“Too short,” Chelsea said. “What about the kid with her?”
“He’s inches shorter than she is, if that’s what you mean,” Lanny said. “Poor kid doesn’t have a chance.”
Chelsea picked up the pad.
“They remind you of Eli and you?” Pilar asked.
“They do.” Chelsea looked at Shamus. “You wouldn’t happen to know who she’s going to the prom with, would you?”
“Baze,” Shamus said and took his pad back. He quickly drew something, then turned the pad around. A very good-looking young man in a football jersey was smiling.
“Ah, right, I got it. Scully with the ears is the best friend, but she dates the football player.” She was looking at Shamus and waiting for his nod, but the boy just frowned. “I take it that you don’t approve.”
“Scully is my friend,” Shamus said.
As Chelsea looked at the picture, she remembered how she’d felt at that age. All those hormones, all that curiosity. Like young Abby, Chelsea had been very pretty—and the boys let her know it. They teased and flirted with her, laughed, and appeared out of nowhere. She’d close her locker door and there would be two beautiful young men there, smiling at her.
In her family, she’d been one of several daughters and not even considered the prettiest one. Her older sisters were achievers, whereas Chelsea let things happen rather than pushed for them. For most of her childhood she’d been content to follow Eli around as he came up with ways to help people.
But then puberty hit and there were all those boys saying wonderful things to her about how pretty she was, what a nice voice she had, how smart she was. One boy said her hair was like “silk on a starlit night.”
All of it had taken her by surprise, had shocked her, as she’d never seen herself as a beauty. One time she’d asked Eli if he thought she was pretty.
“As compared to what?” he’d asked. The best she could get out of him was when he told her that beauty in a human didn’t matter. It was what was inside that counted.
Now, as an adult, she knew he was right, but when she was fifteen and being offered rides in red convertibles and being asked out by boys who were big, strong, and beautiful, a person’s inner beliefs weren’t what she cared about. When the senior
captain of the football team asked her out, she didn’t hesitate in saying yes.
It was hard to believe now but when she’d told Eli about her coming date, she’d expected him to be happy for her. To her, she’d achieved something rather wonderful. But his coldness, his refusal to talk about it, had made her angry at him.
Had she really expected him to congratulate her? she wondered as she looked at Shamus’s drawing. Maybe she’d hoped that Eli would . . . what? Challenge the football player to a duel? With what? Keyboards?
“Are you okay?” Lanny asked.
Chelsea handed the pad back to Shamus. “I’m fine. I was just remembering some things, that’s all.” She turned to Shamus. “How’s Scully taking the fact that his friend is going to the prom with another guy?”
“Scully is staying home that night.”
“Right,” Chelsea said. “That’s what Eli did when I went out with someone else. What about you? You have a date for the prom?”
Lanny snorted. “My little brother doesn’t single out girls. He goes out with a group of them at a time. At halftime in football games the cheerleaders climb on him. How many of them do you hold up at one time?”
In answer, Shamus turned the drawing pad around. It was a picture of him standing up with four cute little cheerleaders hanging on to him. Two had a foot at his waist, holding his hands as they leaned far out to the side. A pyramid of two girls stood on his shoulders.
Chelsea laughed. “I’d like to see that.”
“See what?” Eli asked from the doorway. He had showered and was freshly shaved and dressed.
“How’s your mom?” Chelsea asked, letting him know she knew he hadn’t been sleeping.
“Great. She sends her love to you.”
Chelsea was annoyed that he was his usual cool, remote self after the night they’d spent together. But when the others looked away, his eyes changed to so hot the hair on the back of her neck stood up. She started to leave the table but Eli turned away to fill a plate with Pilar’s pancakes. He sat down between the two women.
“Anything going on that I should know about?”
Lanny spoke first. “Your girlfriend has been quizzing us about Grace Ridgeway and her daughter. I think Scully is going to be collateral damage. So what’s up about them? If Grace is in any kind of trouble, our family will help.”