Page 21 of Hold My Heart

Harlan’s older brother Gil clapped a hand on the other man’s shoulder. “He’s a good catch. He’s tall.”

“You know who else was tall...” Aunt Philly began. “My Herbert. And John Wayne. He was very tall. I met him once, you know.”

Olympia needed an escape. Quick. The hem of her shirt was starting to fray from tugging on it and she was pretty sure she’d broken into a sweat. Glancing over, she saw the baby in an old-fashioned wooden high chair, elbow deep in corn and mashed potatoes.

“I’m going to go take Renee to wash her hands,” she stated suddenly, pushing out of her chair. “When I come back I expect the smiles to be wiped off your faces.”

The demand, as expected, had everyone bursting into another round of uproarious laughter. She and the little girl found the powder room quickly and Olympia helped Renee up to the sink for the soap. Her reflection in the oval mirror caught her eye and for a moment she stopped. Captured by what she saw there.

The woman staring back at her had hair tousled around her face in carefree waves. Her eyes were a warm chestnut-brown, a little tired, but exuberant and cheerful. Her mouth was curved in a natural smile she hadn’t seen there in a long time.

Renee announced the completion of her chore by splashing water into her face. Instead of scolding, the immediate reaction she wanted to reach for, Olympia chuckled.

When they returned from the powder room, Reggie was in the middle of a story, his hands flapping around his head and his words flying out faster than his lips could form them. “She was gonna leave me at Coney Island! Tried to get rid of me, sending me off on some kind of wild goose chase for a certain flavor of sno-cone she said she had to have. But I was no fool. I knew the real reason she wanted me gone was so she could flirt with the funnel cake vendor near the Ferris wheel, by God. Now don’t deny it,” he insisted when Evelyn waved away his assumption. “I knew you were sweet on Biff. Anyway, much to her surprise, I found the damn near impossible to find sno-cone flavor and got back before she had a chance to leave with her shyster.”

Evelyn tsked. “He wasn’t a shyster, dear, he was an old friend from school.”

“Hewasa shyster, and a damn good one too. Used to buy oil second-hand from the french fries kiosk just to save money on his funnel cakes. And he kept separate shakers of powdered sugar, one for the public that had plain flour mixed with the sugar, and another one without the flour mixed in and that’s the one he used to dust Evie’s funnel cake. He sold fake sugar to the public while he was trying to take my Evie away from me by courting her with extra powdered sugar!” Reggie got to his feet in an emphatic finish to his words.

“Reggie, enough!” Evelyn didn’t need to raise her voice. She slapped him across the wrist with the same spoon she’d used to serve the gravy. “Sit back down and finish your dinner. No one wants to hear those old stories again, especially when you can’t remember what actually happened. I never asked you for a sno-cone, but you insisted I had to try this new flavor you’d discovered, and off you went.”

“Oh now Evie, wait just a minute, that’s not—”

Bea bent low toward Olympia so she wouldn’t be overheard. “You know what else Dad collects?” Her smile was wide and a little crazy around the edges. “Hats. All kinds of hats in styles you’ve never even heard of. He goes to thrift stores and buys every one he can find. He must have hundreds. It’s ridiculous.”

The two adults continued to bicker good-naturedly. Olympia turned frantic eyes to Harlan, expecting him to save her from the rapidly rising voices in the room.

His eyes, however, were focused on a figure walking in the door. “Aunt Karen, there you are.”

Another addition to the chaos. Olympia turned around in her seat to see a hobbled old woman limping into the room with a bandage over her left eye.

Olympia was about to open her mouth when she felt his hand clasp hers. “Don’t get her started,” Harlan warned in a stage whisper. “She’s a dear but a bit of a hypochondriac. She’ll talk to you non-stop about gout, goiters, and all kinds of things you want to know nothing about, trust me.”

Karen made her way to an empty seat near the opposite end of the table, greeted with a fresh plate of food. At the same time, Gil and Brett, the middle brother, got into a mock scrape over the last bit of corn, each jostling the other for control of the bowl until Evelyn asserted her authority and took it away from both of them.

“This is not the type of environment I want Renee around,” Olympia confessed to Harlan. When she glanced over to the little girl, seated between Beatrix and Diane, her mouth was round with laughter even as she stuffed it with meatloaf.

“It won’t hurt her. It’s socialization,” Harlan responded, his gaze locked on hers. “Look at me. This is a normal dinner for me and I turned out well enough.”

“Thatremains to be seen.”

“I’ve had enough of you complaining about this so-called fake sugar,” Evelyn was saying. “You accused him of that without any proof. Biff Batson was a good man and a good friend to me. There was nothing more between us, how many times do I have to say it! He wasn’t trying to do anything but escort me to my car when I thought you had left me there. Reggie, it was all your own fault—”

“Oh, so it was my fault, was it? You were sweet on each other, Evie. I know what I’m talking about. You probably wish you’d married good ol’ Biff instead of me. And you two!” He suddenly grabbed Gil’s wrist. “I have had it up to here with your arguing. If you can’t control yourselves for dinner, and especially in front of our guest, then you both need to cool down,” Reggie bellowed. He pushed to his feet again and threw himself in front of his two adult sons, taking them by the tips of their ears when they would not quit their scuffling.

Harlan smiled wickedly. “You’re going to want to see this.”

“What am I going to want to see?” Olympia asked, confused.

And there was his hand on hers, pulling her outside. She spared a moment to grab Renee from her seat again, like a round of musical highchairs. It seemed like the dining room emptied in a matter of seconds, everyone following Reggie and his boys down a short hallway, into an empty den, and out the sliding glass doors toward the patio. And the pool.

He promptly threw them both in the water. More like they anticipated the throw and helped themselves, the younger one twisting so that he did a cannonball into the water instead.

Harlan whooped at the action, standing next to Olympia with eyes glued to the water.

Laughter flowed around them again and it was hard not to feel herself being sucked in by the sheer joy of the occasion.

“Now behave, the both of you, or I’ll castrate you with one of my collectible spoons,” Reggie warned. Everyone knew the threat was empty.

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