Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Leo pulled up to the two-story Colonial he’d grown up in and cut the engine. Beside him, Andie took in the gray siding with bushes along the front of the house. Out on the front lawn Dean and David played what appeared to be keep-away with a ball and Millie in the middle. His niece jumped high, but the men were taller, with arches to their throws.
“Do we need to save your niece, from her own father no less?” Andie asked, eyes on the three playing on the frosted lawn. She’d taken the time while he showered to dry her hair and he didn’t begrudge her the gumption.
“Nah. Millie can save herself.”
Andie turned to him.
“She’s been known to fake an injury or two.” She’d been five years old and limping from a hurt ankle, though mysteriously the injured ankle had switched from left to right.
“They aren’t touching her.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“I’m equally impressed by that girl and glad she was never one of my students.”
“I know the feeling.” He angled over the center console, getting close to Andie. “Are you ready? They don’t bite, this is just a fun afternoon for all of us.”
Andie’s brown eyes shone and she placed a hand on his cheek. “I’m ready.” She kissed him, still in view of his brothers and niece, should they check on the adults lingering in the car. Short, innocent, but there, and for a moment he forgot he wouldn’t be bringing her here for more family get-togethers.
He still leaned toward her when she opened the door, a brisk burst of air snapping him back to his senses.
“Oy, the wind hasn’t quite died down yet, has it?” Andie asked when Leo joined her.
He turned up her jacket collar. “Not yet.”
“Andie! You made it!” Millie ran away from the ball sailing over her head, flinging her arms around Andie’s waist.
“Hey, what am I? Chopped liver?” he asked, amused by his niece.
Millie laughed and wrapped herself around him instead. “Nope. Because you brought Andie.”
“Since you made such an impression on my kid, wanna play?” David asked.
“You mean do I want to toss the ball so Millie can’t get it? Or do you need a taste of your own medicine?”
David had been tossing the ball into the air and catching it, he stopped tossing it. “It’s all good fun.”
“No, Daddy, it’s not.” Millie turned with a flip of her hair, facing Andie. “What’s your plan? I want in.”
Andie’s cheeks rose with amusement as she squatted down to Millie’s height. Then the two looked up at him. “Whose team are you on, Leo?”
“Yeah, Uncle Leo, whose team are you on?”
“He’s on the man team, that’s which team,” Dean called out.
“That’s sexist, Uncle Dean!”
Dean stood taller. “You don’t split up into teams of boys and girls at school?”
“Sometimes, and I point out that not everyone’s gender is as simple as that and it’s unfair to make us all pick.”
Leo felt a swell of pride for his niece. Never change, kiddo . “I’m on this team, sorry guys.”
“Wimp!” David called out.
Leo raised his eyebrows. “You want me to get my sister?”
David dropped the ball and held up his hands in a peace offering.
Leo bent, to join the huddle with Andie and Millie. “So how are we gonna win?”
“The answer is very simple.” Andie grew quiet, making eye contact with each team member. “We don’t let them get the ball.”
Millie squealed. “I like it!”
“They’re tall and fast,” Leo said. Dean was taller than him, David shorter by a hair, he’d be the only one on the same vertical playing field.
Millie was not swayed. “And we’re short and equally fast. What’s the saying? They go high, so we go low?”
“I’m not short. I don’t think that’s what the saying is supposed to mean.”
Andie waved a hand. “Whatever, you both follow me, right?”
Millie nodded. “Right!” And as if someone had blown a whistle, she took off across the lawn, to where David had picked up the ball, and expertly snatched it from him before he had a chance to react.
“Hey,” David yelled, before taking off after a laughing Millie. She headed straight for Andie, and passed the ball in an underhand toss that would make any football player proud.
Andie took off in the opposite direction. Dean wasted no time going after her so Andie tossed her ball, a low one again, to Leo.
And because Leo played ball with both of these men more than once, he found himself chest to chest to chest with his competitors.
“Millie, we found the weak link of your team,” Dean called.
“Weak link, my ass,” Leo said.
“Ha ha, he thinks he’s got us.”
