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His daughter was leaning back against the kitchen table holding a bag of crumpets, with one almost in her mouth.
“Nadia!”
She shrugged and took a bite before she began to talk. Or mumble as the case may be. “I can’t help it. They are delicious.”
He gestured at the meal he was preparing. “You’re going to ruin your dinner.”
She coughed. Or snorted. Something that made a horrible sound around the bite of crumpet she had in her mouth.
Shaking his head, Lucas got a cold glass of water from the dispenser on the refrigerator and gave it to his daughter.
Nadia took a sip and nodded her thanks. She cleared her throat and smiled. “Sorry, Dad, but you know I have the appetite of a horse.”
Lucas cringed at the turn of phrase. “Don’t let your mother-”
“Hear you say that… Yeah, I know. There isn’t much that Mommie Dearest likes to hear me say beyond ‘Yes, Mom,’ and ‘Absolutely, Mom,’ and ‘Whatever you say, Mom.’”
There wasn’t venom in her voice, Nadia wasn’t like that.
But Lucas could hear the ghost of pain in her words.
It didn’t sit well with him. Not even when he started to fight Sandrine for custody when Nadia started to beg him to let her stay even instead of going back to her mother.
“Nadia, I’m so-”
“Dad, don’t.” She drank more of the water before setting the cup down. “I’m sorry, I said anything. But when I talk about it, it’s not like it was before. Really.” Nadia stepped up beside him and took a crumpet bite out of the bag and held it up to his lips. “Open.”
Lucas grudgingly opened his mouth and Nadia popped it in.
When he didn’t immediately start to chew, she mimed chewing and he gave in.
The flavor was surprisingly… good!
“Not bad.”
Nadia rolled her eyes. “Come on! They are great!”
He shrugged. “Passable.”
“O.M.G. No wonder Caroline all but ran away from you at the idea of coming over to the house.”
Caroline?
“What are you talking about?”
Nadia spoke around a new bite that she’d popped into her mouth. “Caroline Franzen, dad. The super hot chef that used to work for you a thousand years ago.”
Lucas could barely get his brain to work around the thoughts that were suddenly tumbling around in his head. “Wait. Wait. What are you talking about? Super hot? Are you… do you like women?”
Nadia frowned at him. “Sure. Why not? I’m a woman.”
“Almost a woman,” he reminded her. “You’re almost sixteen.”
“Yeah, but saying ‘girl’ sounds so… so… Twentieth Century and all that.”
He felt sick to his stomach.
“Okay, so, you like girls.”
