well-oiled metronome.
"She smells like the place at the mall where they sell all that girl
stuff." Seth wrinkled his nose. He hadn't liked her because he'd seen
just a shadow of his mother in her eyes. "She just wants to get in your
pants."
"Shut up, Seth."
"It's true," Seth said with a shrug, but happily let the subject drop
when Linda came back bearing pizza.
"Y'all enjoy, now," she told them, leaning over the table just a little
farther than necessary in case Ethan had missed the view the first time
around.
Seth snagged a piece and bit in, knowing it was going to scorch the roof
of his mouth. The flavors exploded, making the burn more than worth it.
"Grace makes pizza from scratch," he said around a mouthful. "It's even
better than this."
Ethan only grunted. The thought of Grace after he'd entertained--however
unwillingly--a brief and sweaty fantasy about Linda Brewster made him
twitchy.
"Yeah. We ought to see if she'd make it for us one of the days she comes
to clean and stuff. She comes tomorrow, right?"
"Yeah." Ethan took a piece, annoyed that most of his appetite had
deserted him. "I suppose."
"Maybe she'd make one up before she goes."
"You're having pizza tonight."
"So?" Seth polished off the first piece with the speed and precision of
a jackal. "You could, like, compare. Grace ought to open a diner or
something so she wouldn't have to work all those different jobs. She's
always working. She wants to buy a house."
"She does?"
"Yeah." Seth licked the side of his hand where sauce dripped. "Just a
little one, but it has to have a yard so Aubrey can run around and have
a dog and stuff."
"She tell you all that?"
"Sure. I asked how come she was busting her butt cleaning all those
houses and working down at the pub, and she said that was mostly why.
And if she doesn't make enough, she and Aubrey won't have a place of
their own by the time Aub starts kindergarten. I guess even a little
house costs big bucks, right?"
"It costs," Ethan said quietly. He remembered how satisfied, how proud
he'd been when he'd bought his own place on the water. What it had meant
to him to know he'd succeeded at what he did. "It takes time to save
up."
"Grace wants to have the house by the time Aubrey starts school. After
that, she says how she has to start saving for college." He snorted and
decided he could force down a third piece. "Hell, Aubrey's just a baby,
it's a million years till college. Told her that, too," he added,
because it pleased him for people to know he and Grace had
conversations. "She just laughed and said five minutes ago Aubrey had
gotten her first tooth. I didn't get it."
"She meant kids grow up fast." Since it didn't look as though his