Avi didn’t answer, his jaw set in grim determination. He took a sharp left out of the lot. Too sharp, too fast, too —
Thunk-thunk.Bertha lurched as the front tires rolled directly over a row of bright yellow tire spikes marked with a warning:DO NOT EXIT.ENTRANCE ONLY. DO NOT BACK UP. Both of them froze as the unmistakable hiss of air escaping the punctured tires filled the car.
Leah’s mouth fell open. “You didnot,” she whispered, her voice a mix of disbelief and fury.
Avi’s hands gripped the steering wheel, and he let out a strangled groan. “Oh,come on!” he yelled as if the universemight undo what just happened. He banged his forehead lightly against the wheel. “This cannot be happening.”
Leah’s shock melted into something hotter, more acidic. “You punctured my tires,” she said, her voice shaking. “Plural! Because you were too busy pulling aFast and Furiousmove to run from apark ranger. Who,” — she pointed, as the blue lights receded — “Is going a different way!”
Avi threw his hands up. “I panicked! And you were yelling about the ring…”
“Because youtold me to shut up about it!”
The car sat there, lopsided and wheezing from its injured front tires, while the park ranger’s siren echoed in the distance. Avi glanced over at Leah, his face a complicated mix of guilt and something else she couldn’t quite read.
“I’ll fix this,” he said, his voice quieter now, “I promise.”
Avi rummaged in the trunk’s emergency kit, extracting two road flares. She watched from her seat as he popped each lid, then twisted the caps before striking the ignitor buttons against them and setting them out where there’d be a prayer of someone seeing them.
They were hanging halfway out of a parking lot entrance onto a dark, winding street in the middle of a state park that was deserted in the off-season. With an impending storm coming their way.
“Tonight’s the first night of Hanukkah,” he murmured as they watched the flares live their best life of twenty minutes on Earth.
“Thank you, Captain Obvious.”
“This may be the closest we get to lighting candles tonight.”
Leah growled. “I’m not about to sayBaruch atah, Adonaiover roadside flares.”
Avi was rubbing something in his hands like it was a genie’s lamp. It was a worn leather wallet from which he extracted a card.
“Can I borrow your phone?”
“You have Triple-A?”
“Tobinhas Triple-A,” he corrected. “Andwehave really great catering.” He lifted the bag from the venue that had been chilling in the back seat. “Believe me when I say, beef on weck makes everything a little better.”
Avi wasn’t lying. Something about a soft roll, sinfully crusted with salt and seeds on top, soaking upau jusfrom tender meat and melting in her mouth. A dollop of horseradish on it, washed down with the cool Canadian beer, provided just the right zing as they waited for the tow truck, estimated to arrive within the hour.
The hour felt like midnight at that point, but it was only six-thirty. Technically dinner time. Avi poked his head back into the bag. “Chips, salsa, crudité…too bad they didn’t pack dessert.”
Without a word, Leah reached into the back seat.
“I knew it!” Avi crowed.
“One piece,” she warned. Mrs. Ackerman’s rugelach wasthatgood, and now that she knew Avi’s weakness for the pastry, she’d have to be a strict gatekeeper.
His eyes widened at the sight before him. Each one he reached for looked plumper and more sugar-studded than the one before it, but he finally settled on choosing one from the tin she held. Those Grammy-winning fingers held the piece up to inspect it in the glow of the map light.
“All thathazarai,” he praised, and Leah was pretty proud of how she had, indeed, managed to stuff the dough full of rich chocolate and walnuts – all the sinful junk – and still keep its pinwheel intact.
One bite and the noise he made had Leah crossing her legs. One of Avi’s pleasure buttons had clearly been activated. And it wasthatgood.
“Cream cheese,” she offered up happily. “It makes all the difference.”
“Girl,” he managed around a mouthful, “if you’re holding onto another one of Mrs. Horowitz’s recipes, imma steal it in your sleep.”
“Nope, this one’s Mrs. Ackerman’s. And it’s all in my head. She’s been making me practice for three months now. For her grandson.The doctor.”