Leo kept changing position of the ball as the men tried to knock it from him, meanwhile they were so focused on him, they didn’t notice the ten-year-old sneaking over. And since Andie said the name of the game was to go low, Leo hurled the ball between David’s legs, where Millie caught it and ran toward the house.
“You prick,” David muttered, taking off after his daughter.
Andie jogged up beside him. “Nice one!” She raised her hand for a high five. He meshed his hand to hers, but wrapped his fingers down, holding her.
Ahead of them David decided to simply catch Millie and swung her around in the air. Millie laughed and the front door opened, Leo’s mom standing there.
“Are you children ready to come inside or do I not get to meet the lovely Andie?”
Andie’s cheeks pinked, and Leo lowered their hands—still clasped—to tug her toward the front of the house. Everyone had moved inside except for Leo’s mother.
“Mom, this is Andie. Andie, this is my mother, Gayle.”
Andie held out a hand. “Nice to meet you.”
Gayle trapped Andie’s gloves in her bare hands. “Trust me, the pleasure is all mine.”
Leo then watched in horror as Gayle wrapped an arm around Andie’s shoulders and led her inside.
“Leo has never brough a girl home, not since high school, can you believe that? I’m his mother, I deserve to meet his girlfriends. I deserve for my children to settle down and get married.”
“Mom.” Leo cringed. He should have known this would happen. Especially since his mother spoke loud enough for him to hear.
“Oh, hush. You let me enjoy this moment. I waited long enough for it.”
Andie glanced back, her face saying, “it’s okay, I’ve got this.” And while Andie surely knew Jewish mothers even without knowing her own, he still worried that Gayle Dentz would be a different threat altogether.
Andie’s first impression of Leo’s family home was cozy. The outside said typical New England middle-class family, manicured lawn with the right number of bushes. Cookie cutter without being cookie cutter. The inside, in contrast to the keeping up with the Joneses exterior, claimed one simple fact: love lived here.
Stairs divided the living room and dining room, with pictures climbing from the first floor to the second. Wedding pictures. Baby pictures. Graduation pictures. Andie spotted Leo in a few, at least she thought she’d correctly identified him.
A plush carpet led the way into the family room, where a fire glowed in the fireplace. A round coffee table sat in the middle, with a couch, love seat, and two loungers lined around it. Pillows welcomed backs and sides. A plant stood tall in one corner and presents, wrapped in blue and white, were piled in a different corner. There were more pictures on these walls, displaying school events and childhood artifacts.
Yes, love lived here.
Andie’s father had pictures and items of hers cherished on his walls and shelves. He’d taken them with him in each move and she now had them in a box, because no one except a parent framed a drawing from a six-year-old. Well, parents and teachers. Andie put up a picture or two, but for just herself it felt strange. The images belonged in a parent’s home. Like here with the Dentzes.
“You have a beautiful home, Mrs. Dentz,” Andie said. She’d been brought over to the couch and sat next to Leo’s mother.
“Oh, hush. None of this formal ‘Mrs.’ stuff. Call me Gayle.” Her tone demanded no questions and Andie suspected that’s how she once kept three children in line.
“You have a beautiful home, Gayle.”
Gayle laughed and pointed to Leo, who sat in the lounger across from them. “You have good taste, my boy.”
Dean sat next to Leo. “Only with this one. You should have seen the others.” He made a scared face and Leo jabbed him in the side, without pulling his punch based on how Dean curled inward.
Gayle patted Andie’s knee, stealing her attention back. “So how did you two meet?”
Andie slid a glance to Leo, but he was busy whispering to Dean. “We’re neighbors.”
Gayle waved a hand in the air. “Oh, I know that. I want specifics, all I’ve ever heard is ‘some woman in my building.’ Some woman, huh, you’re here, that’s more than ‘some.’”
Andie swallowed a laugh. It was one thing to flirt with Leo over the years, another to learn he’d wanted more, and quite a different level to hear it from his own mother. “Well, I live next door, so I’m not really sure what the very first meeting was. Elevator rides, mailbox meetings, parking lot passes, we got to know each other bit by bit.”
