Chapter Fifteen
H er book bag was overflowing. Mercedes wanted to do her best with this new project, so she’d stayed after work filling it.
Not that Evan was a project. He’d hate to be thought of that way.
Yet she had to take this seriously in order to help him read better.
Which would, hopefully, help his self-esteem when it came to his intelligence.
She never would have thought the cocky, seemingly self-assured man harbored so much negativity when he compared himself to others.
When she walked in the door, she smelled something cooking. She’d let Evan know she’d be home later than usual. Had he made himself supper? Good. Then, she only needed to feed herself, and they could get started on his lessons earlier.
After dumping her book bag on the couch, she sauntered into the kitchen to find Evan at the stove, stirring something in a pot. She stomped her foot lightly so he heard her come in.
“Hey, I made supper tonight,” he said when he’d swiveled away from what he was doing.
“For both of us? Thanks. Is it edible?” She had to give him a hard time. They’d lived together for two months now, and he was always saying his cooking wasn’t up to par with hers.
He held up a large soup can that read Campbell’s. “Take it up with them if you don’t like it. Though the grilled cheese can be blamed on me.”
He turned the stove off and tugged a pan from inside. The crispy bread was golden and had melted cheese oozing out of the side.
“It looks perfect. Let’s see if it tastes as good.”
Tomato soup and grilled cheese was the perfect meal for the day they’d had today. When they’d finished, she said, “You’re on soup and grilled cheese duty every cold, rainy day from now on. This was great.”
“Glad you liked it and that I didn’t poison you.”
“As soon as we clean up, I’ll show you the books I got from the library. I thought we could start our first lesson tonight.”
He raised his eyes to the ceiling. “My first reading lesson. At the age of twenty-eight. I should be so proud.”
“Stop it.” She slammed the side of her hand onto the palm of her other. “You need to stop putting yourself down. Show me that cocky self-assured man I know is in there. You can do anything you put your mind to. You have to want it enough and put in the effort.”
His face fell, and he looked properly chastised. “Concentration fatigue, right? But I’ll just get that again while you’re trying to teach me. What’s the use?”
“I’ll be teaching you using ASL as well as English. There won’t be the language barrier you had while in school. Now, I’m not a certified teacher, but I love reading and want to make you love reading as well.”
“You’d be more successful trying to make pigs fly.”
Mercedes pointed her finger straight at his nose. “Attitude. Fix it.”
He gave her a sharp salute. “Yes, sir.”
Shaking her head, she grabbed the book bag she’d brought home. When she pulled out the children’s picture books, Evan scowled. “I’m not four.”
“I know. I simply want to get a feel for where your reading level is so we can go from there.”
“It’s in the toilet. That’s where it is.” He glanced at his feet, his face hard.
“Humor me, okay? I’ve never taught anyone to read before, so I may make lots of mistakes. You promised to be my guinea pig.”
He scrunched up his face in a weird fake smile. “Fine. Do you want me to read The Three Bears first.”
“Haha. I didn’t get that book. But let’s look at this one, and you sign what you can read. Word for word, not ASL.”
Another scowl crossed his face. “But I communicate in ASL.”
“I know you do. However, the world around you communicates in English. Books are written in English. If you want to read better, you need to be able to translate ASL into English and back again.”
He held out his hand for one of the books. Once he opened it, he dropped it on his lap and signed, word for word, the text on the page. “Did I pass, Miss Martineau?”
“Yes, you did fabulous, Evan. Would you like a lollipop?” she teased.
“I’d love something sweet.” His eyes gleamed, and he stared at her mouth. Was he expecting her to say something or remembering their kind of kiss?
Her cheeks heating up, she picked another book. “Obviously that book was too easy for you. Let’s give this one a try. I’ll hold it, and you sign what the text says.”
They did this with several pages over quite a few books, then after one, she stopped. “You fingerspelled a couple words. We should go back and talk about what those words mean.”
“Because I’m too stupid to know them?”
She stared intently at him until he appeared chagrined. “I thought we agreed to do this. If I misunderstood, then tell me now. I spent a lot of time choosing these books to help us.”
“I’m sorry. It just reminds me of when I was in school and how frustrated I used to get. I’ll try not to be such a bonehead.”
