“Really? Rudy’s mom seemed to think they were just rotting away in that big old house, not really doing much of anything. So what could it hurt to ask, right? Because God knows when we’re gonna having another opening like this for the rest of the summah. He’s never been up here, and you must be goin’ batty by now at Magda’s. Don’t get me wrong, I love her to death, but Mag’s like one of her rich desserts, she’s better in small doses. Right?”
Lili waited for the dust to settle, then chuckled. “That’s very true.” Then she had a thought. “I suppose I could come up on my own?”
“If it doesn’t work out with Tony, sure, why not? Hey, you like to shop? We’ve got an outlet mall up heah that’ll knock your socks off…”
After a few more minutes devoted to the wonders of southern New Hampshire, Violet rang off. The buzzing in Lili’s ears had barely stopped, however, when the phone rang again. Seeing Tony’s name on the display, she flinched as though pricked by a thorn. Letting the answering machine pick up was certainly tempting. As well as cowardly and childish. Besides, she supposed she should at least tell him about the invitation.
“Oh, good—it’s you.” Was it bad that his voice sent actual shivers up her spine? Was it worse that Peter’s voice had never tingled a single vertebra? “I need to ask a favor.”
“Why are you whispering?”
“Because apparently I’m raising bats,” he whispered. “Do you think you could come over and watch the older girls tomorrow morning while I take…” his voice softened even more “…JoJo to get the test done? I hate to ask, but you’re the only one who knows, if I ask anybody in the family they’ll be all over me with a hundred questions—”
“I’d be glad to,” Lili said, because what else was she going to say? “What are you going to tell the girls?”
“That I’m taking the baby in for a check-up. I figure—”
The next part of whatever he was said was muffled as he apparently put his hand over the phone. A few seconds later, he was back.
“Sorry about that. Anyway. The kids aren’t exactly big fans of the doctor’s office, so nobody’s gonna wanna tag along.”
“Er…Claire’s not exactly a big fan of me, either.”
“For an hour, she can deal. I mean, unless you’re uncomfortable…?” This said with a slight begging edge to his voice.
“I suppose I can deal for an hour, too. What time do you want me there?”
“Nine?”
“Nine it is. Oh! I almost forgot! Violet just called, something about our going up to their inn?”
“Crap, I didn’t think they were actually serious.”
“Apparently, since you never mentioned it. But the invitation’s for Wednesday through Friday. I told them you were busy, but Violet didn’t shake off that easily.”
Tony almost chuckled. “No. She wouldn’t.” Then he sobered. “You told ’em I was busy?”
Lili couldn’t quite read his tone. “I thought…I didn’t think…yes,” she finally said. “Because we couldn’t possibly go up there together. For obvious reasons.”
A second passed before Tony said, “From everything I’ve heard, it’s a really great place.”
“I’m sure it is, but—”
“And hey—free vacation.”
Lily sat up a little straighter on the sofa. “You can’t possibly think this would be a good idea?”
“Oh, I think it’s a terrible idea,” he said, not a hint of humor in his voice. She heard his screen door bang open, a car going by, the drone of a cicada. “You and me, together—”
“With the kids, of course,” she said, her stomach going all jittery.
“Somehow, I don’t think having the kids around would make much difference one way or the other, but that’s just me.”
She stilled. “What are you saying?”
“What the hell do you think I’m saying?”
“You’re…attracted to me?”
“Duh,” he said, and she pressed her hand to her mouth. “God knows, I don’t wanna be, I can’t act on it, I can’t think of anything worse for either of us—”
Earth to Lili.
“—but yeah. I am. And if I wasn’t so braindead I probably wouldn’t’ve said anything. But I’m tired…” She heard him push out a sigh. “I’m tired of secrets, Lili. Tired of pretending.” For some reason, she visualized him leaning one hand against a support post, the phone clamped to his ear. Saw him so clearly, in fact, her hand lifted, as though to touch him. Silly girl.
Now she pushed out a sigh littered with a thousand shards of unfulfilled dreams.
