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Seven
DELILAH
I spent a good half hour in the backyard, rolling around in the grass with the kids. Laughing and playing and chasing them all over the cleaned-up portion of the mostly-unmanicured grounds, while Liam and Duncan buttoned up their construction projects and put their tools away.
In the meantime, Julius prepared dinner. He was casually domestic and looked very comfortable setting out bowls of ravioli, sauce, and the piping hot loaf of fragrant bread he pulled out of the oven. My nose told me it had to be garlic bread, just by the amazing smell. My mouth watered just thinking about it.
Overall though, I had the most fun with Jace and Courtney. They had to be somewhere between one and two years old, and were still getting the hang of running on their fat little toddler legs. They were twins too, I’d discovered. Liam had called them that, before heading inside.
They’re so much like Rory and Luke.
Aside from the platinum-blond hair color, the similarities were striking. At only ten months apart, my niece and nephew were practically twins themselves. I recognized a lot of the same mannerisms and idiosyncrasies in Jace and Courtney; the ones my sister’s children used to exhibit back when they were toddlers themselves.
“Come and get it!”
Duncan’s voice boomed from the open back door, and I scooped the children up in my arms. It hurt my side of course, but it felt so good to hold babies again! I couldn’t stop snuggling them, or marveling at how much lighter they were than my niece and nephew. It had been several years since they were this small.
A few minutes later the children were strapped into highchairs and pushed right up alongside the kitchen table. Julius had chopped some pasta up into tiny pieces for them, but it looked like they also had some pureed carrots, too. Dish by dish we passed the ravioli, the sauce, and the garlic bread around the table. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a dinner like this. It reminded me of family.
“This all looks delicious,” I said, and meant it.
“Wait ‘till you taste it,” Liam grinned.
We talked as we ate, each of us relaying our own version of the incident at the aquarium. The guys were apologetic and somewhat embarrassed they’d let their guard down with Jace. Julius chastised them mercilessly for letting him out of their sight, at which point they chastised him for not being there in the first place.
I told them of my brief stint in the hospital, and how my ribs were slowly but surely healing. I didn’t want to make them feel bad, though. I could tell they felt bad enough.
“Where are you from, Delilah?” asked Duncan.
“Originally? Queens.”
“Wow,” swore Liam. “That’s a pretty long ride just to check on little Jace, here.”
“Yeah, well I believe in doing things face to face,” I said. “Plus, I’m used to driving out east. I went to Stony Brook University for a while, with the intention of becoming a physical therapist.”
“And what happened?”
Oh God,I thought to myself.Whatdidn’thappen?
“Basically I was too indecisive,” I admitted. “I kept switching majors, and losing credits. Some of my grants ran out, and I timed out on a scholarship. I was studying pediatrics when the money dried up. Took a few odd jobs here and there, to keep going part time, and… well…”
“You just kind of fell out of it,” said Duncan.
“Yeah. Exactly.”
It was a bitter pill to swallow, admitting that I most likely wasn’t going back. But it had been four whole years now, and I still hadn’t set a dime aside toward finishing.
Not that I had two dimes to rub together, of course.
“Anyway, I have an apartment in Nassau county now. I do medical transcription from a computer terminal at home, plus I waitress on weekends.”
I shrugged, wondering what they thought of that. I didn’t have to wait long.
“So you’ve got hustle,” Liam nodded appreciatively. “And lots of it.”
“I guess so, yeah.”
“We’re the kind of guys who appreciate hustle,” Duncan smiled. “So you’re in good company.”
