The First Taste(62)

She sits up straighter and smiles. “I’m confident. All my teachers say so.”

“Oh, so when someone else says it, you believe it?” Andrew asks. “I tell you you’re beautiful all the time.”

“I know, but you’re my dad.” She rolls her eyes to the back of her head and says to me, “He has to say that.”

“Well, he’s right.” I lean in a little and add quickly, “But just in case, make sure to hydrate, moisturize regularly, and always wear sunscreen.”

Sadie laughs, but Bell just pinches her eyebrows together and looks to her dad, apparently done with the conversation. “I’m hungry.”

“What do you want?” Andrew asks as he picks out a piece of bread and butters it for her. “Macaroni and cheese?”

She nods. “And Coke.”

“No soda this late, you know that.” He offers me the bread basket. “Roll?”

“Are you going to butter mine too?” I ask with a hint of a smirk.

“Amelia doesn’t eat bread,” Sadie says.

Andrew mocks me with a gasp. “Really?”

“Not even sandwiches?” Bell asks.

“No,” I say. “Not macaroni either.”

“Why not?”

“Because carbohydrates make you f—” I pause. Bell’s eyes are big with curiosity. The people I pay to listen to me aren’t even this attentive. Her young brain is soaking up my words like a sponge. My own mother comes to mind, a well-to-do, naturally thin Texan who couldn’t understand why her daughter was overweight when I had constant access to any type of food I wanted, any time of day. Even though I lost the weight as a teenager, whenever I talk to her, she asks about what I’m eating, a subtle way to find out if I’ve reverted to my eleven-year-old self.

I feel Andrew staring at me. Considering how concerned he is with my diet, and how protective he is of Bell, I don’t think he’ll ever forgive me if I finish my sentence. “Carbs, like bread and pasta, make some people . . . tired,” I say instead. “And in my line of work, it’s not good to be tired.”

“Oh.” She takes a bite of her roll. “Not me. I love sandwiches. I can eat them all day and not get tired.”

I sip my water. “What’s your favorite kind?”

“Pastrami with mustard.”

“That’s a lot of sandwich for a little girl,” I point out.

“I can finish it,” she says. “Most of the time. If not, Dad eats the leftovers. He’s a human garbage disposable.”

“Disposal,” I correct, but she doesn’t hear me over Andrew and Sadie’s laughter.

“Now you answer,” Bell says. “What’s your favorite food?”

“Hmm.”

“Glenlivet doesn’t count,” Andrew says.

I giggle, but stop when I notice Sadie’s stare. “Inside joke from the award ceremony,” I tell her, clearing my throat. “Remember?”

Sadie nods slowly. “I remember . . .”

“Anyway,” I say, returning to Bell, “I love Brussels sprouts.”

Everyone groans. Bell makes a face. “Ew.”

“You can’t be serious,” Andrew says.

“I’m not.” I laugh. “Cupcakes are my weakness. Especially those huge ones from Crumbs with all the frosting and toppings.”

Andrew and Sadie turn to me. “What?” they ask in unison.

“I don’t eat them often,” I say, reeling back from their glares, “but that doesn’t mean they can’t be my favorite.”

“I like cupcakes,” Bell says. “What’s your favorite movie that’s not for grownups?”

Andrew coughs again and turns his head to me. “Not Frozen,” he says through his teeth.

“What’s Frozen?”

“Are you kidding?” Sadie asks.

I look around the table at three open-mouthed stares and get the sudden sensation of being the old person at a table of teenagers who’s never heard of Snapchat. “Oh, right,” I say, forcing a smile. “Frozen. The one about penguins.”

Bell squeals and dissolves into peals of laughter. Her face reddens as she tries to catch her breath. “No,” she gasps. “Not even close.”

Andrew puts his hand on my knee, creeping it up the inside of my thigh. Instinctively, butterflies flurry inside me. My body only knows his touch as a precursor to sex, and I get instantly warm, my stomach tightening. But then he slips his hand into mine, squeezes it, and doesn’t let go.

“I-I don’t really know any of the new stuff,” I stammer, partly because of Andrew’s unexpected affection and partly, I realize, because I was enjoying Bell’s idolization of me, and now she probably thinks I’m just another clueless adult. “I prefer the older Disney movies from when I was growing up.”

Bell gasps and yells, “Me too.”

“Hush,” Andrew says, glancing at the other patrons. “We’re in public, Bell.”

She clasps her hands together, ignoring him. “What’s your favorite? Mine’s Beauty and the Beast.”

“That’s a good one,” I say. “Is that who you’re named after? Belle?”