“But I’m also tired of us bein’ cooped up in this damn house, this damn town,” Tony said. “So I’m thinking, maybe a couple days away wouldn’t be such a bad idea. Maybe it would maybe help Claire shake that freakin’ cloud that follows her everywhere.” He paused. “Maybe it would give me something to do beside sit here and worry about…the results.”
Oh, she thought. “How long does it take?”
“Forty-eight hours.”
Her heart twisted, knowing it would be the longest two days of his life. “So take the kids, why do I have to go?”
“Because you’ve never been to New Hampshire,” he finally said, then hung up.
“Why can’t I watch Daphne while you’re gone?” Claire said the next morning, shadowing Tony from room to room as he looked for Josie’s other sandal. Which, natch, had gone missing in the middle of the night even though he distinctly remembered putting them both on top of her toy chest before her bath.
“Because you’re ten and it’s against the law,” Tony muttered, thinking, Oh, hell, when he spotted the damn shoe next to the dog’s water dish. Josie clinging to his hip, he squatted to pick up the sandal, breathing out a profound sigh of relief that, except for a couple of canine tooth dents in the rubber, it was otherwise intact. He plunked down on a kitchen chair to insert foot in sandal. “And there’s way too many cops in this family to take that chance.”
“But why is Lili watching us?”
“Because everybody else was busy,” Tony said, wondering how many lies, white or otherwise, the average parent dispensed over the course of eighteen years. Or longer. “And what’ve you got against Lili, anyway? She’s a nice lady.”
Claire gave him one of those if-I-have-to-explain-what’s the-point? looks. The same one he’d seen way too many times from her mother. Once upon a time, he’d found it endearing. “That’s probably her now,” he said when both the doorbell and the dog sounded. “Go let her in.”
“Daphne can do it.”
“See?” Tony said, getting to his feet. “Exactly why you can’t watch her on your own, you’d let her open the door to anybody.”
Claire’s mouth fell open. “Ohmigod! Of course I wouldn’t do that! You just said it was Lili! God—”
“Well,” Lili said brightly from the kitchen doorway, Daphne at her side and more grocery bags dangling from her hands. Amused eyes bounced off Tony’s before settling on Claire. “What did he do this time?” she said, and the girl’s gaze flew to hers.
“He…” Her cheeks flamed. “Nothing.”
“Really?” She looked at Tony again. “Because I could have sworn I heard you teasing the poor child.”
“Naw, I was just—”
“My father,” Lili said to Claire, “would tease me to distraction. Of course, eventually I realized that was his strange—” another glance at Tony “—way of showing his love. But when I was your age? Torture, I tell you. Pure torture.”
Wow, point to you, Tony thought as Claire regarded Lili in stunned silence for several seconds before curiosity apparently got the better of her. “What’s in the bags?”
Lili grinned. “I thought we could make plum dumplings,” she said, blue eyes sparkling behind her glasses.
And behind Claire’s glasses, The Look of Utter Horror. “You mean, with actual plums in them?”
“Well…yes. It’s, um, a traditional Hungarian dish, I used to love
them when I was a child—”
“I don’t think so,” Claire said, storming out of the kitchen. She was halfway up the stairs before Tony caught up with her.
“Claire. Come back here. Now.”
She turned, miserable. “You know I hate plums, Dad, they make me gag—”
“I understand that. But Lili didn’t do anything to warrant that reaction. So you march yourself back down and apologize—”
“Tony,” Lili said behind him. “That’s not necessary, really—”
“Yeah. It is. Claire?”
Her arms tightly folded over her chest, she glowered at the riser below her for a moment, then came down the stairs far enough to see Lili. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled, then lifted her eyes. “But I really don’t like plums. Would it be okay…” She shoved her hair behind her ear. “Would you mind if I stayed in my room and read instead?”
Lili glanced at Tony, who nodded, before saying to Claire, “Of course not. You go right ahead.” Then she turned to Daphne, who was tugging her skirt. Leave it to that one to have a front row seat. Kid lived for this stuff.
“I’ll help you make them.” She was also a world-class brownnoser.
“Oh. Good. Thank you. Why don’t you go unload all the bags onto the kitchen table, then, and I’ll be right in?”
