Page 31 of Apple of My Eye
‘Isn’t that why you hire seasonal workers?’
‘Well, my parents need me too,’ I remind him.
‘You need you also,’ Nick tells me. ‘If working in a lab is putting your dream first, maybe you do that for a couple years and then come back if you still want to. Your parents will be fine.’
He says it so casually,your parents will be fine, but I can still feel my face fall. ‘I think they need me here,’ I say, but my voice catches, betraying my emotion.
Nick’s fingertips graze my forearm as he reaches for me. ‘Oh, Eloise, I didn’t mean it like that. I’m sure that’s true.’
‘You can call me Lou, you know. You don’t have to call me Eloise.’ I switch subjects, not wanting to have to face Nick’s pity.
Nick’s nose wrinkles. ‘Really?’
‘What? My brother gave me the nickname ages ago. He couldn’t say Eloise when I was born so instead he called me “Ee-lou” and over the years it morphed into Lou.’ I pause. ‘You think it’s weird because it’s usually a guy’s name?’
‘No!’ he exclaims, his face flushing red.
Nick blushes, I think,another thing to add to the Things I Like About Nick list.
‘Well .?.?. yes. I have an uncle, Luigi. We call him Lou.’
‘Luigi?’ I laugh. ‘Wow, you are so much more Italian than I thought.’
‘Is that a bad thing?’ Nick asks, batting his eyes at me.
God, no. No, it really isn’t. Nick is moving!I remind myself, trying to fend off the butterflies that wage a war in my stomach every time Nick looks at me. ‘I think you can deal with two Lou’s in your life. I can’t bear that much similarity to your uncle.’
‘You’d be surprised.’ Nick waggles his eyebrows.
‘Isn’t Nick a nickname?’
Nick shakes his head. ‘No.’
‘Do you have a nickname?’
Another shake. ‘No.’
‘We can fix that,’ I assure him. ‘Give me a day to think on it.’
Nick beams. ‘I’d like that,’ he says, and pauses at the fork in the path. He turns back to me, holding a hand over his eyes to block the sun. ‘But I’ll keep Eloise if it’s all the same to you.’
I feel the same tug in my heart at the prospect of him leaving as I did earlier, but I can tell by how high the sun is in the sky that I’m getting a very late start to my day. I promised Lily I would call her and I promised Mom I would help her in the garden this afternoon. But I’m not ready to tell Nick goodbye. ‘I still don’t understand what you’ll do with all this information .?.?. you know .?.?. in October .?.?. when you leave here to never return.’
‘Never say never.’ Nick winks.
There it is again—that swoop in my stomach when he jokes that he won’t leave.
‘Seriously,’ Nick says, oblivious to my thoughts, ‘thank you.’ He places a hand on my forearm as he says it, and a jolt of electricity runs up my spine.
‘Anytime,’ I squeak out. I smell cinnamon and mint anddamn, he looks even better up close. I bite my lip.
Nick inhales, his hand lingering on my forearm. A bird stirs in a nearby tree and we both start. ‘So, I’ll see you soon then?’
‘Soon,’ I say.
‘Your mom invited me to the big dinner on Tuesday.’
‘Of course she did.’
