Page 17 of The Wedding Planner's Manny
What happened to you?
I really needed to talk to Ethan later.
Eventually, the kid started moving again, focusing back on his tower instead of the strange adult in front of him.
Did that mean I could keep playing? I wasn't sure, but I picked up another piece of Lego and Caleb didn't seem to mind. “Your Dad says you love Lego,” I told him. “I did too, when I was your age. I guess I still do.”
Caleb glanced at me again, but didn't speak.
Well then. I was cool with not speaking. I'd been a quiet child myself. No one could out-silence me.
For about twenty minutes or so, we kept working on the tower, neither of us saying anything until we ran out of Legos.
Eventually, Caleb broke the silence as I knew he would. “I'm hungry,” he said with a sullen look on his face.
“What would you like to eat?” I asked. I hadn't even checked the kitchen yet to see what was there.
Ethan had said that his kids were picky eaters so I figured there wouldn't be a lot of variety. Still, for my first day here I was okay was feeding them comfort foods rather than getting fancy.
“I want the mac & cheese Clara used to make me.”
I didn't know who Clara was, but I guess she must have worked here before me. “How did Clara make your mac & cheese?”
He shrugged. “I don't know.”
Well, that was helpful. “You know what, I'll make you my mac & cheese and you can tell me if you like it. My nephew does. He says it's pretty great, and that's high compliments coming from him.”
Caleb didn't seem entirely convinced, but he didn't protest either, which I decided to take as a sign of agreement.
“Let me see what we have in the kitchen,” I said getting up from the couch. Doing so, I realized that I should check whether I had one or two mouths to feed.
Alright then. Looked like I had to go upstairs and try to talk to the child who didn't want to leave his room. To my surprise, Caleb followed along behind me as I went up the stairs. He was either really curious, or he really didn't like being alone, even if his only other option was to be with someone he wasn't entirely sure he liked. That was something I would worry about later. For now, I just had to see whether I could coax a response out of his big brother.
Fortunately, Ethan had shown me around the house earlier, so I knew where Nathan's room was. I went there now.
Slowly, I knocked on the door. “Nathan?”
At first, nobody answered, and then I heard a weird, yipping sound.
What was that?
“Nathan?” I tried again. “Are you okay?”
“I'm fine,” Nathan called back. It was the most he'd said to me since opening the door to me the other day. “Just go away, I'm busy.”
“I only wanted to know if you'd like to eat something. I'm making some mac & cheese for your brother.”
“I'm not hungry.”
He clearly wanted me to go away, but I thought I heard another odd noise coming from his room as he spoke. What was going on in there?
I had to check. Resting my hand on the doorknob, I gave the boy a warning. “I'm going to come in.”
There was no response from the other side but I heard movement from within. Frantic movement. Was he trying to hide something from me? Maybe I was just being paranoid. In any case, I wasn't going to find out unless I opened the door. Deciding not to drag this out any longer, I turned my hand on the doorknob and stepped into Nathan's room.
At first glance, I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Nathan stood in front of his dresser, eying me suspiciously. “I have homework to do,” he said, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
“I'll let you get back to your homework in a minute.” I looked around the room, just wanting to check that everything was all right. My eyes caught on the terrariums on the boy's desk. Ethan had mentioned that Nathan kept some interesting pets, but I hadn't seen them yet. The moment my eyes fell on the salamander, I forgot all about the weird noises I'd heard coming from this room before as my innate enthusiasm for everything reptilian was sparked.
