I stepped up to her and wrapped her in a hug.
“What was that for?” she asked.
“It’s so good to have you here. I just wanted you to know that I love you, and I love that you worry about me. Thanks for being the best mom,” I said.
It seemed that her allergies were acting up. Ava’s too. At about that time, Brook came down. When the microwave dinged, she stole my food. I just took it in stride and made myself another plate. I must really love her to let her do that.
◊◊◊
For dinner, Mom and I cooked. They’d picked up fresh mahi-mahi and asparagus. Mom found a ginger glaze at the store, and we decided to try that.
Lexi and Manaia joined us for dinner. Hana had gone out on a date.
Dad broke out the wine. Mom and Ava had been trying different ones all afternoon, and they suggested a white. The dads had bought beer, so I had one with dinner.
It was nice to sit down as a family with friends. I’d missed this. It gave us a chance to catch up. Mom told me that one of the ladies at the daycare had taken the nanny job. No one could believe what Aaron had done to Coby and Duke.
It was almost like the news reports you saw where everyone claimed that the killer was always a nice guy. I certainly didn’t blame anyone, other than Aaron, for what happened. In some ways, I understood his frustration, but you never resorted to violence when a child that young or a dog as even-tempered as Duke was involved.
After dinner, Mom had a present for everyone. She’d brought a bottle of the rum I’d bought in Cuba and a box of cigars. I was surprised when Lexi and Brook joined my dad, Ian, and Manaia in smoking the cigars out on the patio. I smiled when my dad coached them on the proper technique. Paul had taught him when we were fishing in Canada.
Word must have gotten out that we were around the pool because the neighbors began to show up. At some point, we needed to get added to the call tree because we never seemed to get invited to parties at their houses.
Teresa and her mom came too. I think Lexi arranged this because Brook seemed to anticipate it. She made a beeline to Teresa, and the two girls went off to chat. That left me with Paulina, Teresa’s hot mom.
“I wanted to thank you for introducing my daughter to Trip James,” she said.
“They seemed to hit it off last night,” I said, trying to remain neutral.
“How do you know him?”
I explained that we’d been in
“I’m Paulina.”
“This is Ian, my girlfriend’s dad,” I said as an introduction.
Paulina looked at him thoughtfully. I decided that this needed to be nipped in the bud.
“Excuse us, please. I need to talk to Ian,” I said as I grabbed his elbow and pulled him into a corner.
“Dude, not cool,” I said.
“David, you will learn that it’s okay to look. My wife checks you out all the time.”
If he’d looked at Paulina any harder, she would have been having twins. That wasn’t your everyday ‘look.’
“I’m giving you fair warning. That one is trouble.”
You would think I was the adult, and he was the teenager. He gave me one of those ‘whatever’ expressions and walked away. Welp, not my circus, not my monkey. That was an old Polish saying that meant it wasn’t my problem. I’d tried to warn him.
◊◊◊
Brook and Teresa came back, and they seemed to be new best friends. I worried they were really frenemies. I watched as everyone got progressively drunker. Fortunately, Mom had rescued the rum and put it away for our personal consumption.
As it got later, I called it a night. I had to get up early in the morning for my J-drama.
◊◊◊ Sunday December 18
Mr. Otsuki had us all gathered for our weekly read-through of the script.
“This week’s first will be the first date. Haru and David’s characters will go to dinner and then a play. We’ve arranged to shoot during an actual stage play here at the university. They are putting on a modern-day rendition of
“Because of the change in schedule, we won’t be filming on Wednesday this week. We are losing David again, so we’ll try to get all his scenes in today and Saturday,” Mr. Otsuki explained.
“Where are you going?” Misaki asked.
“My movie,
