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10
GoneSoon
I findmy brother in the family room, where one of the Die Hard films is in fact playing on the not-that-big television. He’s doing the same thing with Brianna that I’ve been doing with Jade all night: keeping an eye out, making sure no overzealous family members get carried away in their attentions.
He looks up, sensing my presence in that way twins have, then glances over to check on Brianna. She’s surrounded by a crowd of middle-school kids, in a way that suggests they’ve glommed onto her as the coolest adult in the house. The attention doesn’t seem to faze her in the slightest, but then I don’t think there’s much that rattles Brianna Callahan.
Lando works his way around the crowd and joins me. When I lead the way outside, he doesn’t say a word, just follows. The front porch is occupied by people getting a breath of fresh air after the closeness of the packed house, so we wander down the driveway a bit until we have privacy.
I lean against a split-rail fence that borders the driveway; he joins me, waiting patiently. I let the silence stretch out into the velvet night until the thing that’s taking shape inside me finds its own words and spillsout.
“I always figured I’d settle down oneday.”
“Sure,” Lando says. “It’s what we do. Eventually.”
“It’s one of the reasons I came back here. I couldn’t see myself raising a family in NewYork.”
“I would have been pissed if you’d tried. Making me go all the way there to see my nieces and nephews.”
I smile. “I figured I had a better chance of meeting the right womanhere.”
“But who’s the right woman?”
“That’s the question. For me, there’s always been one thing that topped the list of criteria.” He sends me a look. “No, not that, youperv.”
“Tellme.”
“Someone who isn’t intimidated by our big, clamorous, nosy Italian family. Who groks the goodness of what we have right down to her bones.”
He’s silent a long moment. “Weathering an invasion is a pretty good way of testingthat.”
“Yeah.”
“We’re not out here because she failed thetest.”
“No, we’re not.” I nudge a dirt clod with my toe. “I felt it, Lan. I felt it inher.”
“The grokking?”
My brother can always make me laugh. “The grokking,” I agree.
There’s another long pause as we both let the weight of our words settle. Finally, Lando says, “So she’s theone?”
“I don’t know if she is, yet. But I know she couldbe.”
“Even knowing that much … it changes things.”
“Yeah.” I look toward the house, as if I could see Jade through the walls. I needed to say it out loud, this new knowing, and Lando and I have always been each other’s confidantes.
Now that it’s done, the urge to get back inside, to find her, takes over. I come up off the fence and look at my brother. “How’s Brianna holdingup?”
“I don’t think anything intimidates thatgirl.”
“I’m inclined to agree.” He hasn’t had any knowings, or he’s not ready to talk about them. That’s all right. Everything in itstime.
Right now, I have an appointment with a green-eyedgirl.
* * *
