Page 53 of The Sky in Summer
The fifteen minute wait outside the Big Sky apartments didn’t surprise. Layla is only late when the twins are involved, so I blame them. Besides, I had fifteen minutes worth of calls and texts to get done. The renovations of the apartment in Paris are nearly completed. Whoop dee do.
Here they come.
David leads the way, with Tyler and Layla bringing up the rear. I unlock the doors and turn down the music. Three doors open.
“Game night!” I call.
“I love it,” Layla says, sliding in the front seat. “Hi!”
Normally we would make out our greeting, or touch each other’s privates like blind people reading Braille. Not tonight. She sends me a secretI want to fuck youwith her eyes.
The boys take the backseat.
“Hey,” David says, condensing the greeting to one syllable. Sounds like me.
“You guys ready?”
“What kind of games are we playing? Cards?” Tyler asks.
“I told you,” David jumps in. “Sam said they make up their own games.”
In the rearview mirror I see David’s eye roll to his brother. Pulling away from the curb, we head for Parish and Scarlett’s house.
“The Lyon’s game nights have been going on since we were kids. I mean, there were a few years we skipped. But give or take, it has been happening for decades.”
“It’s exciting!” Layla says. “I’m actually a pretty good game player.”
That brings laughter from her boys.
“What?” she says, turning toward the backseat. “I am.” She looks at me with a straight face. “I won the Kindergarten Olympics.”
“That was a hundred years ago,” David says.
Only she and I know the full story.
“I hate to break it to you Mom, but you are bad at cards. And last time we played Monopoly, you lost all your properties,” Tyler says, making his brother chuckle.
“Monopoly? You mean when you were ten? I was letting you win.”
“Ten? It was a few years ago at the most.”
Layla looks at me. “I am actually a really good game player.”
“I believe you, Peaches.”
Oops. That snuck out.
“Peaches?” David says as if he tastes something bad. Our eyes meet in the mirror.
“She brought a peach to school every day,” I say immediately, realizing the gaping hole in my lie.
“They aren’t in season then.”
Fucking smartass kids. They call you on everything at this age. Teddy and Sam do it, and I remember doing it with my siblings. It is the circle of life thing.
“You know we use emojis, right?” David says, making his point clear.
Tyler chuckles with his brother’s genius.
