His smile faded, and he looked down into the bowl. “Did I miss something?”
“I doubt it,” I said, and reached for another spoonful. “This tastes like heaven on a spoon.”
Alex pulled the bowl up and out of my reach. “That was mean. I’m cutting you off.”
“Hey!” I jumped and tried to grab the bowl from him, but he held itabove his head. “You can’t get me addicted and then take it away.” I took my spoon and prodded him in the stomach. Alex, laughing, tried to back away from me and scooted around the island, but I cornered him by the stove and threatened him with my spoon again, laughing so hard I could hardly breathe.
Someone cleared their throat behind us, and we turned to the entrance to the kitchen, where Kitty, Mia, and Greyson stood with amused looks on their faces. I darted away from Alex, who lowered the mixing bowl from above his head. Kitty and Greyson giggled, and Mia gave me a knowing look that reminded me of Nina. Clearly, I wasn’t doing myself any favors in the convince-the-teen-nieces-I’m-single-and-not-ready-to-mingle department.
“Can we help you?” Alex said.
Greyson twisted the hem of her shirt in her hands. “Dad, can I please have the key to the mailbox? Kitty’s...” Her eyes darted to me. “Thingis here.”
Alex raised his eyebrows. “If the thing you’re talking about is the thing I think it is, then yes.”
I looked between Alex and the girls. What were they talking about? Alex grabbed his keys from nearby, tossed them to Greyson, and the girls disappeared before I could question them.
“What thing?” I pointed my spoon at him again.
He passed me the bowl of custard and backed away. “No offense, but they’re scarier than you, and I can’t risk pissing them off.”
A few minutes later, we met the girls in the living room. Kitty ripped open a large manila envelope and dumped a mess of colorful cardboard pieces onto the floor. I watched from the couch (where I sat with an entire cushion between me and Alex) as Kitty and Greyson fit one piece of cardboard into another, unsure what I was looking at. But a few minutes later, a life-sized cardboard cutout of Zac Efron as Troy Bolton stood before me. Kitty explained she’d gotten it from someone on Craigslist but hadn’t wanted to tell me in case it didn’t arrive on time.
“Wow.” I stood to inspect the cardboard Zac. If I’d thought Alex had gone all out on the food, it was nothing compared to the girls and their decorating. Nina and Ollie were the only real guests, but the girls had wanted to make a big thing of it anyway.
“We thought it would be great in your pictures for the blog,” Kitty said.
“I love it,” I said, and pulled Kitty into a hug. “You shouldn’t be on Craigslist, you know.” I was reminded of Nina’s many Craigslist adventures. There’d been a year when, every Friday, Nina would respond to the most “unique” Craigslist ad she could find, just to see what would happen. She’d bought the ugliest bicycle I’d ever seen, become friends with a lonely old lady who wanted someone to see the newStar Warsmovie with her, and had nearly gotten arrested rescuing black-market guinea pigs.
“You should be proud of me,” Kitty said. “The seller wanted to meet in person, and I was like,No way, you could be a murderer.”
“She really did say that,” Mia said.
Greyson jumped up and down as she spoke. “And the guy was totally offended and didn’t want to sell it to us. So Dad had tocall himon the phone and offer himdoublethe money. And then—”
“Everything was completely normal, and I definitely didn’t have to listen to him tell me about his bearded dragons for over an hour,” Alex said.
“It’s great,” I said, moved that they had put so much thought into this. “Thanks, girls. And Alex.” I scanned the living room. “Where should we put it?”
A timer went off, and Alex excused himself to the kitchen. Moments later, Nina stepped inside, decked out in a ringleader costume complete with a top hat.
“You know this isn’t a costume party, right?” I asked. “Technically, it’s not even a party.”
Nina strode over to cardboard Zac. “It is now. I make a great P. T.Barnum, and a girl has to look nice for her best friend’s blog.” She kissed cardboard Zac’s cheek. “This is just as amazing as I expected.”
“You knew about this too?”
“We needed her expertise,” Mia said.
“I helped them find it. You know I’m always up for a Craigslist adventure.”
I rolled my eyes and grabbed Nina by the shoulders, steering her in the direction of the box of decorations Greyson had set on the coffee table. “Make yourself useful at least.”
“I’ve got more supplies in the car,” she said, and sprinted out the door.
An excited buzz ran through the room as we set up various Zac Efron–inspired displays. There was theHigh School Musicalstation on the coffee table, with basketball napkins, plates, and a toy microphone.The Greatest Showmanstation on the side table had a deck of cards and a top hat along with animal figurines. TheHairspraystation in the dining room had, well, a lot of different hairsprays. They weren’t real hairsprays, but sprayable foods we decorated to look like hairspray: Cheez Whiz and whipped cream, mostly. The girls hung red and white streamers around the room, and by the time we were done, Alex’s condo had become a literal shrine to Zac Efron, thanks to Nina, who’d printed photos and stuffed them into thrifted frames.
When Greyson called Alex out of the kitchen to see our work, he picked up one of the framed Zac photos Nina had put on the coffee table and examined it, his expression serious. For a moment I worried that this was all too much, that I’d let the girls get carried away, despite everything Alex had told me about his hippie parents and learning to go with the flow, but then he looked up at us with a grin.
