Erin Monaghan.
But Chase wasn’t really asking.
He wiped the frisbee on his shirt and clipped on Bunsen’s leash. “Running. Work. Sudoku.”
“Jesus, you always were a loner.”
Lonerwasn’t what Chase meant, and they both knew it. He could demand accolades for his research successes and his pending publication of “Hunger,” of course. But he wouldn’t.
He knew better.
With the historical data documenting Chase’s reactions to his science fair wins and his acceptance to UC Berkeley’s graduate physics program?
No.
“Ethan? Still with me?”
“Bunsen’s trying to eat something disgusting. I have to go.”
Sitting obediently at his side, Bunsen gave him a reproachful look.
“All right. But don’t forget: family dinner next week. Mom will get testy if you miss it a fifth time.”
“Bye, Chase. Congratulations again.”
He jogged back along the trail toward Farm Hill Boulevard with Bunsen heeling and nosing against his thigh in concern. His eyes stung. Frowning, he mopped the sweat away as they crossed the street toward their condo. When the golden retriever paused to relieve himself on a neighbor’s wilted, weedy shrubbery, however, ignoring several signs in the grass that ordered the reader’s dog toBe Respectful!, he couldn’t help smiling just a little.
“I won’t tell them,” he promised Bunsen, nodding at the condo. He didn’t even know his neighbors’ names.
He hadn’t told Chase about “Hunger.”
He unlocked his door, walking into the quiet, austere space.
But then, he also hadn’t told anyone else.
The apartment kitchen was piled high with pans, the counters streaked with grease, grubby dishcloths draped over the bar on the oven door. A powerful odor of garlic mixed with fish sauce hung in the air. Beside a whiteboard of rotating chore assignments on the refrigerator, a cheery yellow magnet tacked up a note:Sorry for the mess! Will clean everything later.
Kai or Ashley must’ve made an early dinner before heading out for the night.
Two sets of silverware and two plates were stacked in the sink, not quite making it into the dishwasher. Maybe one of them had invited a friend over?
Though, after Ashley’s previous company had been acquired last year by an organization that offered fewer benefits and numerous layoffs, she’d taken a job as a lab tech at Thermo Fisher Scientific, near where Kai worked in full-stack development at Google. They sometimes carpooled for their commute; Thermo Fisher and Kai’s office building were both down in Sunnyvale. Maybe they had dinner sometimes, too. Were Kai and Ashley out together now?
SVLAC was north of Menlo Park, in the opposite direction from the Googleplex and Thermo Fisher. Erin couldn’t have commuted with them, even if she’d wanted to. And when had she last been home for dinner at a normal time?
It had been a while.
But being busy was no excuse to skip the Monaghan family’s regular Monday night call. Leaving the sink and the counters alone, she warmed up a hodgepodge of leftover vegetarian chili and greens from her weekend meal prep, propped her phone on a table crammed behind the living room couch, and video-called the chat.
One by one, Monaghans appeared on the screen, her brothers already talking over each other in a continuation of some earlier conversation that she’d missed.
“—so I explained that I could fly out to Austin on Friday to discuss a proposal for the new university campus infrastructure, but that I had investor pitches booked solid in New York for the rest of the week—”
“Did I tell you about the time I flew in the cargo hold of that seaplane in the Cayman Islands, so I could keep an eye on my equipment—”
“Only twice. Or maybe it was three times—”
“Sweetheart!” Lori Monaghan interrupted her sons with a smile for Erin, who lifted her spoon in acknowledgment. “What’s for dinner on your special day?”
