Page 17 of Nerdelicious
Chapter Five
There wasthe allegory of my whole life:
I, in the shadow, at the ladder’s foot,
While others lightly mount to love and fame!
–Cyrano de Bergerac
“Dearly beloved, thank you for bringing us all together for this fine meal.” Granny pauses for a moment, clearing her throat before adding, “of which I did most of the preparing.”
Grace, sitting to my left, squeezes my hand while I press my lips shut in an effort to suppress a bubble of laughter threatening to break free.
“Except for Beast who prepared a wonderful... what was it? Potato rosaries?”
“Potato rissole,” Jude says, somehow completely straight faced.
“Right, right. Rissole. Some fancy French food,” she continues in a grumble. “It’s a good thing you’re handsome,” she tells Beast.
His lips tighten. Granny can even get the marble statue to crack.
“Please bless this family and all our friends, and in your infinite wisdom, if you see fit to compel Elaine Kilgarriff to share her fried chicken recipe with me, it would be most appreciated. In Jesus’s name, amen.”
“Amen.”
There’s a slight pause and then the table erupts into a flurry of activity, hands grabbing for plates and passing the food around.
“What are your plans for summer, young man?” Granny asks Jude. “You can’t get by on your good looks alone, and idle hands are Satan’s misfits, as I always like to say.”
“I reckon I’ll stay busy. No Satan hands here.” He holds up both hands with a grin. “I signed on for some freelance computer work for people around town.”
Grace’s eternal teen slouch straightens. “Can I help?”
“No,” at least three people say at the same time.
Her shoulders slump and she goes back to pushing food around with her fork.
“I need your help around the farm,” Granny tells her. “Fred’s new job will keep her up all hours of the night, so I’ll need someone to feed the chickens in the morning and milk the goats.”
Grace groans.
“Perhaps you could invite some school friends over to help you while away the lazy dog days of summer.” Jude pours her a glass of tea from the pitcher on the table.
Grace shrugs. “People at school were mean. I didn’t really make any friends.”
“I find that hard to believe considering your sunny personality.” Jude winks at Grace.
She rolls her eyes. “I shouldn’t be in school anyway. It’s not like I’m learning anything new.”
“You promised to try,” he reminds her. “And you’ve said on countless occasions that you want friends your own age.”
“Whatever.” She shovels a big forkful of potatoes into her mouth.
Reese nods at me. “Fred, I heard you made peach pie?”
I love Reese. She’s almost as dorky as I am, but less of a fandom nerd and more of a science geek. Plus she’s a whole lot smarter. She reminds me of home, too, since Scarlett is her older sister, even though they don’t exactly look alike. It’s only when I look closely that I can tell they are even related. Reese is tall and slender with dark hair, and Scarlett is shorter and a redhead. But they have the same refined nose and full lips, and some of their mannerisms are nearly identical. “Yep. From the trees out back.”
“You are a goddess. Or a devil. Between you and Beast I’ve gained twenty pounds since Christmas.”
