“I was,” he assures me. He slides one of the saltine peanut butter sandwiches over to me. I take a bite—it tastes about as you would think it would. “I didn’t become a handful until I was a teenager.”
I arch an eyebrow. “You gave your parents a hard time? That’s hard to imagine.”
He licks some peanut butter off his upper lip. “Not exactly. I got into some trouble though. Legal trouble.”
“Legal trouble? Really?”
He hesitates as if considering lying about it even though he just told me it was true. I’m sure Luke Strauss has a tell, but I haven’t found it yet. “Yes.”
“Like what?”
“Hacking.” He winces. “I thought I was so smart… until I got caught. I got in a shitload of trouble. Luckily, I was a minor and my parents got me a good lawyer. I just did community service and they made sure it didn’t end up on my permanent record.”
“Wow. I’m impressed.”
“Impressed that I was a hacker? Or impressed that I stayed out of jail?”
“Both. But mostly, the first.” I crumble a bit of cracker under my fingertips. “Can you still do it?”
“Do what?”
“Hack into computers.”
He chuckles. “Maybe, but we are not going to find out. Nobody will ever hire you to do any legit computer work if you get caught doing something like that. I’m old enough to know not to take any stupid chances like that anymore.”
I already knew Luke was skilled with computers. But this is an interesting piece of information. I file it away in my brain for later.
“I bet you were perfect when you were a kid,” he comments. “I bet you were the kind of kid that every adult was in love with. A teacher's pet—am I right?”
“Not exactly.”
His left eyebrow arches up. “Is that so?”
“A lot of teachers don’t like you,” I say, “when you’re smarter than they are.”
Luke stares at me for a second, then he chuckles. “Yeah, I’ll just bet you were.”
I’m pleased that he found my assertion amusing rather than arrogant. It is, after all, simply a fact. Very early on, my intellect exceeded everyone who was tasked to teach me. And a lot of adults indeed resent a child who is smarter than they are.
A lot of parents do as well.
I brace myself for more questions about my childhood and family, but they never come. Instead, we sit quietly in my kitchen, chewing our saltine peanut butter sandwiches. Even if I wanted to make conversation, it would be hard with all the peanut butter stuck to the roof of my mouth. Perhaps that is why Luke stopped asking questions and not out of respect for my privacy. He looks around the house as we eat, a slightly amazed look on his face.
“Big place you got here,” he finally says.
“Yes, it’s just me.”
He runs his tongue over his teeth. “I didn’t ask.”
“You didn’t have to.” I drum my fingers against the kitchen table. “People look at this house and assume I must live here with a husband and children. And when I defy that expectation, it upsets them. People dislike when things don’t meet their expectations.”
“Well,” he says, “I want you to know that you exceed my expectations.”
I allow myself a smile. “Do I?”
“You do. And also, I’m pretty glad you don’t have a husband. Obviously.”
I shift my weight in the wooden kitchen chair. “How about you? You told me you used to be married.”
It’s amazing the way Luke completely shuts down when I bring up his previous marriage. That’s exactly what happened when I was trying to interview him earlier. His eyes wall off and his lips set into a straight line. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“I see.”
He’s not being fair. He’s thirty-six years old and a widower. He must realize that such a revelation is enough to make people wonder. How do you lose your wife at such a young age?
He sees my expression and lets out a sigh. “She was in an accident. It was… awful. And I hope this doesn’t sound cold, but it’s honestly the last thing I want to think about when I’m here with you.”
“I understand.” And I do. It’s not like it would be better if Luke was going on and on about his dead wife. He claims he’s over it, and I believe that. But I still can’t help but wonder. What sort of accident was it? Was he involved?
In any case, I’m not going to find out the answers to my questions tonight.