| |
Luke tucked the balloon into his bedroom, and a second later, North’s voice boomed like thunder up the stairs.
“Luke!”
Again? Why was he in here? Luke, Luke, Luke...
He rushed down again, his bare feet nearly sliding on the old, smooth-polished of the steps. He jumped the last three and landed squarely at the bottom.
Now that everyone in the house was awake, he didn’t exactly have to be as quiet anymore.
No one was in the foyer. Luke checked the kitchen.
North stood by the stove, scraping the bottom of the frying pan with the edge of the spatula. He turned his head, raised the spatula in Luke’s direction and shook it at him. “What the hell is this mess in here?”
He’d gotten dressed, same old black T-shirt and black jeans. Luke used to think he had depression because of the emo-like clothes he constantly wore. Turned out he just liked black. At least, that’s all he’d say.
What did he just ask? “Breakfast?” Luke said.
Uncle was by another part of the counter, with a large baking sheet he was covering in foil and a couple packets of bacon on the side. “Bacon will be ready in thirty... maybe. I haven’t calibrated this oven.”
North chuffed and motioned to the still half-full bowl of pancake batter, the left-out bag of open chocolate chips—some had spilled onto the counter—the plate of just enough pancakes for Luke. “You just leave a mess like this?”
“One, I was getting the balloon. Two, I didn’t think anyone else would be up for a while,” Luke said in a frustrated huff. “I was going to cover the leftover batter for you all later to make for yourself when you got up.”
North shook his head and refocused on the pan, turning on the stove. “I don’t know what’s wrong with your brain sometimes. You were just going to leave pancake batter in the fridge? You were just going to eat pancakes with nothing else?”
“It’s all I wanted.”
“You need protein,” Uncle said. “You’re going to get a sugar coma one day.”
“Make yourself sick,” North mumbled. He found the butter sitting out on a dish, and he cut a slab to put into the pan.
“I’m not sick,” Luke said plainly. There was no point in talking to them. He didn’t really enjoy eating bacon, but they always insisted on the iron and protein. It tasted good, but he just didn’t want to.
He couldn’t stop thinking about the poor pigs...
“My morning is okay!” Uncle said sharply with a lot of sarcasm. “Glad everyone is asking.”
It was his way of distracting the boys so they’d stop bickering. Luke appreciated it. It stopped North from going into tangents and prevented Luke from saying things that might cause North to go into his tangents.
North just didn’t understand him. He tried, he asked questions of Luke, but whenever Luke tried to explain himself, North never really got it.
They were simply different.
North said nothing, just focused on finishing up the pancakes.
Luke collected his plate, found the syrup, found a stool to perch on next to the dining table that was really too low to eat at. He bent over it, leaning weirdly to cut up his pancakes with a fork and pour syrup all over it. “What are you doing today, Uncle?” Luke asked, since North didn’t seem like he wanted to converse.
“I’m heading out to look at a few properties for the diner,” Uncle said, splitting bacon up to place on the baking sheet.
There was a crazy moment where the room seemed to silence all at once and the only sound was Uncle splitting bacon pieces. He’d been talking about starting a diner for ages. This was a recent development, actually looking.
“Wait a second,” North said, ignoring the sizzling butter now and focusing on Uncle. “What, today?”
“Yeah,” Uncle said.
“When are you buying?”
Uncle shrugged, his naked top-half jiggled around the torso a little as he tossed the packaging of the empty bacon wrapper aside. “Probably today. Maybe.”
North paused a minute, slowly shifting back into pancake-making mode. He picked the mixing bowl up, using it to pour in the batter, letting the cakes sizzle in the pan. “Is there some sort of checklist of all the things you have to do to start your own diner? What about your boss? Does he know?”
Luke went back to eating his pancakes, his mouth too full to comment, but he considered how North was asking, like Uncle didn’t know what he was doing.
“Kid,” Uncle said sharply to him. “I turned in my notice weeks ago. Haven’t you noticed me hanging around the house lately?”
“Thought you took some time off,” North mumbled.
“I did. To get some projects around here out of the way so this place was more livable. Otherwise, I would have bought a place two weeks ago.”
North sharply breathed in through his nose, a move he made when he was ready to make a list of points of what he thought.
“Good job,” Luke said quickly, cutting in to stop him, but his mouth was full of pancake and he started choking. Not terribly, he just needed to cough and he was trying not to open his mouth to just spit pancake everywhere.
North materialized next to Luke in an instant and quickly landed his palm squarely on Luke’s back.
Luke’s lungs forced air out and he had to open his mouth or it was going to try to all go out his nose. He coughed pancake all over the floor.
“Stop eating too fast,” North said, and he walked away quickly, back to the pancakes.
Luke groaned and put his plate of pancakes down. North’s overprotective sensibilities sometimes went a little too far. Did he blame his brother? No. He wanted his family healthy and safe.
And Luke tried not to get on his case about it. North wasn’t trying to fight. He was trying to help.
Even if it hurt.
He quickly went for some paper towels to clean up the mess on the floor.
Uncle put his bacon into the oven and closed it. He crossed the kitchen toward the entryway. “If you’re not busy...”
“We’re busy,” North said, not offering information.
We’re busy. North had something planned for Luke today. Luke hadn’t been too sure what, but he could just tell.
Probably Academy work.
Uncle nodded. “Tomorrow?”
“We might have time tomorrow,” North said.
“I’d want an opinion,” Uncle said. “Maybe if I’ve picked a place. Could use opinions.”
North glanced at him, and with his lips pursed, he nodded.
Uncle seemed to accept this. He turned, heading up the stairs, likely to get dressed while the bacon cooked.
Didn’t Kota say something about going over to his house? Luke quickly checked his phone. Kota sent a message a couple of days ago about showing up tomorrow. It was probably a home project of some sort, maybe Nathan’s. Sometimes they needed home repairs and wanted them to show up and help. North was good at home repair and Luke was good at fetching the supplies. So... what were they doing today? Did something happen last night?
Luke returned to his pancakes. “Seems Uncle’s finally doing it.”
“Uh huh,” North said, focusing on cooking.
“He doesn’t know about the high school project.”
“Not yet.”
“We need to tell him something. He’s going to expect us to help with a diner.”
“He has his friends.”
“Not as many. Not with everyone working so much.” With the Academy so short-handed lately, a lot of the adults with normal jobs spent much more time out in the field.
North frowned. “It’s why we need the diner.”
True. Uncle had thought of it a while ago. A diner for Academy people to work part time, with an owner who understood when someone had to leave work quickly to go on a job. An entire team of people whose shifts were loose, and Uncle could funnel them money from accounts owned by the Academy if needed.
With the internet and people being easier to track, shifting money to people who needed it on teams was increasingly becoming a problem.
Plus, Uncle loved cooking. He liked diners. It made sense.
“It’ll still take time to set up a diner,” North said. “We’ll be in school by then.”
Luke didn’t answer him. He finished his pancakes. He didn’t want to even ask about where they were going today.
Maybe he shouldn’t be so quick to sign up for cheerleading. Not with this sort of schedule.