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Nova heard it too, and dropped my hand, but continued to smirk. “Does anyone have a pen? I feel like we should ask for an autograph.”
Eva rolled her eyes. “Don’t mind Nova,” she told me. “The Vespers are the only family who have been here longer than the Claires, and she’s a little touchy about it.”
Nova glared at Eva but said nothing, sliding back into her seat and pulling out her phone as though she was already bored with the proceedings.
“Wait, Claire?” I asked, the name finally clicking into place in my brain. “I think I just met some of your relatives over at the art gallery.”
Nova’s head snapped up again, looking startled. “Which relatives, specifically?”
“Um… Ostara and Bernadette?”
Nova rolled her eyes. “Excellent. So your first impressions of my family were my overbearing grandmother and my crazy cousin.”
“They were dropping a painting off for the gallery. She’s… your cousin is very talented,” I offered.
Nova made a sour face. “Yeah, I’d probably be talented too if I locked myself in an art studio day and night and avoided the entire outside world.” She looked down at her phone again, apparently bored with our conversation already.
“Anyway,” Eva said pointedly, and I turned back to her. She was tucking a rogue braid into her hair wrap. “When did you get here?”
“Just today,” I said. Eva’s expression was open and friendly, and it allowed me to let my guard down just enough to ask the question that had been burning in me since we’d arrived. “I don’t suppose you know why everyone already knows exactly who I am before I even open my mouth, do you?”
To my surprise, Eva and Zale both laughed. Even Nova gave a soft snort of amusement from her corner. “I expect you’ve felt like a tourist attraction ever since you drove into town,” Zale offered.
I was so relieved to hear someone acknowledge that it wasn’t all in my head that I genuinely laughed too, feeling the tension ease in my shoulders for the first time. “More like a carnival sideshow freak, actually. Step right up and see the mythical Vesper girl! Seriously, what’s with this town, anyway?”
This time I was sure of it. Zale and Eva exchanged a fleeting look before they answered.
“It’s a very small town. Everyone is always up in everyone else’s business,” Eva shrugged, a little too casually, I thought.
“It’s more than that,” I said, pressing them.
“Gossip is thick on the ground around here,” Zale chimed in. “And your family is, like, a Sedgwick Cove institution. And with your grandmother dying—” Zale’s face flushed. “Oh, uh, my condolences, by the way.”
“Thanks,” I said, because that’s what you say, right?
“Anyway, it’s all anyone is talking about, that Asteria Vesper died. And now you show up out of the blue—hence, all the staring. But don’t sweat it. They’ll get over it soon enough.”
I knew that couldn’t possibly be the whole story, but I let it go for the moment, as Xiomara suddenly appeared, backing into the room from the kitchen carrying a steaming plate of food.
“Sientate!” she ordered. I’d had enough high school Spanish to know to park my butt in the nearest seat. She plonked the plate down in front of me, along with a knife and fork wrapped in a napkin. Then she stood over me, hands on her hips, and stared expectantly at me.
“Thank you,” I muttered, unrolling the silverware from the napkin, and taking up the fork. The plate was piled with shredded beef and vegetables in some kind of sauce, served over rice. I dug my fork into it and transferred a steaming bite to my mouth. It took a moment for my tastebuds to recover from the temperature, and then…
“Oh my GOD.”
Eva grinned. “I know, right?”
Xiomara nodded her satisfaction as I dug my fork back in again.
Zale was leaning toward my plate, sniffing hopefully. “Is thatropa vieja?” he moaned.
“Yes, and I suppose you’re going to be asking me for some now, too?” demanded Xiomara, hands on her ample hips.
“I mean, if… if it’s not too much trouble,” Zale said, sitting up straight like a soldier on inspection.
Xiomara scoffed but shuffled back into the kitchen. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I saw a hint of a smile on her face as she disappeared through the doors.
“This might be the best thing I’ve ever eaten,” I said when I stopped stuffing my face long enough to speak.