It sounded right, felt right, but from across the room two brown eyes landed heavily on her. She’d snagged Leo’s full attention. “Andie moved in around the end of summer, probably before the school year started, now that I know you better. She was struggling with a box, trying to get it into the elevator. You were probably hot and sweaty and frustrated but looked like some fierce warrior ready for battle and absolutely beautiful. I stepped in to help, because the job really needed at least three hands—not that you weren’t capable. And I felt like the luckiest man alive that the empty apartment next to mine would be yours.”
Andie’s mouth dipped open, staring at Leo and his words that made her heart flutter. She wanted to say he made it up for his mom’s benefit, but the memory clicked, and lingered. He told the truth and somehow remembered their first meeting.
“Aww, that is adorable. Dean, slap your brother,” Gayle said.
Dean did as told, shrugging at Leo’s “what the” response. “Why?”
“Sure, you hit first, ask questions later,” Leo muttered.
“I follow Mom’s orders first, ask questions later.”
“Because it took you far too long to make your move after that lovely meeting.” Gayle said.
The moment should feel awkward. The pestering, the prodding, the weight of a relationship to be more that simply wouldn’t. Andie waited for the unease to work in, but all she felt was comfort. Peace. This family loved hard and long, and every member should be happy to be a part of it. Perhaps that’s why Andie was there, to ensure they did not forget the special gift they had.
And maybe she needed to experience what she’d always wished for, at least for a single day.
“Sometimes the wait makes it all the sweeter, and the timing needs to be right.” Andie feared she misspoke, the way Leo’s expression shifted, from light and playful, to serious and something else. Because timing was not on their side, not if she moved, and this little slice of heaven she felt here would become a fleeting memory.
“Come on, Grandpa!”
From the entry into the rest of the house, the back of Millie’s head appeared, pulling on the hand of an older gentleman with white hair and a striking resemblance to Dean.
Millie stopped near the couches. “This is Andie!” She held out both hands, as though presenting some prize.
Andie rose and held out her hand. “Pleasure to meet you.”
He shook her hand, but said nothing, the temperature dipping in the room. His focus wasn’t on her, it was over her shoulder, to Leo or both his sons, she didn’t know.
“Oh, Glen, put business away for one day, would you? It’s our chance to celebrate with our family.”
“Yeah, Grandpa. It’s Chanukah!” Millie bounced on her feet. Glen angled his head down at his granddaughter, the grumpy frown fading, replaced with a kind smile.
Millie turned, beaming at her uncles. A dangerous combination: a child aware of their own superpowers.
Gayle nudged Andie’s shoulder. “That child could change diplomatic policies with an eyelash flutter.”
Amusement warmed Andie, and filtered out, though she managed to keep it quiet. She focused on the pictures above where Glen sat, one of her favorite things about family homes.
“The baby making the silly face is Leo.” Jodie entered the room, clearly catching Andie’s gaze.
“Which one?” Leo shot back.
“You were all adorable children who took an occasional bad photo.” Gayle laughed.
“I don’t take bad photos.” Millie placed both her hands under her chin, hamming for an imaginary camera.
“My grandbabies never do.” Gayle somehow managed to eye all her children at once. “Should I be so lucky to get more.”
Jodie snagged a seat on the armrest near her father. “Told you, the factory is closed. Focus on your single sons.”
Andie remained very still. On one hand, she loved the comfortable family banter. On the other hand, she did not want her parental status to get roped into this conversation.
“No focus here. This is the first time I’ve brought someone to Chanukah.” Leo held a relaxed position, as though his words truly would be enough for his mother.
A Jewish mother. Andie doubted he’d win.
Jodie leaned forward. “Exactly. First times mean something, don’t they?”
Leo put his foot on the floor.
Gayle raised her hands. “I’m not here to scare off our newest guest. And don’t worry middle child of mine, you get a few more plus ones before I start questioning.”
Leo locked eyes with Andie. “This was a bad idea, my apologies.”
Andie noticed he didn’t look the least bit upset. Which was good, since she didn’t feel any remorse either. “You’ll have to make it up to me sometime.”
“Deal.”
Millie hopped to the center of the room, hands rubbing together. “Where are the dreidels, I have more gelt to win.”