Page 69 of The Dreidl Disaster

“He said besmirch!” Abe. Dammit. “He absolutely said besmirch, which means…”

Batya nodded and he consigned them both to applesauce. “So when is she coming to dinner?”

“You’ve already fed her,” he said, knowing the words were flimsy and…well…slightly ridiculous. “I mean…”

“Yeah no,” said Abe. “Here is different from the love fest you had back there in my sukkah, and whatever you did to make a bris on Jacob’s Briarwood house. This is real, true dinner. In Rivertown. Tuesday night, full group,herewhere she is expected toparticipateand eat.”

And technically really meet the people whom he considered family. But she wasn’t ready for this group at full throttle. “No. Not happening.”

Leo raised an eyebrow. “I directed cars in a vest that looks like a highlighter so that you could have your love fest, not to mention the fist fight I almost got into with Frank Maricelli in the middle of Briarwood. My reputation deserves protection, which meansthe very leastyou can do is get her to one of these.”

And having clearly no other choice, considering once Leo got a hold of something, the man wouldn’t stop, Artur nodded.

“Okay. I’ll see what her schedule looks like.”

*

That night, Livand Artur were going over the projected list of story times and readers for the dreidl stage. But other information was spinning around in her head.

Was it too early to ask him to Shabbat dinner?

“You’re distracted,” he said, looking into her eyes. “What’s going on?”

The way he was looking at her made her think he had something on his mind. “I could say the same.”

He sighed, took a long drink from his glass. “I guess I have a question?”

She nodded. “Go ahead,” she asked. “Ask me.”

She watched the emotions play across his face, watched the storm gather. What did he want to know?

“Do you want to…go to a Tuesday night dinner at Abe’s?”

His question was deceptively light but she knew how important it was; talking with Anna at the planning meeting was beneficial in that regard. This was as important as a family dinner. “Sure,” she said with a grin.

“Just like that?”

She nodded. “Just like that. It’s important to you.”

The smile on his face was perfect. “But you wanted to ask me something?”

“Yeah,” she said. The goal was to keep it cool, make it easy. “I take it it’s not too early for you to consider Shabbat dinner at my parents’ place?”

He laughed, but the laugh was nervous. “Uh, maybe I…”

“No,” she said, realizing she’d asked too much of him at this point in their…understanding of each other. “It’s fine. I’ll tell them you’re too busy, and then kill my cousins.”

“Your cousins?”

“Could be Leah, who was at last night’s event with her boyfriend.”

“The agent and the guy who’s running the dreidl giveaway?”

“That’s them,” she said with a smile.

“Plausible,” he said. “But not who I’d put my money on spilling the beans.”

She laughed; this was the fixer doing his best to calm the situation And the fact she knew him well enough to know his moods at this point…

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