Chapter 12

"You mean to tell me that he slept with the telescope?" Milk threatens to come out my nose while I choke out the sentence. Nate's face is beet red as his family and I laugh at his dispense.

"For over a month!" Lucy giggles, looking fondly at her son. She reaches over and squeezes his forearm. He doesn't jump out of his skin when she touches him. Why only me? "Nathaniel was so happy when Tim and I surprised him on his birthday with it. You would have thought we bought the kid a space shuttle."

"Which he pouted about for another month because we said no to the space shuttle," Tim, Nate's father, butts in with a mouth full of his wife's meatloaf.

"Can we please move on to a topic that doesn't involve embarrassing me?" Nate pushes his green beans around on his plate, refusing to lift his head.

"Yes, sweetheart," Lucy hiccups from trying to silence her laughter, "of course. We're sorry."

"I'm not," I tease and look over at my anxious bio partner. I'm pleasantly surprised when Nate rolls