“The cafeteria smells like feet and ammonia and hot dogs, Annelise. I don’t think you want to live there.”
She roared with laughter.
It was impossible not to laugh when she laughed. That was a big part of the reason he loved kids. Things were still so new to them, which made everything old new again. They were easy to surprise, and surprise was a big part of humor.
“Whoops, Leesy, honey, your hair is in your spaghetti,” Eden said.
It was indeed.
Gabe kind of wished Eden would call him “honey” and rub his back.
Annelise pretended to insert the now sauced end of her hair into her mouth.
She froze—everyone did, such was its power—when Eden fired a glare-missile at her.
Annelise made a big show of using her paper napkin to carefully rub sauce from her hair.
“I actually live in a biiiig yellow house,” Gabe said. “Has a yard with a huuuuge oak tree and a tire swing hanging from it. And a porch like this one outside—wraps all around. And a pretty great view of my neighbor’s front yard in the front and the mountains in the back.”
He didn’t spend a lot of time there. It mostly seemed for sleeping.
Annelise’s eyes—same color as her mom’s—went huge with yearning. “Oh,man. I wish we had a tired swing. We live over the flower shop, and we only have a little backyard, but it’s really nice. It has roses and a hummingbird feeder and a birdbath. We have a really great cat, too. His name is Peace and Love.”
“That’swhat I’m missing. A cat. And maybe a dog. I can get my donkey fix here with Mac and Avalon.”
Annelise hesitated. “Do you have room for a pony?”
The look on Annelise’s face told him that this would be the clincher. That this might just push her over the edge of unbearable yearning.
“I have room for a pony, sure.”
She froze dramatically, mouth dropped open into an O.
“Lucky,”she breathed finally. “Mom, he can have a ponyanda tired swing.”
He shot a glance at Eden. He intercepted an expression on her face—fixed, rapt—that made his breath literally stop.
She dropped her eyes to her plate and determinedly wound some spaghetti on her fork.
“Auntie Avalon?” Annelise said idly after a moment.
“Yeah, sweetie?” The first words Avalon had said.
“Do you think it was your destiny to meet Uncle Mac?”
Everyone froze midchew.
“Whatthe...” Mac was deeply suspicious of anything that smacked of gloppy romance. Which was pretty funny. “Why are you wondering about destiny?”
“Because I want to be a rock star like Glory Greenleaf. I think it’s my destiny.”
Annelise was now using the tine of her fork to scroll the worddestinyin her spaghetti sauce.
And then she disdainfully shoved her broccoli all the way out to the borders of her plate. So far away the florets nearly tumbled onto the table.
“Maaaybe,” Mac allowed, so cautiously that all the other adults at the table bit back smiles.
Eden’s shoulders went back and she took a breath, as if she was bracing for impact. And then she cleared her throat. “Hey, Leesy? Do you think it’s very important to fulfill your destiny?”