Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Leo collected the swords as the teachers called the kids to head back to their classrooms. Eager students did not have to be told twice, not with the promise of lighting their own candles and exchanging presents in their future.
He headed over to check on Andie, discovering he wasn’t the only member of his family to do so.
It took him a moment to register Millie’s voice in the loud area, once he heard the word “lights” he knew exactly what she was up to. “… the entire street is all lit up!” Millie jumped with enthusiasm.
“That must make it difficult to sleep.”
Millie shrugged. “Doesn’t bother me. Uncle Leo, you should take her.”
Andie looked over as Leo joined them. “Millie says they are the best around.”
“They are, how do I put this … It takes an extra half hour to visit my sister this time of year because of it.” His brother-in-law took the phrase “keeping up with the Joneses” to heart when they moved to the street, adding Chanukah magic to the neighborhood.
“Bring her tomorrow night, I’ll have Dad make cocoa.”
“Millie! Your class is waiting for you!” Whitney called out.
“Oops,” Millie started running away but said over her shoulder, “See you tomorrow!” And then she left the function room.
“I think your niece decided our plans for tomorrow,” Andie said.
Leo faced her, the rest of the room fading away. “I can sway her if you have other plans.”
“Wouldn’t want to disappoint Millie.” Andie shifted closer. “Or you.”
“Yes, wouldn’t want to disappoint Millie. Or me.”
Andie chuckled. He wanted to lean forward and capture her lips, in a house of worship with children around or not. She broke their spell first, clearly smarter than him, and collected dreidels and gelt from her table.
“Something tells me I’m not disappointing you,” Andie spoke low, but he managed to hear her, helped by his gaze lingering on her mouth.
“Not the slightest.”
“Even if I didn’t join you tomorrow?”
“Even then, though I’ll just give Millie your number.”
She headed for the boxes where all the items were being stored and he followed. This woman continued to amaze him. Her willingness to interact with him aside, she’d given up her night to be here.
“Thank you for coming, I hope you had a good time.”
Andie beamed. “Of course.”
“Not too tired of being with kids all day?”
Andie sorted the dreidels and gelt into separate containers. “Nope. I have my moments, believe me. But kids don’t have the same agenda that adults do. Making a difference in their lives for even a short time is a wonderful thing.” The light hit her cheeks as she talked. She glowed, inside and out. He had no doubt she made a difference wherever she went. She’d already made a profound impact on him. She amazed him, between her determination and dedication, it spoke to him on some base level.
“You’re incredible,” he said before he could catch himself.
She bumped hips with him. “You’re not so bad yourself.” How this wonderful woman saw something special in him, he’d never begin to figure out.
They got sent into separate directions to continue with the cleanup of the room and didn’t get a chance to connect again until they settled into Leo’s cold car. He blasted the heat as Andie rubbed her mitten-covered hands together.
“So Millie wasn’t exaggerating about all these lights?”
Leo shook his head. “It is quite the to-do. I’m actually surprised you haven’t heard about it.”
“When people talk about lights to visit …”
“Yup. Jodie’s street is one of them.”
“Oh boy, that must be a bit much at times.”
Leo backed out of the space, thinking of how well his brother-in-law managed to catch up with his neighbors. “They make it work.”
“Cryptic response.”
Leo stopped with the car in drive, leaning over the console. “You’ll see tomorrow night what I mean.”
Andie licked her bottom lip. “I guess I will.”
Leo forced his attention forward, before he dared kiss her in the temple parking lot with his foot on the brakes.
He made it onto the main road when his phone rang, Dean’s name popping up on his console. He slid a glance to Andie. “That’s my brother and business partner, I should answer it.”
“By all means.”
Leo clicked the button, connecting the call. “Dean, you’re on speaker, what’s up?”
“Speaker?” Came his brother’s staticky voice. Great, bad connection, that did not bode well for hearing. “Oh, the Chanukah party.… Andie is there with you? Hi Andie!”
Leo’s cheeks grew warmer than the heater attempted to make his car. He dared a look at his passenger, finding an amused look on her face. “I, uh, might have mentioned it.”
“And so did Millie … and over again. In typical Millie fashion.”
Andie laughed. “Having met your niece, I can see that.”
Leo tried to figure out if he should feel awkward about any of this, but his passenger was relaxed and at ease. The streetlights that played on her face gave him no reason to be concerned. He kept his focus on driving and decoding his brother’s voice.
“I know this isn’t why you called.” Leo wanted to get them back on track before Dean gave him reasons to be concerned.
“Yeah, right.…” He didn’t know if the connection was bad or his ears. Maybe his passenger heard Dean, maybe she didn’t. But this wasn’t her responsibility.
“Repeat that.”
“I said I think I found it.”
Leo turned on his blinker. “It?”
“The item that will … and save the business.”
Leo blinked into the night, part of him hoping this truly was the miracle item they needed. But experience made doubt heavy and larger than life, and he knew he couldn’t simply believe.
Not after the last phone call they’d had like this, the one where Dean had mentioned a find and Leo had heard it wrong and gave Dean the go-ahead to spend far too much money on a complete flop.
A car honked behind him, and he realized he could have taken his turn and quickly caught up. He swallowed his concerns; he knew Dean regretted it as much as he did. “What did you find?”
