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“It’s long gone.”
“Well, in its heyday, it would rival this place. And Jack Smith was her father.”
“Okay, well, I’m all ears. Come into the kitchen so I can get our dinner going, and you can tell me about Lisa and the Smith Mansion.”
“How much do you want to hear? All the dirty laundry?” Ryan asked.
“How much time have you got? Are you going home tonight?” She asked in return.
“Not if you ask me to stay. It’s Friday night, after all. No work tomorrow.”
“I just got a chill,” Jolene said, laughing.
“So does this mean I have to be on my best behavior?” Ryan replied.
“No! Don’t change your MO for me.”
“Okay, deal.”
About an hour and a half east, Lisa was tucking her little daughters in bed and getting ready to have pizza and movie night with her big girls and boys. The cousins were all there, too, giving Sandra and Alison a Friday night with their husbands. They’d pay her back during the week.
Once the pizza was delivered and the movie had started, Lisa felt safe to get out her phone that had been beeping for an hour. She had texts from everyone she knew, including Zach Durand.
I’m a giant turd. Please forgive me and let me see you tonight. I’ve never been in a mature relationship and I don’t know how to act.
She sent him a laughing emoji and answered:Come over. I’m just a big pushover.
In seconds, he replied:I’ll try not to take advantage of that.See you in ten.
Ignoring texts from Ryan and her mother, she returned to the master bath to prepare for Zach’s arrival. Just a brush through her hair and some lip gloss, as usual. She was going to establish her natural appearance from the get-go so he wouldn’t have any expectations of her. Let the man see her at her worst, too. So no surprises.
Out in the great room, the older children were watching the movie, eating popcorn Megan and Miranda had made, whispering and telling jokes.
After a short convalescence, Daniela had gone home to the Bronx for the weekend, with Nancy driving her. It would be the first time in a week that Lisa was the only adult in the house.
At eight o’clock, her phone beeped with a text from Zach saying he was at her door.
“Hello. Nice to see you again,” she said, grinning, when she opened the door.
He leaned over to kiss her cheek. “Do you forgive me?”
“I do. It’s okay. I hope you won’t make a habit of it, because I’ll feel like a punching bag.”
Grimacing, he pulled her into a hug in a shadowy corner of the hallway. “I’m just scared, I guess.”
“Of what?”
“That I’ll start to care and you’ll go back to the father.”
“Let’s get the kids’ introduction out of the way, and then we can sit on the porch and have privacy.”
“Ew, I have to meet the kids,” he whined. “That scares the crap out of me.”
“My kids have been through the mill. Meeting someone they recognize from the night Daniela fell won’t be strange to them. Firefighters are heroes to my kids. Follow me.”
“Marcus, can you pause the movie?” Lisa said. “I want you guys to meet a friend. This is Captain Durand from the fire company here in town.”
Zach grinned as the kids greeted him, and he shook everyone’s hands, treating them like adults.
