Page 45 of Alarm Fatigue

“Tefillin.”

“Shh.”

He winks at me. “Your wish is my command.”

Chapter 28

The following evening, my daughters and Amalie are expecting us for dinner at Gavi and David’s house. Mark and I are bringing wine, even though Gavi insisted we did not need to bring anything. Seeing Mark’s car pull into my driveway, I scratch the cats behind their ears and head downstairs to meet Mark at the door. When I open it, he takes me in with a grin. It is cooler out this evening than it was yesterday, so I have selected the blue sweater from our first encounter. I paired it with a knee length pencil skirt with just enough stretch for a comfortable dinner but a cut that will leave little to Mark’s imagination. For his part, Mark is wearing a light blue button-down dress shirt paired with navy slacks that fit him perfectly. He looks incredible, and I am speechless for just a moment, standing in my doorway.

“We make quite the handsome pair,” I say as he leans in for a kiss.

“We do,” he says, “but that sweater,” he gives me a low chuckle, “I am going to have a hard time focusing on anyone but you.”

“As it should be,” I say, narrowing my eyes. With that he takes my hand and we head out into the evening together. “I hope you are not nervous.”

“Maybe a little,” he gives me a small smile. “I do wonder how grueling the Q&A is going to be.” I squeeze his hand before dropping it to get into the car.

“They are going to love you.” Mark has met my daughters on occasion when they were young, but it has been quite some time since he has seen any of them. Maybe not since Eli’s funeral. I elect not to dwell on that for now.

When we arrive at Gavi and David’s, the grandchildren are lined up in formation, like the reception committee at a wedding, and I beam at them when I see that they each have a ‘Hello, My Name is’ sticker with each of their names neatly printed on them, including my baby grandson, Yonah. When Mark thought he would have a hard time taking his attention from me, he did not take into account the willpower of my darling granddaughters.

Rachel Regina steps forward first and hands Mark a pictorial chart of everyone in the family with their names written underneath their pictures.

“This is so you can keep from getting confused because we all have shared names.” She looks so somber while reviewing the document with him that I struggle against the urge to laugh. Hannah Batya, the younger of Gavi and David’s twins, who is usually quite shy, steps forward to take Mark by the hand and show him to the living room where she directs him to sit for formal introductions. As I head into the kitchen, I hear one of the twins say,

“We have snacks, but Eema says we cannot have them until you have some.” I look back to see that with that statement her twin sister has set about fixing Mark a plate, whether he wanted one or not. With a smile on my face, I leave Mark with the girls keeping him occupied while I bring the wine into the kitchen and see what I can do to help.

“Hello, my darling daughters, what can I do to help?”

“Hi, Eema, you can help by going and relaxing,” Gavi says as she comes over to give me a kiss on the cheek.

“You look very nice,” Kim adds while mixing something together in a bowl. It smells delicious in here and I must look like I am going to protest because Lila turns to me.

“Seriously, mom, not tonight. You get out of the kitchen.” She is physically shooing me back out the way I came.

“Go and sit with your boyfriend.” With a kiss on the cheek and a wink, Hannah completes the process of shoving me back into the living room.

I laugh to myself as I head back to sit with Mark, only to find that he has already been roped into a card game with Ariella. I fix myself some mezze on a plate and sit between Mark and a sleeping Yonah, who is currently snuggled in his car seat at the end of the sofa.

As I am biting into the delicious savories, Amalie arrives and joins us in the living room.

“Dr. PITA, I presume, or can I just call you Mark?” Amalie approaches him to shake his hand while Mark rises looking confused.

“Mark would be fine. But it is Levy, not Peeta. You must be Amalie? It is a pleasure to finally meet you.”

Amalie laughs as I blush furiously and shove half of a kebbe into my mouth while looking at my shoes. I can feel both of them looking at me, amused.

“She didn’t tell you? It is something of a pet name around these parts. Doctor Pain-In-the-Ass, if I am not mistaken.” At this Mark belly laughs in a way I had not quite seen before. I immediately want to find out how to elicit that laugh from him more often as it warms my heart with an intensity that I did not expect. When he recovers a bit, Mark and Amalie are both looking at me.

“Is that so? Rachel failed to mention this. I wonder what else she is keeping from me? In any case, it is a pleasure to meet you in person, finally.”

As they exchange pleasantries, David comes out to shake Mark’s hand and when he sits back down it is then I notice that Mark is wearing a kippah. Well then, I think. A moment later, Kimberly comes out and announces that dinner is ready and we all head to the table to figure out our places before we go to the washing station.

David looks between Mark and me and then, unsure, motions for me to make hamotzi. After exchanging a glance with Mark, I push the tray of bread over to him, and he performs the blessing without hesitation. He then proceeds to throw hunks of the bread around the table, which the children get the giggles over. Taking a piece in his mouth, he tells them earnestly, “That is my family tradition—bread throwing.” The children, of course, are delighted by this, and Gavi laughs.

Dinner is absolutely delicious. Gabriella and David are both excellent cooks and have outdone themselves with this meal. They are serving roast lamb, seared garlic, peas and julienned carrots, grilled asparagus with lemon, and roasted butternut squash with a honey glaze. As we are passing the food around and digging in, the interview portion of the evening commences.

“So, bread throwing? I have to know, where is your family from Mark?” David asks, placing lamb on a platter and passing it to his left.

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