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“So it was only good enough to win three out of ten.”
“He’ll understand,” Nick said. “I’ll just say, ‘Gavin, she prefers Seagal to Stallone.’”
She got a bite full of cheese, onion, and jalapeño and nearly wept with joy. “And film editing,” she carried on. “How are you even supposed to judge that?”
Nick slumped forward, burger in both hands, elbows on the table. He only managed to glare for a couple seconds before he started laughing. “I have no idea,” he said.
Laughing with him felt at least as good as her milkshake. She said, “You wanted to be Rocky, didn’t you? I can just see little Nick Freeman chugging raw eggs and running around Columbus at dawn.”
But panic hit when she actually pictured it.Way to go, Hayley Michelle. He didn’t run around Columbus. He can’t run to the door. Why don’t you remind him of everything else he wishes he could do?
But Nick’s blue eyes were gleaming with mirth, his curved lips smudged with hot sauce.
Screw it. She wasn’t going to let this be awkward anymore.
“You would have been better off,” she declared, “starting your workout with one of these milkshakes. Raw eggs’ll kill you.”
His smile grew.
“My mom used to make me French toast,” he said. “Never at dawn, though.”
God bless him, he was going to let it go. She could have kissed him.
“I’ve only seen parts ofUnder Siege,” she admitted. “Kevin loves that movie.”
“Ah,” he said, and she wondered what he now thought of Kevin. “He apologized to me the other day. Just like you told him to.”
He didn’t seem thrilled about it. “What makes you think I told him to?” she asked.
“Because he said, ‘Hayley said I need to thank you.’”
“You wouldn’t believe what happened with his phone.”
“I would, actually,” he said. “I heard from an inside source.”
“It’s not like he was just wandering around,” she said. “He used to cook at Icarus, so he was checking the kitchen out, and then he didn’t realize he’d dropped anything until much later, and it wasn’t like he could call.” She sipped on her milkshake until she was convinced she could stop babbling. “Because who memorizes phone numbers anymore, right?”
Nick was suddenly intent on his burger. “Not Kevin.”
Hayley took a beat. “You memorize phone numbers, don’t you?”
Nick cleared his throat self-consciously, and Hayley stifled a laugh. “They’ve been working him hard,” he said. “This tech week thing is no joke. And I didn’t realize how much stuff goes on before the shows each night either. Mimi’s working the box office, Cal’s serving tables …”
“Sure,” she said. “It was the same at Icarus. Better to use the people you have than hire twice as many.”
He nodded. “It’s really impressive.”
She was about to tell him it was no big deal, but realized just in time that it absolutely would be with cerebral palsy and a walker. She tried not to blush.
“Have they got you helping with tech?” she asked.
He shook his head, laughing a little. “I bring doughnuts and push a few buttons on a computer.”
“Hey, doughnuts are important. There were times during tech I’d kill for a doughnut.”
“Just during tech?”
She threw a French fry at him as he laughed. “You I’d kill for much less.”
