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“I’m not going to say anything.”
“Ma, good, because I don’t want to have to start hiding crap from you, okay? It is what it is. She likes Violet and I enjoy her company. I heard from the mother last night, and that has me all bent out of shape now.”
“Oh jeez, let’s hope she stays out to sea.”
“Where’s Pop? Can you ask him to check with the lawyer?”
“He went somewhere with Joey. I’ll ask him as soon as he gets home. I guess I can’t ask you what time you’re coming home.”
“I’ll be home tonight, is that good enough? I’m watching the game over there.”
“Okay. Well, it’s better than hanging out at that bar all night, I guess.”
She didn’t sayand getting girls pregnant, but it was in the air.
“Can you help haul some of this junk out to the truck?”
“Lenny, you can’t take her in your pickup truck! She needs to be in a back seat.”
“That’s news to me. I took her over to Ava’s in the truck on the first day.”
“It must have gone right over my head. Take my car,” she said, ensuring he’d be back so she could drive everyone to church on Sunday. “And that reminds me, we should talk to Father Anthony about Violet’s christening.”
“Okay, Ma, whatever you say.”
The act of loading up his mother’s monster SUV with his baby’s belongings conveyed to Leon that he was going to have to get a real vehicle and not a play-around car, and even that it might be time to move out of Roberta and Big Mike’s house, as much as he’d miss it. His brothers stayed at home until they had to leave because their girlfriends wouldn’t tolerate it any longer. Even though his mother was helpful with the baby, he wanted to be free to come and go like he was before Violet came into their lives. It felt like Roberta might have sharpened her focus on him, and he didn’t know if he could tolerate it.
The ride over to Ava’s flooded him with angst. It didn’t feel real, this whole idea of spending the day with Ava. She was the nanny, but she was also a woman and a hot one at that. He wasn’t even thinking of her age. So why was he doing it?
Facing reality, the fact that she’d help him take care of the baby was number one. He just wasn’t ready to be a full-time daddy. In the short time he’d had Violet, he’d learned that parenting was exhausting, and caring for an infant was boring, no matter how cute they were.
Number two, hanging out over at Ava’s, he’d kill time. They’d go to the apple orchard, not a high-priority thing on his bucket list. And number three, he might even get lucky.
Pulling up to her house, she was waiting for him on the porch, her red hair pulled back in a ponytail. He’d never seen it down like that. She usually wore it on top of her head, she said so it didn’t get on the baby. A black leather jacket cinched at the waist, wearing jeans and knee boots. He wondered if that was her signature look. The jeans were snug and his eyes went righttherewhere her thighs met. She had a basket over her arm, ready to head out to Julian for apple picking.
“Don’t get out unless you want me to drive,” she said.
“I’m good. Just point the way.”
“Have you ever been?”
“I rarely go east,” he said. “This will be a first.”
“Ah, I see, you’re a beach guy.”
“Pretty much, but it’s too windy to take a baby to the beach today anyway, so this is fine. Do you like the beach?”
“I love it,” she said, tossing her ponytail. “I feel like a kid when I’m there.”
“Yeah, well, I am a kid,” he said, laughing.
“Do you surf?”
“Me? No, I’m too big. I look like a clown on a surfboard. My brother Mike surfs though. I like to lie on the beach and watch the surfers. Their patience for a wave is amazing. Do you?”
“I used to with my friends who surfed,” she said. “I feel like a jerk out there alone. I guess I don’t want to do it badly enough to go by myself.”
“I’ll go to the beach with you,” he replied, then regretted it. Going to the beach with a baby didn’t sound like much fun. “Ha! I forgot about ol’ Violet here. You should go to the beach. Find a girlfriend to go with you.”
