Chapter Eighteen
“What’s going on?” Heidi asks,coming up behind her husband, her head sneaking through the crook in his arm. “Oh, fun!” she says, watching her neighbors as they spread out across the road in front of their houses. “Can I play?”
“Everybody’s welcome,” Nick says. “You, too, Julia.” He beckons the older woman forward.
Julia laughs, holding up both hands. “With these fingers? No, thank you. Think you’ll have more fun if I just watch.”
“Hi, there,” Mark calls to Heidi. “How’d dinner go the other night?”
“Who’s that?” Aiden asks his wife.
“The kid I was telling you about,” Heidi explains, under her breath. “The old lady’s grandson. The one who helped me make the dinner your mother didn’t eat.” The dinner is still a sore spot for Heidi. She’d tried putting it in the microwave the next night, but heating it up had only dried out the chicken, and the blueberry bread pudding, while still tasty, went more than a bit rubbery. “It was great,” she lies, watching him effortlessly leap into the air to catch the ball in his right hand.
Which he promptly tosses to her.
Heidi squeals with delight as she catches it and runs into the street to join the others. She throws the ball to one of the twins, who throws it to his sister, who throws it to Nick, who throws it to Ben, who tosses it back to Mark, who throws it back to Heidi.
Heidi turns toward her husband. “Come on, Aiden, honey. Come play with us.” She tosses him the ball.
He catches it, allowing himself to be coaxed into the street, and throws the ball to Nick, who passes it, underhand, to Tyler, who misses it again.
“Come on, buddy,” Nick says, as the ball rolls into the shadows of a palm tree at the side of Sean’s house. “You gotta pay attention. Eye on the ball. Remember?”
“Sorry,” Tyler says, running after it.
Maggie’s car approaches from Hood Road.
“Okay, guys,” Nick instructs. “Everybody off the road.”
Everyone gets out of the way to allow Maggie’s car entry.
“What’s going on here?” Maggie asks, pulling into her driveway as the game resumes. She exits her car, surveying the scene.
“Neighborhood ball game,” Nick explains. “Feel free to join in.”
Maggie unlocks the trunk of her car and removes an armload of groceries. “Maybe after I get these put away,” she says, deciding that the fates have determined it’s high time she got to know her neighbors.
A young man almost crashes into her as he leaps up to catch a ball. “Sorry about that.”
Maggie takes a step back. “Who are you?”
“That’s my grandson, Mark,” Julia calls from the doorway of the house next door.
Maggie nods. “Nice to meet you, Mark,” she tells the young man, glad her daughter isn’t around. This kid, with his long hair, skinny torso, and bad-boy vibe, is just the sort of young man Erin would probably find attractive. If only to spite her.
“Is Erin home?” she hears a voice ask.
Maggie is startled to hear her daughter’s name at almost the exact second she was thinking it. “Excuse me?” She looks down to see Tyler Wilson staring up at her.
“Is Erin home?” he repeats. “Can she come out and play?”
“Oh, no, sweetie. I’m afraid that she and Leo are with their father this weekend.”
“Oh.”
“But you and Leo should play together when he gets back. Maybe one day this week?” Maggie looks around to see if she can arrange a playdate with Tyler’s mother, but unsurprisingly, Dr. Dani Wilson is nowhere to be seen.
“Does Leo like fish?” Tyler asks.