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Brooks pulled his buzzing phone frolimpse of sultry eyes in the photo on the display He silenced the call and glanced up at Eureka "Don’t give et to record their own ringtones?" She wished she could have filtered the sarcas? That I’uy, I’d be into her, too You don’t have to pretend she isn’t blazingly attractive"

"Is there sohtly more direct you want to say?"

Yes, but she didn’t knohat

"I’ve got homework" hat she did say, more coldly than she meant it

"Yeah Me too" He pushed hard on the front door to open it, grabbed his raincoat and his shoes He paused at the edge of the porch, like he was going to say so up the street

"Think I’ll skedaddle," he said

"See ya" Eureka waved

As Brooks skipped off the porch, he called over his shoulder: "For what it’s worth, I would love a ringtone of you singing"

"You hate my voice," she called

He shook his head "Your voice is enchantingly off-key There’s not a thing about you I could ever hate"

When Rhoda turned into their driveearing her big sunglasses even though the rin and wave, then jogged toward his car--his grandold, early-nineties slope-back Cadillac, which everyone called the Duchess

Eureka started up the steps, hoping to make it upstairs and behind the closed door of her room before Rhoda exited the car But Dad’s as too efficient Eureka had barely closed the screen door when Rhoda’s voice blasted through the night

"Eureka? I need a hand"

Eureka turned slowly, hopscotching along the circular bricks lining the garden, then stopped a few feet froain Soer

Eureka watched Brooks close the Duchess’s door She couldn’t hear the song anymore, couldn’t see whether he’d answered the phone

Her eyes were still following his taillights when a plastic-cased stack of dry cleaning landed in her arms It sister at the Chinese buffet Rhoda slid grocery bag handles up her own ar her heavy laptop case over Eureka’s shoulder

"Were you trying to hide from me?" Rhoda raised an eyebrow

"If you’d rather I bailed on ht"

"Mmm-hmm" Rhoda had on the Atlantic-saled to look both uncomfortable and unfashionable Her dark hair ept into a twist that always reminded Eureka of an Indian burn She was really pretty, and so, or in the trance of watching her children, the rare moments when her face relaxed ButShe wore this orangey lipstick, which had worn off while she was instructing tonight’s business class at the university Little tributaries of faded orange ran down the creases of her lips

"I called you five ti the car door closed with her hip "You didn’t pick up"

"I had a meet"

Rhoda clicked the lock button on her re around with Brooks You know it’s a school night What happened with the therapist? I hope you didn’t do anything to elanced at Rhoda’s lip tributaries, i fro evil

She could explain everything to Rhoda, remind her of the weather that afternoon, tell her that Brooks had only swung by for a few minutes, extol Dr Landry’s clichés--but she knew they were also going to have to discuss the car accident before long, and Eureka needed to store up her energy for that

As Rhoda’s heels clicked up the brick path to the porch, Eureka followed, , "Fine, thanks, and hoas your day?"

At the top of the porch stairs, Rhoda stopped Eureka watched the back of her head turn to the right to examine the driveway she’d just pulled into Then she turned and glared "Eureka--where’s"Sorry What was that?" She couldn’t tell the story again, not right now, not to Rhoda, not after a day like this She was as eain She gave up

"The Jeep, Eureka" Rhoda tapped the toe of her purass with her bare toe "Ask Dad He’s inside"