“You can try but probably won’t be very successful. Remember, I’ve known you since you were a kid.”
That got him to smile. “What’s the next book?”
She picked up the book where he’d missed some words. “I think we should go over the new vocabulary before we move on.”
“You work at a college. Why do they have kids’ books?”
Was he trying to get off topic to avoid doing the work? “We have an education major, so these are for those students to use when doing practicums or student teaching.”
“All right. Tell me what that word means.” He pointed to one of the words he’d spelled out.
They spent the next hour reading through some of the books and learning new words.
Several times he got so frustrated she thought he was going to walk out and quit.
Yet he was able to calm himself down and focus again.
She made sure to give him little breaks every now and then if she saw his eyes glazing over.
They went through a number of books. The current one they were reading was at least a third or fourth grade level. Some of the vocabulary was challenging for that age group, but she supposed you wanted to challenge students and not have them only read what they already knew.
“I love it when I’m reading and come across a word I don’t know or I’m not quite sure of. I usually run to my dictionary and look it up.”
He smirked. “That’s because you’re a total nerd.”
“Yes, I am. And proud of it. We’ll get you there yet.”
He fell over backwards, howling with laughter. When he sat back up, he said, “Never gonna happen.”
“We’ll see.”
They went through more books, and Evan scowled each time he didn’t know a word. “These are all just more letters, and they don’t mean anything to me.”
“When you see a word that you don’t know, look at the sentence and the other words around it to see if they help. These are called context clues. They help you figure out unfamiliar vocabulary.”
He held up one of the chapter books. “I don’t need to know about a dog sled race in Alaska.”
He had a point. “Okay, so what are your goals for learning to read better?”
He pushed himself off the couch and marched out of the room. Drat. What did she do now?
Not a minute later, he strolled back in and dropped a huge book in her lap. Heavy Equipment Level Two.
Evan tugged on his Boston Red Sox baseball cap and tucked his wallet into the back pocket of his jeans. For now, he’d place his phone in the other one, but he’d probably need it for translating everything he and Pierre talked about today.
Mercedes’ dad had gotten some free tickets from a colleague and texted him about going to a Sox game at Fenway. Evan would never say no to a Sox game, especially if the tickets were free. It was his favorite price. He’d still need money for snacks.
He found Mercedes lounging on the couch in the living room, reading. What else would she be doing?
When she glanced up, he signed, “Will your dad be okay if I get a beer at the game today, or should I stick with soda?” Baseball wasn’t baseball without a hot dog and a cold beer.
“You’re taking the T in, right?” At his nod, she continued, “He’ll be fine. Probably have one with you. If you were driving, it would be a different story. Of course, he likely won’t have more than one or two since he’ll still need to drive back to the Cape later. What time is he coming?”
Evan checked the clock on the kitchen wall. “He said he’ll be here by two. That’ll give us plenty of time to take the train into Boston, walk to Fenway, and find our seats.”
“I hope you didn’t say yes to him just because he’s my father.” She stood and nibbled on her bottom lip, something she did when she was nervous.
“I said yes because he’s a good guy and it’s the Red Sox. Plus free tickets. How can you turn down free tickets? Are you nervous that your dad and I are going to be alone and you can’t eavesdrop on our conversation?”
Her cute little nose wrinkled. “You’ll only be talking about baseball. Like always.”
“Maybe we’ll talk about you. I’ll ask embarrassing questions about what you were like as a little girl.
Your dad will tell me cute stories of baby Mercedes and all the adorable stuff you used to do.
Then, I can come home and tease you all about it.
” He had to give her a hard time or she’d question his sanity.
“For days and weeks, I can tease you. It’ll be so much fun. Never-ending fun.”
Her eyes narrowed at him. “Don’t even think about it, pal, because I’ll have a chat with your mom and sisters. I know they’d love to dish out dirt on little baby Evan and what he was like.”
She was right. His sisters, especially, would love nothing more than to embarrass him and tell silly stories. Glaring at her, he signed, “Fine. We won’t talk about you too much. Only if your dad brings it up.”
Mercedes glanced out the window, her head cocked. He followed suit. Her dad’s car had pulled in behind his truck. Evan trotted into his bedroom to make sure he had everything he needed. He didn’t want to keep Pierre waiting.