Page 30 of Ten Years and Then…
He laughed. “My father told me once, a gentleman always walks behind a woman going up stairs like these.”
“Why?” He could picture her eyes rolling as she asked the question.
“So you’ll feel me behind you, to help support you. And so if you fall anyway, you’ll land on me instead of the concrete.”
She burst into giggles. “You’re kidding.”
He had to laugh, too. “No. That’s what he said.”
“Well, it is kind of chivalrous,” she said once they got up to street level. “Gruesome, but chivalrous.” Then he did take her hand. “Speaking of gruesome, what exactly am I walking into?”
He told her, leaving nothing out except for his momentary insane thought about babies. As he said it, he had to admit that everything would have gone better if he’d told his parents about Nora before he got home.
Or well before that.
Maybe not after the first date, but definitely after the second. Not telling them made it seem like he knew she was hurting his grades and he was lying to them by omission.
She hesitated for a moment when he finished. Then she asked, very quietly, “Did I distract you? Did you get worse grades because of me?”
No! Absolutely not.
Probably not.
“Well, I guess if I’d had another few hours to study for my Discrete Mathematics final, I might have gotten an A instead of a B.”
She was silent for a couple of minutes. “But you made my gift instead.”
“That was more important.”
She stopped right in the middle of the sidewalk. “You really mean that, don’t you?”
“Yeah. Of course.” He willed her to believe it, but that wasn’t necessary. She didn’t just believe it—she knew it. “But maybe let’s not tell my father about that.”
Nora, fifteen minutes later
Nora’s first impression of Daniel’s house was that it felt comfortable. Like it was a good place—a safe place—for a kid to grow up in.
She’d never lived anywhere that felt that way. Even staying with Rachel never felt that way, because she knew it was always temporary and before long she’d have to go back to her parents and their endless sniping at each other.
Her first impression of his parents was less comforting. Daniel was holding her hand when they walked in the front door, and she saw the flash of—suspicion? Anger?—on his father’s face, gone as quickly as it appeared, replaced by a smile that barely made it halfway to his eyes. And then Daniel’s mother ran over to her and hugged her, which was definitely better than suspicion or anger, but not what she’d been expecting, either.
“Nora, it’s so nice to meet you. Here, take off your coat, come into the living room. Tony will get the fire going, that’ll warm you right up.” His mother gave her an approving nod when she saw what Nora was wearing: a dark blue blouse and a skirt down to nearly to her ankles, both borrowed from Rachel’s closet. Neither was really her style, and the blouse was half a size too big, but she’d been right that demure was totally the way to go.
She proceeded into the living room, where there indeed was a fireplace, with family photos atop the mantel. While Daniel’s father worked on getting the fire started, Nora peered at the photos.
There was a black and white picture, faded with age. A wedding photo, probably of Daniel’s grandparents, but she couldn’t guess whether they were maternal or paternal. Next to it was another wedding photo—his parents. She leaned in to examine it more closely. A thought came immediately into her head, and she squashed it just as quickly: Wow, you used to be hot, Mr. Keller!
Maybe she’d tell Daniel about that later. Or maybe she’d take that particular thought to her grave. But there was no denying the fact that his father had been very handsome.
The photo was sad, though, the more she looked at it. His parents weren’t really looking at each other, and neither of them looked as happy as people were supposed to at their wedding.
And then there was a photo of Daniel, probably four or five years old, with a little girl who looked to be seven or eight. She had to be his sister. They were splashing around together in a swimming pool.
“Yeah,” Daniel said, when he saw what she was looking at. “Cute picture, right? Nobody took a picture of her holding me underwater five minutes later.” But he said it with a laugh, and she heard the warmth there, too. She already knew how much he cared about his sister, even if he’d never admit it directly. His story about her back on Halloween said everything that needed to be said.
“That was fifteen years ago, Daniel,” his mother said. “I think you can let it go already.” She was laughing, too. Even his father chuckled.
“There!” The fireplace was crackling with a small, but growing fire. Nora clapped in approval.
