“Curt invited you over.” Jake’s smile told everyone who knew him that he was headed back into teasing mode again. “Hope you’re ready for an old-fashioned interrogation, Gavin, because he’s got one planned for you. And in case you’re wondering, he’s good at it.”
“Knock it off, Jake.” Charlie gave him a slight nudge with her elbow again.
“What? It’s true. He’s almost as good as I am.”
Leah and Charlie glanced at each and rolled their eyes at the same time. “Charlie, I’m glad you’re the one who has to live with him.”
Eventually Leah’s mom and dad joined them. They planned to spend the next week in Newport like they always did at this time of year, and for the second time that weekend, Mom invited Leah to stay an extra couple of days. A month ago she would’ve accepted and enjoyed some long overdue time with her parents. As the only girl in the family, she’d always had an extra-special bond with her mom. Unfortunately, with her parents living in Massachusetts and her in Connecticut, they didn’t see each other as often as Leah would like. This week would’ve been a perfect time to correct that, but with this new development between her and Gavin, she didn’t want to remain here while he went back to Manhattan.
On an average day, the drive from her parents’ home to Curt’s beach house took five minutes. With so many tourists adding to the traffic in Newport, it took them almost fifteen minutes to reach her brother’s place.
Since her brother had left the front door open, Leah didn’t bother to ring the doorbell, she just walked in. It’d been a year since she’d visited the house, but it looked unchanged. Although the living room was empty, the glass doors leading outside were open, and she could see Reese and Curt playing checkers at the table while Taylor sat nearby. It was a scene perfect for a family photo.
“I should’ve asked you last night. Do you have any pictures of Erin?” With her family around earlier, it had seemed like the wrong time to ask if Gavin had any photos of Erin with him. Before Curt noticed them, she wanted her curiosity appeased.
Gavin pulled his cell phone from his back pocket. “There might be one or two on here.” He thumbed on the device and opened an app before handing it to her. “I took these last weekend when we went to Roger Williams Park. Her two favorite things to do there are visiting the botanical
center and watching the elephants get a bath.”
Calling it a park was misleading. She’d visited a few times as a child and knew Roger Williams Park included a large zoo, a museum of natural history, a carousel, a bandstand, a botanical center, and numerous manicured gardens. A person could spend an entire day there and not see everything it offered.
She accepted the cell phone. The image of a smiling, dark-haired girl who was missing one of her bottom teeth filled the screen. A large giraffe occupied the background, telling Leah the picture had been taken inside the zoo.
“She looks like you.” She didn’t know what Erin’s mom looked like, but Leah didn’t see anyone but Gavin in the young girl’s face.
She scrolled through some of the other pictures on the device. Most were of Erin alone. There were a few of Erin and Gavin’s younger half sister, Piper, who most would assume was Erin’s cousin because of the closeness in age. There were a few of Erin with Gavin’s twin, Vivian, as well. Finally she came across one of Gavin and Erin together. He held a pair of skis, and both were dressed for a day on the slopes. She’d never cared much for skiing. She’d learned because her parents sent her and her brothers for lessons, but she’d preferred sitting in the warm lodge drinking hot chocolate to being out in the cold snow. Her brothers had been the opposite. They never wanted to come in, and whenever the family went skiing, Curt and Brett would spend the entire day out on the slopes, only coming inside when they needed to eat or when the slopes closed for the night.
“Where was this one taken?” She turned the device in his direction so he could see the picture.
Gavin remembered exactly when the photo of him and Erin had been taken. Every year he made it a point to take Erin skiing a few times, but the picture on the screen had been taken the first time she’d tried snowboarding. She’d bugged him to try the previous year, but, worried it’d be too dangerous, he’d made her wait until she was nine.
“Up at Stratton Mountain in February over school break. We both love to ski, but this year she tried snowboarding. This one was taken right after her first lesson. I had trouble getting her off the mountain again that day. Finally an empty stomach got her inside.”
He scrolled through a few more pictures. When he found the one he wanted, he handed the phone back to her. “I took this one the same day but several hours later.”
Despite her insistence she wasn’t tired, Erin had fallen asleep while eating and he hadn’t been able to resist snapping a picture of her asleep at the table, an entire slice of pizza on her plate mere inches from her lips.
“I knew she wouldn’t believe me if I told her she fell asleep sitting there. She didn’t make a sound when I carried her to bed and tucked her in.”
“And what did she say in the morning?”
“She denied falling asleep during dinner.” He pointed to the photo still on the screen. “Until I showed her this, anyway.”
When Leah gave him back the phone, he shoved it into his pocket again.
Smiling, she took his hand. “I can’t wait to meet her.”
And he couldn’t wait to introduce her to Erin.
Focused on the checkerboard on the table, no one looked up when they stepped outside. Curt’s lack of attention wouldn’t last. Leah’s cousin might have been exaggerating earlier about Curt interrogating him, but Gavin expected the guy to keep a close eye on him today.
“King me,” Reese called out happily after moving her red checker over one of Curt’s black ones and into an empty square.
Curt obliged and looked up at his two guests. “Make yourself at home. We’re almost done here. Reese is crushing me today.” Leah’s brother went back to studying the board.
Gavin glanced at the game. If Curt wanted to he could easily catch up and perhaps win. If he could see that, Leah’s brother could too. Rather than make the move that would even up the game, Curt went with a different one—one that put him in a decent position but didn’t give him the edge the other move would’ve.
“Curt, are you sure you want to do that?” Leah asked before Reese took her turn.