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"Not this tiet to try the best Mexican food in town for ourselves" Dad clapped his hands together He seemed cheerful--way too cheerful, really, unless he’d had a serious jones for Mexican food the last couple of months and was now more excited about empanadas than any other man on Earth Nadia felt like he’d been in a weird ot home from school, but probably it was just work crap Lawyers seemed to deal with that a lot

Across the rooht of Mateo at the sah he had platters of fajitas in his hands and balanced on his forearh the steah the world was in black and white until she saw Mateo, and then it was in color--all the vibrant gold, red, and turquoise of La Catrina coh she’d only listened to the noise of knives on plates and dull conversations and now she could hear the music, Mateo showed her how vivid the world around her really was, how beautiful, if she’d only see

When he ca a sh probably she looked just as stupid He only glanced away to slide souys stopped by"

"The hero himself," Dad said, and held out his hand to shake

Mateo shrugged as if it had been no big deal, when in fact he’d helped her dad pull Cole out of their wrecked car, then rescued Nadia himself That was the first tiht they’d uys want to hear tonight’s special?"

Nadia ordered her usual without even thinking about it, the better to concentrate on how Mateo looked in his black T-shirt

Her dad finished, "and a arita Nadia can drive home, can’t you, honey?"

"Sure thing" That, too, was surprising Dad rarely drank around her and Cole

"Okay, co on his notepad, ducked down to kiss Nadia on the cheek, then hurried to check on yet another new table nearbyKendall Bender, in fact, though instead of her usual troop of loyal Plastics, she ith her farandparents to an older sister in a college sweatshirt; they’d be keeping Mateo busy

Dad raised his eyebrows "Wait a second I thought Mateo Perez had a girlfriend"

"Oh Well--he didn’t, actually There was a girl he was hanging around with, but it wasn’t, I mean--" Nadia didn’t even kno to explain the whole Elizabeth situation in a way her father could understand So she just shrugged and grinned "Well, he has a girlfriend now"

"Uh-huh This is hed "When I thought you wouldn’t freak out about it the way you’re doing right this second?"

"Aw, co out This is--normal dad curiosity You know it’s okay with ht?" Her dad leaned forward, suddenly way uy You couldn’t have done any better And besides, a normal, healthy love life ishealthy And norht be talking aboutshe wanted to add to her list of worries "Yeah Sure"

Cole looked up froue inside yourthe innocent-little-kid routine, but we can see right through you Right through to your bones, just like one of the skeletons on the wall! Want et a sombrero for you? Then we can put you on the wall, too" Thisto answer that question

"Be right back," she said as she scooted out of the booth Her dad, now coloring with Cole, just nodded

In the bathrooh her hair, checked her outfit, straightened up It wasn’t like Mateo cared--he’d seen her covered with soot, soaked with seawater, you naht you were beautiful no matter what, the rimy with cobwebs, you won’t even be able to handleto reapply her lipstick and talk at the same time "You sure do couys would want Italian food sometimes"

Even by Kendall standards, this ht? Caldani?"

"Actually, no" Dad usually said the na back to when he was a little boy in the 1970s and his family had to deal with a lot of prejudice; the fact that his family had actually fled the Ayatollah Kho them for his rule Nadia preferred the direct approach "We’re Iranian"

Mom’s half was part Scottish, part Greek, but Nadia didn’t bother et wider "I thought you were American"

"We are American You didn’t think I was actually from Italy before, did you?" Nadia took another look at herself in the mirror Gray T-shirt tucked into jeans, sari-print scarf knotted around her neck just so, earrings dangling instead of caught: Everything looked right