Page 65 of Truth, Lies, and Second Dates
“Well, shoot, that’s not fair,” Abe said, and she resisted the urge to throw her arms around him in sheer gratitude.
Hannah reached up and gave her hand a solemn pat. “I’m sorry you’re grounded.” To Tom: “So you were right about the cybersecurity issue.”
“How did you even—you’re weren’t supposed to be listening.”
“We’re all in the same hotel room, Uncle Tom.”
“It’s a suite!” he protested.
“Yes, one with exceptionally thin walls, with all the connecting doors wide open so I won’t fall down in the night if I need to pee.” She glanced up at Ava. “I did thatonce. Two years ago! I was just little then!”
“It probably seems like an eon ago, huh?”
“Well,” Hannah pouted, “it does.”
“On the upside, now you’ve got more time to spend with Tom.”
“Abe, you know you’re not subtle, right? You’re actually winking at us.”
“Something in my eye,” Abe replied. Then, shamelessly: “You two go off and have fun. We’re gonna go see about some supper, hopefully by way of several food trucks. I’ve been craving cotton candy with a tomato juice chaser all morning.”
“Yegods. What is wrong with you?”
“Too many things to list just now, Captain. We’ll see you two later.”
“Bye, Uncle Tom. Bye, Ava!”
With that, Tom took her elbow while the rest of his family disappeared into the exhibition hall. “You’re truly all right? This must have been a blow.”
“Would’ve been a harder one if you hadn’t warned me.And I made time to take a meeting to get my mind serene. And just to get it on the record—”
“I’m not the killer, or the vandal, or the hacker.”
“Got it. Thanks. But now I—hey.” They’d been walking toward the street when Ava stopped, took another look, and—yep, she’d know that improbably red hair anywhere, a gorgeous mass that looked like grenadine syrup set on fire. “Becka?”
Becka turned, and the moment she saw Ava her eyes got big. She didn’t say anything or move as they approached. Frozen, the way India froze when he realized she’d bought a Christmas gift for him but he didn’t have one for her.
“Well, hey there. Tom, this is—”
“Flight Attendant Becka. She was helping your man G.B. on the flight to Boston. Hello again.”
“G.B. isn’t ‘my’ anything, unless it’s ‘my God, did you get caught in a rowing machine’? Nobody’s that ripped outside of slick magazines and action flicks. Well.” She gave him a critical up-and-down glance. “Besides you.”
“It’s far more efficient to have a muscle-to-fat ratio of seven percent, which puts me at a BMI of twenty-two point five, give or take.”
“Oh, sure. For the ratio. Very logical.”
“Well, it is,” he replied, sounding not unlike his niece. “And I make efficient use of the time in terms of transcribing and paperwork and the like.”
“Because of course you do.” Ava was trying to picture Tom squat thrusting or what have you while dryly dictating the autopsy of a guy who suffocated in a crate of tinsel. And failing. “Sounds totally normal. But we’re getting a smidge offtrack.”
“Yes, I agree. To return to the subject under discussion,your colleague, G.B., did seem exceptionally fit,” Tom said. “I’d wager his interior and superior venea cavae are pristine.”
“What a coincidence. That isexactlywhat I was thinking: pristine veins! But the topic under discussion was how we just now ran into Becka.” To Becka: “So! What’s up?”
“Nothing!”
Ava blinked and, when neither of them said anything, Becka elaborated. “I mean, my brother. He’s a teacher here. Gifted students.I’mnot gifted. But I’m from Boston, so…” She tried a shrug, but it looked more like she was twitching her shoulders the way horses do to shoo flies. “Here I am.”
