The Fire and the Veil (Veronica Barry Book 2) Read Online Free Page A

bread?”
    “Yeah, but some relative who’s a world traveler comes to visit and she tells them that in Asia people slurp their soup to show appreciation to the chef.”
    “Well, I can’t speak for all of Asia, but at least as far as my family’s concerned, that would be rude.”
    “Interesting.”
    “So back to this new girl in your class. Is she still as bad as she was the first day? What’s her name?”
    “Dolores Hekili. But she goes by Lola.”
    Daniel started to hum “Lola” by the Kinks.
    “Trust you to make the 60s music connection.”
    “Says the woman whose knowledge of foreign customs comes from episodes of the Brady Bunch,” he countered. “Hey, speaking of which, isn’t Hekili a Hawai’ian name?”
    “Hekili, and yes. But I don’t follow your ‘speaking of which.’”
    “You know. Brady Bunch. Hawai’i. That two-part episode where Greg wakes up the spider hanging over him?”
    “I think it was on his chest actually.”
    “Man, I remember that. To be continued. I was dying to see what was going to happen. Talk about a cliff-hanger,” Daniel laughed. “Although you have to admit, the Bradys weren’t exactly paragons of cultural sensitivity. I mean, Hawai’i was so exotic to them that they got all messed up by a curse.”
    “Yeah. White bread, like you said.”
    “So this Lola Hekili—”
    “Hekili.”
    “Hekili. She’s still a handful?”
    “No, she’s not as bad. She’s absent a lot. The main problem when she’s there is that she’s beautiful.”
    Daniel raised his eyebrows.
    “The boys all have to impress her at all costs. You should see her. Sleek black hair. Slim but with… assets. Tough looking, but gorgeous. She’s all done up. And with her attitude they all know there’s only one way to get her to notice them.”
    “Take on the teacher?”
    “Directly or indirectly, yes. They have to rebel. It’s tiresome.”
    “Isn’t Angie in your French II class?”
    “Yeah.”
    “How does she like Miss Hekili?”
    She nodded to show that she noticed that he got the name right, and he beamed. “Ange doesn’t seem to pay much attention to her. I’ve already pulled the names for next weeks’ partners, though, and she’s going to be working with her. If Lola even shows up.”
    “Well, that will be interesting.”
    The chef took their bowls and set down small plates of wakame salad. Veronica dug in with enthusiasm. She loved the spicy-vinegary green seaweed.
    Daniel watched her, looking pleased. “I’m going to have to schedule that sukmo dinner sooner than I thought.”
    Veronica looked up at him. With effort she swallowed her mouthful. “Really?”
    “Sure. You eat seaweed. My sukmos both grew up on the coast, in Busan. They love seaweed. They used to go collect it themselves.”
    “What, like, scuba-diving?”
    Daniel barked with laughter.
    “What?” Veronica said.
    “It’s just the image of my aunt Eun Hee in a wet suit with a tank…” He kept laughing until he had to wipe tears from the corners of his eyes with his napkin. “That was priceless. Thank you.”
    Veronica pursed her lips.
    “Ah. Well,” he sighed. “So, no. No scuba gear. They collect it on the beach. And sometimes from nets the fishermen bring in. If it’s not in bad condition.”
    “Wow,” Veronica said. She didn’t know how she’d feel about eating that.
    “But not now,” Daniel added hastily. “Now they buy it at the Asian supermarkets.”
    Veronica nodded. She’d been in some Asian supermarkets, with their tanks of huge live toads and the slaughtered turtles. She wasn’t exactly reassured. But it was sweet that he was thinking of introducing her to his family. It meant he really liked her, didn’t it?
    For the rest of dinner they talked about other things: old detective movies, whether Sam Spade was tougher than Dirty Harry—Veronica said he was, but Daniel had been raised on seventies movies so he disagreed—and other light talk. Daniel didn’t say anything at all about