Page 61 of Leo
Bethany followed at a more leisurely pace, looking a bit dusty.I made a mental note to ask Vernon to do a more thorough job cleaning in the showroom.“You know,” she said with a sort of forced casualness that spoke loudly of nerves, “we don’t have to go tonight.It’s fine if we just say screw it and stay home, order pizza.”She shrugged.“NBD.”
Ambrose narrowed his eyes.“I didn’t get in this suit tonotgo see you perform, young lady.”
“Ugh.Am, it’s not a performance!I’m just reading a stupid poem I wrote!”Her cheeks were pink, though, and she had a tiny, infinitesimal really, smile at the corner of her lips.She was excited but nervous and, if she was anything like I’d been as a teenager, hoping to hide it under a thick layer of dismissive bravado.
“And I’m wearing a stupid suit,” Ambrose rejoined, both of them glaring at one another.
“Okay then!Edward, shoes.Bethany, you’ve got dust in your plait.Ambrose…” I grabbed him by the shoulders and kissed him soundly.Bethany made a mildly disgustedewsound and Edward snorted around hip-level.
“It’s just kissing,” he chided Bethany.“Did you know your mouth is where digestion starts, not your stomach?”
Bethany rolled her eyes.“Did you know your anus has taste buds?”
Edward’s eyes lit up.“Seriously?”
“No!”Edward turned a wounded glare up at me.“I mean.”I sighed.“We’re not going to get into that right now, okay?When we get back tonight, I’ll find you some good resources to learn more.But you,” I tapped him lightly on the nose, “are not to google a da—er, a single thing on your own.And you,” I turned to a smirking Bethany.“How did you even know that?”
She shrugged.“I read.C’mon, Edward.Race me to the car.I bet I know more about intestines than you do.”
Ambrose followed them to the doors, watching as they ran (well, Edward ran, Bethany tiptoe jogged so he’d win) to the car, then stood aside as I locked up the front of the funeral home.“You know,” he said thoughtfully, “if she really doesn’t want to do this, having a night in sounds like a great idea to me.”
I glanced over at the car to see Bethany securing Edward in his booster seat as she settled in the back next to him, neither looking our way.Pulling Ambrose in for another kiss-this time softer, longer—I added when we broke for breath, “How about we have our own night in after they’re in bed later?”
There went that damn brow of his.“We’d have to be really quiet…”
Batting faux-innocent eyes at him, I affected confusion.“I just meant we can order a pizza and watch a movie on our own… What do you think I meant?”
“Just for that,” he grumped, though his lips were fighting a smile as he twisted out of my grasp, “I’m taking you up on it.And I get to pick the movie.”
* * *
“Mr.Morris!Mr.Jennings!”
“Leo’s fine, Cynthia,” I said, smiling as the new head of the chamber of commerce made a beeline our way.“How’re you doing?”
“Fantastic.”She shook my hand, then Ambrose.“And this is Edward?”
Edward raised a brow in an eerie imitation of Ambrose.“Who else would I be?”
Her eyes crinkled in amusement.“Definitely Leo’s son.”She laughed.“Thank you all for coming tonight.Bethany’s poem was beautiful.She’s a very gifted writer.”
Ambrose’s grin was epic.“She gets it from our mom.She was an amazing poet.”
We exchanged a few more pleasantries with Cynthia before she flitted off to the next person she wanted to greet and made our way to where Bethany stood by the stage, talking to a cluster of kids who looked about her age.“Hey, you ready to head home?”
“Can I please stay out longer?”she asked, bouncing on her heels.“Some of the kids from writing class are going to Firey’s for pizza and they asked if I could go.”
Ambrose took in the assembled teenagers all trying to look cool, look older than their years.“Have your phone on you?Charged?”
Bethany nodded fervently, then remembered she was trying to play cool and shrugged.“Yeah, in my bag.”She darted me a glance, and I knew she remembered our heart to heart the night I caught her sneaking out.“I’ll call if I need to,” she added in a near-whisper.“Please?Can I go?”
Ambrose nodded.“Call me if you need a ride.I don’t care what time it is.”
She rolled her eyes.“Geezum crow,” she muttered.“Come on, let’s go.”
Her loose cluster of friends slouched toward the door, all of them trying to affect casual cool but losing the vibe entirely when one of them said something that made the others giggle, and they were a knot of laughing teenagers spilling out into the night, ditching the too cool for school thing entirely.
Edward tugged on my pant leg.“She didn’t tell me bye!”He frowned.“That was rude!I always tell her bye!”
