“I was hoping we’d be partners in nailing Mitch. I don’t think there’s any love lost between you two.” I open the minibar and remove a can of beer. “You want another drink?”
“Not trying to get me drunk so you can pull a fast one on me?”
“You really don’t trust easily, do you?”
“You’ve given me no reason, Liar Man.” She takes a beer and sits down on the armchair I vacated. ‘What do I have to do to get this grand Christmas experience?”
“I’m glad you’re sitting, because I’ll need you to act like you’re my sixteen-year-old daughter.”
“What? Why?”
I explain to her the phone call I got from my stepmother, and why she’ll love going to their Wyoming ranch. We negotiate a price—a cool thousand for her, clothing allowance, toys, makeup, and electronics, and no—no car, but she gets to pretend she’s learning to drive and take my car for a spin, as long as I’m supervising.
“You sure this isn’t illegal?” she asks, still skeptical but drinking up the beer.
“I’m positive. It’s not like we’re out to defraud anyone. It’ll be some healthy fun for you and good feelings for my grandfather to know what a brilliant, talented, and beautiful great-granddaughter he has.”
“Right.” She finishes the beer can and crushes it. “I’ll need time to fix search engine history and create social media accounts. After all, if I’m a math genius, I would have won several prizes and field awards. I also need to have hackathon wins.”
“You’re way ahead of yourself. No one said anything about you having to validate your claims.”
“Are you serious? Everyone searches everyone else. If I had a smartphone, I would have looked you up already. In fact, I want a laptop, tablet, and an updated smartphone. I also need colored contact lenses.”
“Whoa, whoa, wait a second. I agree with the electronics, but why the contact lenses?”
She rolls those pretty brown eyes of hers and points at my face. “You have blue eyes, dummy. How are they going to believe I’m your daughter if I don’t have blue eyes?”
“Because blue-eyed people can have brown-eyed kids.” I’ve got her now. She’s just trying to score cosmetics from me.
“True, but think how dazzling I’d look with blue eyes like yours. People will swallow a lie much easier if you make it easy for them. Everyone always talks about having Daddy’s eyes first, and your eyes, Braden, are the first thing I noticed.”
“Really?” I drain the beer and set the empty can next to hers. “What did you notice?”
“Your lying eyes, and I want some just like yours, Daddy.”
