much time with anyone, they’d be able to tell I was hiding something. They’d be able to see the changes in me. I was just about to start in on homework at my desk when Charity knocked on my door.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“Dinner,” she said, and gave me a weird look from the doorway.
“I’ll just get some leftovers later.” I turned away and gazed down at my book. “I’ve got a lot of work to do.”
“No … Mom says everyone has to come. It’s a family dinner. Mom cooked, and we’ve got company.”
“Really?” Regular family dinner had been a Divine family ritual for the first seventeen years of my life, but now I could hardly remember the last time we’d all sat at the same table together—let alone had company. I guess I should have put two and two together when I smelled good things coming from the kitchen.
“Daniel’s here.”
“Ooh.” I loved that just the mention of his name could make my heart skip a beat.
“And that cute new religion teacher at your school. Pastor Saint Moon.”
“Oh.” My voice had a very different inflection this time. Gabriel was the last person I wanted to see at the moment. “I really do have a lot of homework. Can you tell Mom that I can’t—”
“Yeah, right. Mom’s full-on Martha Stewart-ing it down there. She made a four-course meal and pulled out the good china. I wouldn’t mess with her if I were you.”
“Great,” I mumbled.
Mom shouted our names from downstairs. Charity jumped like a frightened cat and yelled, “Coming!”
I got up from my desk and checked my reflection in my full-length mirror, just to reassure myself that there wasn’t any physical evidence left of what I’d done with Talbot this afternoon. Charity still stood in my doorway, so I pretended I was checking my makeup—but then I remembered I wasn’t wearing any.
“You okay?” she asked.
“Uh, yeah.”
I followed Charity down the stairs. Daniel and Gabriel sat at the dining room table with Dad and Baby James. Mom gave us a what-took-you-so-
long look as she set a salad bowl on the table.
Gabriel stood up as Charity and I approached, and he bowed his head to me as I sat. I wondered if that had something to do with all of that
Divine One stuff he’d been talking about, or if it was just another of his old-fashioned mannerisms. Then Gabriel turned and bowed to Charity.
She totally giggled and blushed.
I totally rolled my eyes.
And Daniel totally snorted.
Charity had no idea just how too old Gabriel Saint Moon was for her to have a crush on him.
I sat next to Daniel. “Hey,” he said, and squeezed my hand. The edge of the bandage on his arm was all frayed—probably because he kept picking at it.
“Hey,” I said back, trying to sound as normal as possible. Because that was what Daniel wanted: normal. Not different, like how I felt now. I smiled casually, or at least I tried to make it seem as casual and natural as I could, but then I worried I was overdoing it. I couldn’t look Daniel in the eye, either. What if he could see right through my act? I dropped the awkward smile and turned my attention to Baby James, who attempted to pull a
Houdini act with the straps of his booster chair. After I wrestled James back into his seat, Dad blessed the food and Mom dished up salad for everyone.
“This all looks excellent,” Gabriel said as Mom handed him back his plate. “I haven’t eaten like this since the last time I was in France.”
Mom smiled. “Why, thank you, Pastor Saint Moon. We’re actually having Italian tonight. Part of my family originates from Rome.” She then launched into our more-than-diverse heritage as Gabriel nodded along and asked questions about her family. Listening to Mom engage in a real conversation almost made me like Gabriel for a moment. Almost made me relax.
That is, until Dad turned the conversation in the opposite direction. “So, Gabriel, how is the senior community-service project coming along? I was afraid it would get cancelled altogether when Mr. Shumway quit.”
“Quite well,” Gabriel said with an ancient smile. “Don’t you agree, Daniel?”
Daniel had his cell phone out. “Yeah, I guess.” He checked the screen of his phone and then put it on his lap. “We’re hoping to have the store up and running again by Halloween. Katie had a great idea to host a holiday street festival outside the store as part of a grand reopening. Games, trunk-or-treating, concessions, fund-raising raffle.”
“That sounds fabulous,” Mom said. “I should make some caramel apples and popcorn balls to sell for the fund-raising.” She almost sounded like her old self. “I can even help with the decorating.”
Charity coughed and gave me a look that seemed to say, Do you think Mom will even remember offering her help by tomorrow?
I shrugged.
“That would be wonderful, Mrs. Divine,” Gabriel said.
Daniel checked his phone again. “Katie will be really excited to have your help. I’ll give you her number.”
He looked at the screen of his phone one more time. Hopefully, he wasn’t expecting a text from Katie or something like that. But then a worse thought crossed my mind. It was hard to remember what had happened while I was in Mishka’s mind-control trance, but I suddenly remembered her saying something about partying with Daniel—tonight. But Mishka was dead, so if that was who he was expecting, then surely her text would never come.
“I’ll be pulling extra shifts until then to get the store ready,” Daniel said. I glanced at his phone, now just as anxious as he was to see if it beeped.
I wondered how I could ask him about what Mishka had said to me without giving away that I’d talked to her. Or the fact that I’d been involved with her death.
“And what about you, Grace?” Gabriel asked. “Are you finding your community-service project worthwhile?”
“Yes,” I said. Hopefully, he wouldn’t ask me anything too difficult to answer without red lie marks splotching up my neck. “More so than I thought I would.”
“Good. I was hoping you’d get into it. See just how much good a person can do in the world. I have a feeling you’ll be hooked by the end of the project.”
“I think I already am.” I didn’t have to hide any splotches on my neck—I was speaking the complete and total truth.
“Then perhaps my work here will be easier than I thought.” Gabriel stabbed a cucumber with his fork. I realized it was Mom’s special gold one, while the rest of us were eating with silverware. I couldn’t help staring at it.
Gabriel gave me a funny smile and wiggled his fork. “As you already know, I’m allergic to silver. It was kind of your mother to offer me such a nice alternative. I have to admit food doesn’t taste quite as good when eaten with plastic utensils.”
“That must be terrible,” Charity crooned. She sounded like she was trying to seem older.
Daniel’s phone beeped. I jumped. He grabbed it and practically shot out of his chair.
“I’m sorry, but I need to leave.”
“Really?” Mom said. “Are you sure? We haven’t even had the tenderloin yet.” She turned to Gabriel. “It really is magnificent, if I do say so myself.
My mother’s recipe.” She looked back at Daniel with a sweet smile on her face. “It would be a shame for you to miss out, Daniel.”
I almost choked on an almond from my salad. That was the second time Mom had been nice to Daniel in one evening. Usually, she just tolerated his presence because Dad said she couldn’t forbid Daniel from coming into our house anymore. Mom turned her congenial smile back on Gabriel.
