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“I feel great.” I hesitate as I follow her into the kitchen. She’s wearing denim overalls and a dark orange t-shirt, with one side unhooked. I never thought overalls were attractive before, but I’ve never seen Elianna in overalls before. Now I know better. Overalls are my new favorite thing.
“My mom used to listen to this album.” I have to shout for her to hear me, so she reaches over the counter to her portable speaker to turn it down.
“Your mom is a lovely woman,” she says. “And has good taste in music.”
Destiny’s Child is suddenly my new best friend, following me around at my heels, her tail moving like a windshield wiper every time I look down at her or give her a little pat.
I wonder if the dog’s as excited as I am as the scent of ribs fills the air.
“Will you get the rolls out of the oven?” she asks.
I do and my stomach growls. Drake is really good at providing tasty food, but this? I haven’t eaten a meal like this in I don’t know how long.
She has me toss the salad and I pour her freshly made vinaigrette all over it.
“Um, need some salad with that dressing?” she asks.
“There’s only one way to eat a salad, and it’s drowned in dressing.” I lift the bowl to my nose. “This smells almost better than the meat.”
“You turning herbivore on me?”
Elianna, I’ll become anything as long as I get to be around you.
But I only smirk. “I said almost.”
We sit and begin eating, and the meat is so tender that I can’t stop a moan. “Where did you learn to make food like this?” I say after I finish a few bites in quick succession.
“My dad taught me how to put this meal together. It’s his favorite.”
“I can see why. Is this barbecue sauce homemade?”
“Of course.”
“And the rolls? From scratch?”
She tilts her head, her expression asking me why I even need to ask such silly questions.
I’m mesmerized by her tapered fingers as they grasp her fork, by her mouth as she takes a bite of mashed potato, by her nod of satisfaction as she savors the food.
“I think Ethan had the right idea when he suggested I hire you,” I say, sipping my drink.
Her smile is soft, reflective. “I agree. And I know it was because you owed him a favor, but I never heard why.” She leans forward, ready for me to spill the story.
“It’s not that interesting.” I hide behind another swallow of my drink.
“It would be good for me to know the great and noble thing my brother did for you. Maybe I’d like him more if you told me.”
“Great and noble? Hardly.” But still, I’ll never forget the relief I felt when he stepped up and helped. “I want you two to get along, so I’ll just say this. Middle of Junior year, I got a bad grade on a test and was . . . well, I was angry. Blaming myself. Blaming the professor. I convinced her to let me take another version of the test for partial credit.” I shake my head, even now remembering it all with a tightness in my chest. “The problem was, I’d signed up with a student group to spend the weekend in the city at a soup kitchen, serving food and repainting the interior.”
Elianna clutches her chin with both hands. “And Ethan went for you?”
“Yes.” I nod.
“Aw, my brother really is a good guy,” she says with a grin.
“I studied the whole weekend and ended up acing the retake. Now you know why I told him I owed him one. Especially when he said the student group listened to Backstreet Boys’ ‘I Want it That Way’ on repeat the entire weekend.”
She doubles over with laughter. “No! I maybe wouldn’t have minded that myself, but that’s pure torture for Ethan.”
