Chapter 8
Eve is breathless and pink cheeked when she bursts through the airport doors. Danny leans against the hood of the car; Cal perches uncertainly in the back seat with the door open like he’s not sure if a hug is permitted.
“Oh my god, it’s so cold!” Eve says, sounding pleased. Danny kisses the top of her head. “Hey, would it be okay if I drove? I’m just dying to drive.”
They climb in the car—Eve in the driver’s seat, Danny shotgun. By the revolving door, two tween girls are very indiscreetly filming on their phones.
“Hi, Mr. Aagaard,” Eve says. “Merry Christmas!”
“Eve! The one and only! The original gal! Here, I brought you something.”
Cal pulls something from the footwell. Danny’s whole body tenses.
A paper plate wrapped in cellophane. Cal made these last year, too.
They are balls of cookie dough with a patina of canned chocolate frosting.
When Danny tried one, the sugar made his jaw ache.
Danny wants to mentally signal that Eve need not eat anything so exquisitely middle-class gourmet, but there’s no way to do it without mortally offending his father.
Danny just puts the music on low and longs for death.
“Yum,” Eve says. “Thank you so much! Oh, wow, this is so nostalgic! It tastes just like my childhood!”
It does not taste like Eve’s childhood. Eve’s childhood tastes like Levain.
“Danny?” Cal says, offering him the plate.
“Oh, as soon as we get home. I don’t want to get carsick.”
“I also brought you something,” Eve tells Cal. “It’s not your Christmas present. I just saw it in the airport and had to get it. Danny, can you check in my duffel?”
As Eve puts the car in Drive, Danny rummages through her bag until he locates what he is certain is the something: a coffee table book about the healing powers of trees.
“You’re going to make me cry!” Cal says.
“I also got you something,” Eve tells Danny. She reaches into the pocket of her vest and deposits a package of airplane pretzels on his lap.
“Oh, gee,” Danny says. “Thanks, Santa.”
Eve glances away from the road for a second and grins. She throws one hand expansively above her. “Oh my god! I’m so happy to be here.”
Cal beams and nudges Danny’s shoulder to be sure Danny does not miss the fact of his beaming. (This would be impossible.)
Obviously, Danny wants Eve and his dad to get along.
Unfortunately, the fact that they get along so well kind of undermines his ability to complain about literally anything.
The first time Eve met Cal, she said, “I would die for his love.” This was unfortunate because Danny used to think he would die for the love of Eve’s parents.