“A Persian rug, I’m guessing eighteenth century. It’s faded but with a good cleaning could be worth a pretty penny.”
Leo chewed that over, letting the car and phone line fill with silence. It had potential, in either direction. His skills didn’t extend to repairing rugs, but they had a dry cleaner they trusted with that task. More importantly, Dean knew rugs better than he knew furniture, and that had been part of the problem with the flop. “What’s your assessment of it?”
“Really?”
Leo didn’t have to check on Andie to feel her staring at him. He called Dean his business partner, not his little brother that works for him who’s opinion he didn’t automatically want. Leo scrubbed a hand down his face. Apparently, his dad wasn’t the only Dentz bad at trusting the younger generation.
He made a mental note to fix it, regardless of the future outcome of Dean’s find. “Yes, really.” He tried to convey more than his words did and didn’t know if a choppy cell phone connection would work.
“It’s, ahh, got some fading, as I mentioned, and a few of the wool threads fraying in one corner. But it’s in good shape for its age and reminds me of similar items from Iran that have been heating up on the market.”
Leo nodded, though Dean couldn’t see him. The assessment proved why Dean didn’t follow Leo into restorations. Leo wouldn’t be able to pick out a potential rare find in rugs. But Dean knew to focus on the areas outside of Leo’s strength. The fact that they had different areas to excel in made them an excellent team. “It’s not costing an arm and a leg is it?”
“It’s not. And I’m not using the business card.”
Leo mulled that over. Showed Dean’s confidence in the product. Or fear over another mistake. Perhaps a bit of both.
“Bring it into the shop, we’ll take a look at it tomorrow.”
“If I’m right, then all our troubles are over, brother.”
“Don’t forget we have to impress Dad, and he prefers to live unimpressed.”
They disconnected, and Leo braced himself for whatever Andie thought of that interesting call.
“So that’s your plan to save your job? A rug?”
Leo glanced at her, expecting some slight that he would have well deserved for how their Chanukah started. All he found was curiosity on her face. “Yeah. If we find something that brings in business and money, something valuable enough to garner attention, then he’d have no choice but to sell to us.”
“You hope.”
He snorted. “Yeah.”
“Because he still sees you as a reckless teenager getting into trouble?”
Leo wanted to brush it off, agree with her, and downplay the whole thing. But Andie was moving anyway. “More like reckless teenager that cost thousands of dollars in damage by wrestling with his brother rather than be a responsible sixteen-year-old.”
“I’m sorry, the phrase ‘responsible’ and ‘sixteen-year-old’ don’t always go hand in hand.”
Some of the weight eased off his shoulders. “Still. I accept the blame for this. I knew better, I just had a chip on my shoulder.”
“As teenagers often do.”
“I thought you worked with preschoolers?”
“I do. But I have a general interest in childhood education, and those teen years leave a mark.”
“Oh?”
“No ‘oh,’ I’m just an observer and I’ve seen some great kids do stupid things. It’s all part of learning. Tell me Leo, did you learn from this past experience?”
“Absolutely.”
“Then it had its benefit.”
“Tell that to my dad.” He gripped his gear shift, digging his fingers into the leather.
Andie reached over, covered his hand with hers. “Your father should have realized that years ago. I wish I had a magic word that would change him, but people don’t always allow for others to grow and err and be human. I hope this item your brother found helps.”
He let go of the shift, entangling his fingers with hers. “Thank you. Truly.”
She gave his hand a squeeze. “Like you wouldn’t speak up for others if you might be able to help in some way?”
Don’t move to Ohio . He swallowed the words. They would help him, not her. It didn’t matter how much her support meant to him. It shouldn’t, not from a neighbor. But he wanted to bottle her up, keep her nearby. He wanted Dean’s find to be big enough that he could give Andie the world. “I would. You’re amazing, Andie.”
She let go of him, cold air replacing where her hand had been. “Just calling it like it is.”
He’d made three major mistakes in his life. The first was letting damage occur in the shop at sixteen. The second was the miscommunication with Dean. The third was not making his move on this special woman earlier. If he’d acted even months ago, they could be spending Chanukah together as an established couple, and he’d be helping her find a new job nearby. Or moving with her to a new adventure.
Leo walked Andie to her door. She’d call him a gentleman, but considering they were neighbors, the move made complete sense on multiple levels. She didn’t want the night to end. More time with Leo tempted her more than she’d thought it would. It even topped her Thursday night ritual. Thursdays had long ago identified themselves as her crash day because most nights she devoted time to class preparation. The end-of-week exhaustion crept up on her and a little R the TV screen forgotten. “I get that. I truly do. And I agree, this is nice.” A pang of sadness hit her, that this wonderful feeling of something new starting would be a flash in the pan, not growing into anything more than a nice memory. She’d find a special spot for it, because nice memories were good to have. A reminder that the holidays do hold adult magic.
Leo leaned forward and Andie met his lips, tasting the sweet and salt of the popcorn on him, also with the flavor she was starting to learn was Leo. His face held a slight scratch of late-day stubble, and she let it prickle her fingers. A different kind of magic existed here, in this kiss and the connection two people could make.
The kiss ended, and Andie licked her lips. “Should we start the movie before the popcorn gets cold?”
“As the lady wishes.”