AllFreeNovel
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“Nica?” Eva taps my arm.
I jerk, sloshing the cider in my glass. “Sorry, just zoned out for a second.” I look around the small kitchen. Eva stands by the sink. Matt is gone. After a second, I spot him through the sliding glass door, dropping the steaks on the grill in the backyard. He puts the last one on and picks up his beer, then looks away, raising a hand before strolling out of my eyeline.
Eva clears her throat and tilts her head toward the counter. “You wanna make salads?”
“Sure.” I take a sip of my drink and put it on the granite surface, looking over the selection of produce Eva has provided. “You like all this stuff?”
She looks up from the sink where she’s rinsing green beans. “Except the onions. Leave those off mine, please.”
I unstack the three bowls and pull a plastic container of clean lettuce closer. “You do individual salads instead of one big one?”
“Yeah, Mom’s pretty picky about what she wants on hers, so it was easier to do it that way. We never got out of the habit after she left.” She snaps the end of a bean, and it thuds loudly in the stainless-steel sink.
“That makes sense.” I keep my voice as neutral as possible. I’m not going to comment on her absent mother. I pull a few leaves of lettuce out of the bowl and start ripping them into bite-sized pieces.
“It’s okay.” Eva gives me a sideways glance. “You and my dad, I mean. I don’t mind. He needs someone… nice.”
I bite my lip. “How do you know I’m nice? Just because I play it on TV doesn’t mean—”
“Please.” She smirks and waves at the counter. “Look at you. You’re making salad. You helped my dad with that ridiculous prank. You cared about me getting charged with assault. You’re obviously a nice person.”
“I like to think anyone would care about a woman being charged with assault for defending herself.” As I say the words, I realize how often that doesn’t happen. “Okay, any woman would care about another woman defending herself.”
With a humorless laugh, she picks up the colander and shakes the water off the beans. “Right. Everyone likes you, though.”
“Everyone?”
“All of dad’s friends.” She puts the beans beside the stove, turns on the gas, and slides a frying pan over the heat. Another smirk twitches across her lips. “Seriously, they’ve all told me.”
I stare at her, my mouth open. Finally, I snap it shut. “They actually said something? To you? About me?”
Eva pulls her phone out of her back pocket. With a couple taps, she finds what she’s looking for and turns it toward me. “I started a Discord channel.” The app on the screen is labeled “Matt’s crush.”
I take the phone, sagging against the counter. “How long has this—” I break off as I scroll through the discussion. The earliest entries are dated April 2. “That’s the day we met. Who is on this?”
She takes the phone back and taps a couple of things, then turns it toward me. “Rachel, Jamie, Gloria, Stella. And me. Uncle Blake pops in once in a while.”
I take the device again and read a couple of entries. Each member of the group reports on their encounters with me and reactions to those encounters. Most of them are positive, with Blake expressing a little bit of caution. Rachel promptly tells him to stuff it. Stella talks about refusing to take the main role in the musical, “so they can spend more time together.” I hand it back to Eva. “I’m not sure I should read this.”
She pockets the phone. “See—nice. Everyone thinks so. We know you won’t do anything to hurt my dad.”
I turn to the counter and pull a cutting board closer to me, grabbing a cucumber. “You don’t know that. You—all these people—only see what I want you to see. I’m a professional actor. I know how to fool people.” I chop some of the cuke.
She reaches around me to take the knife from my hand. “You’re getting a little stabby, which is making me doubt my assessment of your niceness.”
I look down. The cucumber has several ragged gashes in its side. “See!” I fling my hands at the innocent vegetable. “That’s not nice.”
With a chuckle, Eva puts the knife beside the cutting board. “As long as you take your crazy out on the produce, I think we’re fine.” She goes back to her pan. Oil sizzles as she tosses the beans in. “Maybe focus on the cherry tomatoes until you calm down. Rinse ’em and pull the stems off. Plenty of violence to get your feelings out.”
Despite my swirling emotions, this makes me laugh. Or maybe because of them. I chuckle as I clean the tomatoes and rip them off their woody stems. Plenty of violence.
The pan sizzles again, and the scent of roasting garlic fills the kitchen, making my mouth water. Matt returns with a foil-covered plate and an empty beer bottle. He puts the plate on the table and turns to Eva. “Rachel says hello. She wants you to come over after dinner.”
Eva dumps the beans into a bowl. “Did she say why?”
“She hasn’t seen you in three months. I think she just wants to say hi.” He glances at me, and his cheeks turn pink. “And probably to give me and Nica some alone time. Not that we need—I mean—” He breaks off, his face now beet red.
Eva pushes past him and sets her bowl on the table. She pats her father’s shoulder. “You’re so cute when you’re embarrassed. But don’t worry about it. Nica and I had a talk, and I’m fine with this.” She waves between her father and me.
