Page 83 of The Dreidl Disaster

Of course, Jacob was waiting outside when he got in, directing him up toward the garage he’d parked his cars in. “Good,” Jacob said. “This way.”

Artur followed his friend through the hallway toward the second garage space.

“This should work, right?”

Artur nodded as Jacob opened the door. Tools were all set up on a workbench. The dreidl, or at least the box containing the pieces of the dreidl, was on the center of the floor.

“This will work.” It had to.

But he didn’t think about alternatives now; he began to pace the length of the workbench as he waited for help to arrive.

“I don’t know who you called,” Jacob said, “but they’ll be here.”

“Don’t know what the roads are like,” Artur said. “Westchester County roads are inconsistent, especially on route nine in Rivertown, and I’m not sure how well Abe drives in snow.”

Because Abe had volunteered to pick Isaac up in Hollowville on the way to Briarwood.

That was friendship, Artur knew.

“You want me to go and get him?”

“Uh…”

“I’ve got a thing in the other garage,” Jacob continued, in a tone that meant he was serious. “So, I could.”

“I’m guessing,” Artur replied with a laugh, “that your thing is large and weird and British?”

“You’d be right,” Jacob said. “And horrifying, if I say myself, but it works in snow.”

Artur shook his head. “No. It’s not just Abe who’s coming,” he clarified. “You probably don’t want to drive Isaac in save-the-day mode.”

“Last time I drove him anywhere was to the latke fry-off,” he replied. “Ixnay on the drivingperiodwith him after that.”

Artur shuddered. “That must have been an experience. I only caught the arrival. So.”

“What do you mean by ‘save-the-day mode’?”

Right. Artur hadn’t been this loose with his tongue around Jacob before. Which meant he needed to translate. “Isaac is coming to fix the dreidl and Abe is driving him.”

“That I know. But what about Isaac’s being in some kind of…mode?”

“The longer he seems to mull the idea of fixing the dreidl, the more convinced he becomes that it’s fated and that he can make a miracle out of this whole,” he waved his hand, “fakakta disaster.”

Jacob nodded as the translation did what it was supposed to. Because apparently he was only comprehensible in this box of cool collected ass with a sword for Jacob.

Boxes. He hated being put into boxes. Despised it.

And that was exactly what he did to Liv. He could have taken other ways to make this better, but he didn’t.

He threw his head back, sighed, and hoped he could figure out how to fix things with Liv.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

The benefit ofStars and Icing over Cupcake Stop was that on most days, behind a Stars and Icing countertop wasn’t someone who wanted to talk Liv’s ear off.

People were pleasant, of course, but there was a motion about Stars and Icing. People were there for a reason and then went. As opposed to Cupcake Stop where people literally stopped.

Which meant it was a rare joy for her to sit down by the window in Stars and Icing and not talk to a soul.

---