Page 20 of The Care of Broken Things
"Eli says I shouldn't, but he and I have different standards for what passes for rude. Can you add me to your visitor list?"
His stomach twisted. "Why?" The hand he was holding the receiver with was starting to ache.
"I want to see you."
"Yes.Why?"
So that I can look you in the eye while I tell you what a piece of shit you are,was what he expected.
"Because I want to know you."
He wasn't going to speak a thirdwhy?If Nathaniel wanted to pretend innocence, that was his choice, but he wasn't about to play along. His silence didn’t seem tobother Nathaniel, though.
"I called the office first to ask if there was space on your list. I know each prisoner is only allowed five, and I wasn't about to demand you kick anyone off for my sake, but I was told you only see your sister."
Samuel gave him nothing.
"That you seeonlyyour sister, as in, you refuse to see anyone else."
More nothing.
Nathaniel sighed. "Right. I wouldn't want to talk to the guy who landed me in solitary either. I won't keep you, I just wanted to say how sorry I was that—"
"Fine."
"Pardon?"
"You can come. But not when Jenny is here."
"Really? Why?"
Why indeed? He hung up. If that didn't piss the man off, he wasn't sure what would. He flexed his hand, switched the receiver to his other ear, and called his sister.
Chapter Six
A Murderer’s Diet
He brought no expectations to the visit and was surprised anyway. For one, Nathaniel came right up to him and hugged him. Even before prison that hadn't been common. He was too big. Too beautiful. It scared people. And the jumpsuit didn't help.
"You must be hungry, I’m starving. I came right after classes.”
The man spent the next few minutes making coffee and stacking a ridiculous number of snacks onto a serving tray. "Just throw in whatever you want."
Samuel chose nothing, just watched as Nathaniel carried the overflowing tray to one of the rickety visitors’ tables. His second surprise came when Nathaniel set a coffee in front of him and insisted he eat before they talked. "That way even if I piss you off you won't have to storm away on an empty stomach,” was the reasoning.
But he was more interested in watching Nathaniel eat. Because the mancouldeat. He watched him suck down fifteen hundred calories in about five minutes when he felt forced to say something. "Is this how you always eat?"
Nathaniel looked down at his hands. He'd mashed a cheese and a tuna sandwich together with several layers of cool-ranch Doritos thrown in. It was his third such sandwich. "I usually try for at least one vegetable, but they don't really have those here."
It wasn't what he'd asked, but he thought he knew the answer anyway. Nathaniel ate like a man with practice. "How are you so skinny?"
"The Pearson curse, we call it. Either that, or some kind of inherited tapeworm. It was awful as a teenager. I don't think I was properly full once during the worst of it. But never mind that. Why aren't you eating? Or did you already eat with your sister?"
He let go of his curiosity and leaned forward. "Can you get to the point?"
"The point?"
"Warning me off your husband."