His middle child skipped off, humming happily, as his oldest tromped upstairs. A moment later they heard her door click shut. “Sorry about that,” Tony muttered, grabbing both baby and car keys. He turned to Lili, who, as usual, seemed remarkably unfazed by it all. “Civilizing kids is a lot harder than it looks.”
She smiled. “She’ll be fine. We’ll be fine.”
He wanted to kiss her so badly he thought the top of his head would come off. “Well,” he said, lowering his eyes to the baby. “Guess I can’t put this off any longer.”
Tony was nearly out to the car before he realized Lili had followed them to stand in the driveway with her arms crossed, a breeze fluttering her flippy little skirt around her knees. “I take it you haven’t mentioned the New Hampshire trip?” she said as he belted Josie into her car seat. He straightened; she’d messily twisted her hair up with a couple sticks poking through it, so half of it was floating around her face. In the sunlight, it had a lot more gold in it than he would’ve thought.
“No. Not yet. When I get back’s soon enough. That way they have less than twenty-four hours to drive me nuts about it.” He propped one hand on the car’s roof, still cool in the early morning shade. “I thought you didn’t wanna go.”
Strands of hair teased her cheeks for a moment before she said, “Actually, I do. Very much. Whether I should or not, though…” She glanced up at the upstairs window.
“Her room’s in back, she can’t hear us. But it’s okay, you don’t hafta spell it out.”
“I just don’t want to add to anyone’s distress.” Her cheeks flushed. “I’m only here for the summer, Tony. And heaven only knows when I’ll be back. If I’ll be back.”
“Because you’re gonna go off and find your life and all that.”
“Right,” she said, the corners of her mouth lifting. “So the logical side of my brain thinks I should probably keep my distance.” Her gaze speared his. “For many reasons.”
“And what does the illogical side of your brain think?”
“That logic is hugely overrated. That—” her blush deepened, making her eyes even bluer “—that I don’t exactly have a lot to show for nearly thirty years of doing the ‘right’ thing, do I?”
Tony slammed shut the car’s back door and yanked his open, knowing his frustration had virtually nothing to do with her and everything to do with feeling like he was the butt of some sick joke. Finally he looked back at Lili, knowing damn well what he should do and not having the least interest in doing it, for probably much the same reasons as her.
“Why don’t you see how it goes with the girls today?” he said mildly. “Then let me know tonight what you decide.”
“Fair enough,” she said, turning back to the house. This time, though, it wasn’t her backside he was fixated on, but her hair, flashing gold in the morning sun. He could practically feel it, slippery and warm between his fingers, against his mouth…
“I am so screwed,” he muttered, climbing behind the wheel and jerking the gear shift into Reverse.
“Over there, Ed!” Daphne yelled at the dog, who’d been doing acrobatics for the past ten minutes trying to catch a fly and keeping both Lili and her sous-chef in stitches. The dog spun around, snapping several times at the buzzing insect until, frustrated, he started barking at it.
“Yeah, that’ll show it,” Lili said, and Daphne dissolved into at least her tenth giggle fit of the morning.
“Look, Lili! He got it!”
“Are you sure?”
“Uh-huh—he’s chewing!”
“Ewwww,” they said at the same time, then cracked up all over again—
“What on earth is going on in here?” Claire said from the doorway, clearly annoyed at being left out of the fun.
“Ed caught a fly!” Daphne said from stool next to the counter where she’d been smushing together confectioner’s sugar and cinnamon with a fork. “An’ then he ate it! Hey, Claire—you should come help—we’re making plum dumplings!”
“I’d rather eat the fly,” Claire grumbled, sidling over to the fridge and trying not to show interest in the proceedings. “Sheesh, it was so noisy down here I couldn’t read.”
“Sorry,” Lili mumbled, exchanging a look with Daphne, who giggled again. And then brushed her forehead with the back of her hand. Sugar everywhere.
“Come on, Claire,” the little girl said, dimpling at Lili. “It’s fun.”
