Falling From the Sky by Nikki Godwin Read Free Book Online

the bowl in front of him.
    She turns to me. “What position do you play?”
    “Point guard,” Micah answers, beating me to it. He doesn’t look up from the spaghetti sauce he’s stirring.
    Zoey glares at him, but he doesn’t see her. “Micah, why don’t you go round up your nieces and bring them in to wash up before supper?”
    She points to a stool at the counter and motions for me to sit. Then she puts a hand on her hip and stares her brother down until he goes outside.
    “I’m sorry. You’re Micah’s shiny new toy, and to be honest, he doesn’t like to share,” she says.
    She puts the whisk on the counter and picks up the bowl of sauce that Micah left behind. She leans back against the counter, facing me while she stirs the sauce.
    “Where are you from?” she asks.
    “Markham. It’s about an hour and a half from here,” I reply.
    She opens her mouth to say something, but the sound of sloshing water stops her. I jump off the stool and beat her to the stove. I turn the knob down and grab the whisk to stir her overflowing water.
    “Thanks,” she says, dabbing a dishrag at the spilled water. “Micah would’ve let it overflow until it ran dry. He’s the type you need to keep out of the kitchen.”
    “It’s no big deal,” I say. “I’ve had to learn to fend for myself at home. I know the basics of boiling water, preheating an oven, and using a microwave.”
    The sound of fast footsteps matches the entrance of Zoey’s daughters. Micah walks in behind them and runs water in the sink while the girls lather their hands with soap. He looks up from the faucet at me.
    “Zo, I leave for two minutes, and you put him to work?” he asks.
    “At least he helps me,” she smarts back before taking the whisk from my hand. “Thanks, Ridge.”
    Abby hasn’t taken her eyes off of me since they came inside. She has this silly smile where the tip of her tongue pokes between her teeth. Jade, on the other hand, could really care less about the new guy in her uncle’s kitchen.
    Micah takes notice of Abby’s stare too.
    “Ab, you remember Ridge? You met him at the mall the other night,” he says to her.
    Abby nods, but her eyes don’t move and her tongue-tip smile stays the same. Jade turns off the faucet and looks me over as she dries her hands with a paper towel. Then she poses with her hands on her hips and tilts her head to examine me even more. I shouldn’t care that a five-year-old is judging me in her own head, but she makes me feel awkward.
    “We remember him,” Jade says, answering for her sister as well. “Your…friend.”
    “Yes, my friend ,” Micah says, emphasizing the word. “Okay, Jade?”
    His face gets all serious like it was when I got here earlier. If Abby’s tongue-tip smile didn’t make me want to laugh, the tension in the room would be more uncomfortable. Micah breaks the staring contest with Jade first and looks over to me.
    “C’mon,” he says. “We’re going to go start the fire outside.”
    He brushes past me, and I take one last look at the girls in the kitchen before turning to walk out behind him. We cross the living room to the front door. I still hear the voices in the kitchen. Jade tells Zoey that she thinks I’m cuter than Taylor. It’s not a true confirmation, but that’s enough for me to know that Taylor is Micah’s ex- boyfriend .
     
    A stack of two-by-fours is piled up in front of the porch two houses down. Gray smoke drifts around the side of the house. The air smells like fish. A younger guy follows the smoke. He’s Native American as well, and Micah introduces him as his cousin Pax. His hair is short and spiky, a little more modern than Micah’s. He sort of reminds me of the tribe in those damn Twilight movies. Modern but still native. I’m instantly reminded of how white I really am.
    “You ever made a bonfire?” Pax asks me, leading us to the stack of wood.
    I’ve been to a few bonfires during sports season, after homecoming games and division