The man’s gaze lit up, raking over Ethan’s appearance. “Ethan—Barbanel, is it?”
Ethan’s usual buoyancy cooled in the way all members of his family seemed to when anyone got too excited by their last name. “Nice to meet you.”
“This is Charles Gibson,” Dad said, and both Ethan and I straightened. I looked closer at the man. He was older than Dad but younger than my grandparents, with a thick shock of gray hair and bright blue eyes. Was there anything of Frederick about him, any resemblance in appearance or spirit?
“I hear you’ll be talking about our founder, my great-grandfather. The one who brought us all here,” the man—Mr. Gibson—said to Ethan.
“Yes, sir,” Ethan said. His gaze flicked to me. But I could hold my tongue. I wouldn’t say anything, not here, not now. No matter how much I wanted to.
And I really wanted to.Who brought us all here?Well, my dude, it wasn’t your umpteenth grandpa. If he’d wanted something cool on his résumé, he could have put in the effort like the rest of us.
“If you’ll excuse us,” Ethan said, like the calm, well-trained person he’d been brought up to be, “there’s a panel we wanted to see.”
***
A few hours later, Ethan and I headed to the conference room where he and Dad would give their talk. It wasn’t very large, with space for about eighty people, but I thought that was better than a giant room with only a trickle of audience.
Ethan and I took seats in the first row as Dad and a conference organizer fiddled with the projector and microphone. Ethan was fidgeting, and about an hour ago he’d almost entirely stopped talking. I ran my hand up and down his shoulder. “You’re going to do great.”
“I’m terrified. Is it normal to be this terrified? I feel like my tie is trying to strangle me.”
“Then take it off. No one’s going to care if you’re wearing a tie. And yes, I think it is. Stage fright.”
“Okay, well, itfeelslike I’m the first person who’s ever experienced this in the entire world.” He bent in half, placing his head on his knees. His voice came out muffled. “I am a child.”
I laughed and placed my hand on the back of his head, twining my fingers through his thick, glossy curls. “You’re nervous,it’s normal. But you know this stuff backward and forward. You could riff on Gibson even if you hadn’t written everything down.”
“You hate Gibson. You think he’s a shitty person.”
I pressed my lips together to muffle another laugh. “Maybe. But that doesn’t mean your research is shitty. And I suppose shitty people are capable of also contributing to science.”
He groaned slightly and straightened. When I started to move my hand back to my lap, he caught it and pulled it into his. His eyes met mine. “My family is going to think I’m ridiculous.”
“No, they won’t. They’re going to be super proud of you.”
He opened his mouth, but before he got any words out, we heard his mother behind us. “Ethan! There you are!”
We turned. The room had started to fill as people took seats in ones and twos. Now a whole wave of people entered. The Barbanels had arrived.
“Maybe you should’ve given a pre-talk just to them,” I whispered to Ethan as they poured in, aunts and uncles and cousins and, in the middle, both Helen and Edward Barbanel, matriarch and patriarch.
“I’m going to be sick,” he whispered back.
“Ethan Barbanel. You are a badass, adventurous, brilliant person. You can handle your family.”
“Nope,” he groaned. “I can’t.”
“Then look at me,” I said, and he did, his eyes wide and scared. “During the talk, you look at me, you tell me what’s going on, and don’t think about anything else. Imagine we’re sitting on the roof walk or at the beach. And you’re telling me a story.”
He nodded, and the panic started to leave his body. “Okay. Ican do that.” He brightened. “Give me a kiss for good luck?”
I leveled him with a look. “Maybe after. If you’re lucky.”
His expression turned speculative. “Isn’t one tip for feeling comfortable picturing the audience in their underwear?”
I stuck my tongue out. “Feel free. But while you might get me, you’re also going to get your grandparents.”
His laugh turned to a wince, and then his family descended upon us in a cloud of well-wishes and advice.