“Claire doesn’t like plums,” Lili said mildly, cutting the already made potato dough into squares. “Actually, neither do I, unless they’re in dumplings.”
The ten-year-old edged closer, eyeing their workstation. “That’s…weird.”
“Isn’t it? We’re ready to wrap the dough around the fruit. Wanna try?”
“It looks messy.”
“Oh, it is,” Lili said as Daphne trooped from counter to table with the bowl of cinnamon sugar in her hands. And splotches of flour on her face and bits of potato in her hair. At Claire’s gasp, Lili bit her lip to keep from laughing.
“Ohmigod, Daph! What happened to you?”
“Daph helped make the dough,” Lili said, and Claire looked at her as if she’d just announced they’d invited Martians to lunch.
“Nana’s picking us up in an hour to take us shopping! In the Cadillac!” Tears bulged in her eyes. “She’ll have an absolute fit when she sees Daphne!”
This was news to Lili. “Oh?” she said, pinning the child with her gaze. “Funny, your father didn’t mention it.”
“That’s because…he d-didn’t know. Nana just c-called and said she was on her way.”
Lili could call the child on the lie, since the phone hadn’t rung. And for a moment she had to fight the blow to her own ego that Claire would go to such elaborate lengths to get away from her. Then she remembered what it had felt like to be a ten-year-old who basically hated her life.
“Well, not to worry…Daph’s washable.” Then, out of nowhere, she heard herself add, “Nobody expects you to be responsible for your sister, Claire.” She paused. “Or anybody else.”
“That’s what I keep trying to tell her,” Daphne put in, waving her hands. “That she’s not in charge of me and JoJo. But will she listen?” The younger girl blew out a sigh. “No.”
Tamping down another laugh, Lili got up to gently lead a sniffling Claire to the sink, where she dampened a paper towel. “Put this on your eyes, it will keep them from getting puffy.”
Removing her glasses to press the compress to one eye, the girl peered at Lili with the other, glimmering with cautious trust. “Mom used to do this, too. With the towel.”
“It’s a girl thing,” Lili said. “So. We have an hour?”
; “Yeah, about.”
“That’s plenty of time to finish and for Daphne to have her shower. And if you don’t wish to help—”
“No, it’s okay.” She shrugged. “It’s not like I’ve got anything else to do.” The towel abandoned, Claire frowned at the squares of dough already laid out on the floured table. “So what’s next?”
Her heart fluttering at the small step toward détente, Lili showed Claire how to wrap the dough around chunks of sweet-tart plum, pinching the edges closed to form little balls before lowering them into the big pot of boiling water on the stove. Both girls—and Ed—stood in rapt attention beside her, although the dog couldn’t see inside the bubbling pot.
“How do you know when they’re done?” Claire asked.
“When they pop up. Like that!” Lili said, smiling, as one by one the dumplings bobbed to the surface of the bubbling water, which she carefully removed with a slotted spoon. “Now we roll them the breadcrumbs,” she said, transferring the platter of hot, cooked dumplings to the table to be gently coated in fragrant, buttery breadcrumbs.
“And now the sugar?” Daphne asked.
“And now the sugar.”
Lili stood aside, quietly coaching the girls as they sprinkled the warm, crunchy dumplings with the sugar mixture, the fragrance of cinnamon and warm fruit and butter filling the old kitchen, filling Lili’s head with silly notions she dared not indulge for long. The dumplings all frosted and sparkly under the fake Tiffany lamp suspended over the table, Claire looked at her—without a frown—and Lily nearly groaned with yearning for a home and family of her own.
“Can we eat one?”
“Not yet. Better give them a few minutes for the fruit to cool. I don’t want you to burn your mouths.”
“And you,” Claire said to Daphne, “go take your bath. Hair, too.”
Lili frowned at the younger girl. “Can you do that alone?”
“Of course,” Daphne said as she slid off her chair. “I’m not a baby, sheesh.” Then she pointed at them. “But no eating the dumplings until I get back!”
Then she trounced off, potato-flecked curls fluttering indignantly. A moment later, Claire got up, too, looking unsure of what came next.
From Friends to Forever Page 10
