’re ready for school, right El?”

“Right.” She sounded more confident today.

I watched Connor glance around my dad’s house. There were potted herbs on the windowsill and a homemade apple tart on the counter.

He squeezed Elodie’s shoulder and smiled at her again. The man needed to stop smiling like that.

I plunked the salad down on the table. “Okay, let’s eat.”

While we ate, Connor let Elodie know he’d finally signed her up for school.

“You start next week,” he told her. “Are you excited?”

She nodded, but her eyes got wide and her feet started swinging.

I leaned back. “When I was around your age, we moved to a new place. I didn’t know anyone, and I was pretty nervous the first day of school.”

“Did you have any friends?” she asked.

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