Page 41 of Apple of My Eye
Evan perks up. ‘Nick?’
Mom’s face splits into a grin.
‘Guys,’ I protest. I feel my cheeks reddening. ‘I’m sure Evan will meet Nick tomorrow.’
Mom ignores me. ‘You know they’ve been spending a lot of time together,’ she says to Evan. ‘Right, Cal?’ She nudges Dad, who has been staring off into the distance, clearly not listening.
‘Mhmm,’ he grunts.
She leans in closer to Evan like she’s about to tell him a secret. ‘You know he comes over every morning.’
‘He just needs to learn more about farming for his capstone thing. Can we change the subject?’
‘He seems to be doing an awful lot of work for it,’ Mom says. She turns to Evan. ‘Did Lou tell you how handsome he is?’
‘No!’ Evan exclaims. ‘Tell me someone has a picture.’
Mom pulls out her phone and starts typing, furrowing her brow at the screen.
‘Mom,’ I wail, ‘can we not? Dad, help me out here.’
Dad grunts non-committally again, exactly zero help. Meanwhile Evan is practically sliding off his seat leaning closer to Mom. ‘Got it!’ she says triumphantly. She pulls up a grainy photo of Nick clearly taken off the Stanford webpage. Despite the poor quality Nick looks like himself, which is to say, very cute.
‘Lou!’ Evan gasps loudly. ‘You didnotsay he was that cute.’
I can feel my face redden at the thought of how cute Nick is, and how not-cute Nickfeels. I squirm. ‘When is dinner?’ I ask Mom, pointedly changing the subject.
‘Where has Nick been this week?’ Mom asks, ignoring my question. ‘I haven’t seen him around the past couple of days.’
‘He’s been working, Mom.’
‘Working on helping the Parkers?’ Evan supplies. But he emphasizes ‘the Parkers’ too heavily. Mom whips her head towards him. I glare.
‘So, you knew about this plan too?’ She shakes her head. ‘I don’t like scheming to steal from neighbors.’
‘It is not stealing, Mom. They’re going to go under.’
‘Does Nick know you feel this way?’
‘We’ve already talked about this,’ I grumble through clenched teeth.
‘Now that you say that,’ Dad jumps in, ‘Nick did come by yesterday.’
‘He did?’ Mom and I ask together.
‘Yeah. He was asking me how to fix the potholes in the Parkers’ driveway. Says Betsy keeps complaining about how they jostle her around so much she spills her coffee if she tries to leave the house in the morning.’
My heart swells. I shake my head to clear away any positive thoughts of Nick. I’ve already given Amie the green light. And it’s not even like Amie is the problem. The Nick ship has already sailed for San Francisco.
‘So, he’s an angel?’ Evan volunteers.
I’ve had enough of this conversation. Thankfully I know exactly what to do to change the subject. ‘Mom, what time do we have to leave?’ I ask. ‘I don’t want to forget to set my alarm.’ Momhateswaking up her children, she claims it makes them lazy and grumpy. Forgetting to set an alarm is not an option and is something she will always try to avoid.
‘Oh,’ she says, immediately pulling out her phone, ‘let’s do .?.?. five thirty?’
‘Works for me,’ I pretend to toggle my alarm—it was already on. ‘And what time do we need to finish setting up? That way Evan knows when to get there.’
Like clockwork, Mom launches into plans for the day.
