Page 17 of The Heart Remembers

“It’s only because they love you,” I tell her, with my twenty-seven-year-old wisdom.

“I don’t suppose they could love me a little less.” She’s teasing. She knows what I mean.

At the ice cream shop in town, she sees some friends. I encourage her to hang out with them, but she sticks with me, and I admit I like it. I miss my family when I’m not home, but I’m only a few hours away, and Daisy knows she can visit me whenever she wants.

When we return to the house, music blares, and an active basketball game fills the driveway. Levi, Leon, and his son, Israel, take on my brother, John; my cousin Job, son of Pam; and my other cousin Holden, Tom’s son. Wine is flowing for the women on the stone patio in the back. My mom waves me over, and I sit next to her after helping myself to a glass.

I listen in as family gossip is shared. Leon has another sister, Lena, and I learn she’s still living in Chicago. His parents moved back to Mexico years ago. Madison shares her motherly woes of three children under five, and Meghan complains about dating life. I notice Lys is missing and wonder where she is until someone speaks to me.

“So where’s Derek?” Meghan asks me.

“Oh, he couldn’t make it.” I repeat my standard answer.

“I know, but what is he up to lately?”

“Still making babies,” I glibly reply.

“What?” Levi chokes, surprising the collection of women.

“Derek is a doctor,” Madison drawls.

“He’s an OB-GYN,” I clarify. “He delivers babies.”

“He looks at women’s hoo-has all day,” Leon adds, out of breath behind Levi. He claps Levi on the shoulder. “Don’t ask. It’s too much information.”

“That was too much information,” Tricia warns her husband. He steps up to her, whispers something in her ear, and she turns red. We don’t need to ask what he said. It would be too much information.

Leon leads Levi inside, and then we hear basketballs dribbling again.

“Where’s Lys?” I ask, hoping to turn the topic.

“She’s on the phone with her husband.” Tricia doesn’t sound pleased, and Meghan wrinkles her nose.

“Everything okay?”

“It will be,” Tricia says quietly, not offering any additional information. When an uproar happens from the side yard, I excuse myself with my glass of wine and head to the basketball game. Lys has come outside, and she’s trying to hold her own playing ball, but it’s more like a full-court press with Levi.

With my heart in my belly, I’m feeling unsteady about our kiss earlier and decide to call it a night.

+ + +

“Come in,” I say when a knock sounds on my door later. I glance at my phone on the bed for the time and realize just how late it is. It’s almost midnight, but I’ve been reading.

“Hey,” Levi says, his head popping around the door.

“Hey.”

“You okay? You disappeared down there.” He’s referring to earlier as the women drank wine, and Levi played basketball with Lys. It wasn’t really just Lys, and it wasn’t even her I am upset with. I am angry with myself for kissing Levi and throwing myself at him once again. I don’t know what I was thinking, and I don’t want to treat him like some rebound from Derek.

Derek the OB-GYN, who spent his days looking at other women’s hoo-has as Leon so eloquently stated it. I had nothing against Derek’s profession. It was necessary, honorable, and I was certain he saw his patients as women in need of medical care and not in a sexual manner. Still, he was a little too clinical in his approach with me at times, leaving me with some unsatisfactory moments. Thoughts of this also wound me up. Despite my kiss earlier with Levi and last night’s self-stimulation, it wasn’t enough to release all the tension in me. Not to mention, the hot book I was reading wasn’t helping matters.

“Yeah, just reading.” I hold up my tablet and wave it at him. I’m dressed in my favorite cotton nightshirt that looks like lingerie but feels like a tee. It’s comfortable with wide shoulder straps and a deep-V between my breasts. I don’t miss Levi’s eyes roaming over it.

“Storytime,” he teases, entering my room and closing the door behind him. “I love storytime.”

“Since when do you read?” I tease, having no idea if he does.

“Nightly. I highly recommend Goodnight Moon. It’s illuminating.”