“Ixnay on the alcohol and the drunken confessions, hm?”Leah whispered.“But yes.I think this game is over.”
And in the care of her sister and her cousins, Naomi went to bed and tried not to dream of horrible choices.
*
Jason found standingin front of a grill near Lake Michigan in the early morning calming.He wasn’t in charge of food, but when all he had to do was turn a few things, he could let his brain just go.
He didn’t have to think; he’d barbecued and cooked for so long that he could do it in his sleep.
“So, what the hell is going on with you?”
Lev.Of course.
“Really?”
“Occupational hazard,” Lev said with a laugh.“But did you want Ash or Samuel or Artur out here with you, nudging?”
He focused on the grill and the breakfast he was making.
“I thought not,” he replied.“Best of all your options is me.Your brother is sleeping, and you’ve been glued to his side all weekend.It’s time for someone to ask questions before someone else demands the answers.”
Of course.
He was stuck for this wedding, and he’d suck it up somehow.
Lev said, “What seems to be the trouble?”
“You know how, when you think you know someone and then in a split second, something happens, and you realize you never knew them at all?”
Lev nodded.“Interesting,” he said.“Very interesting.And by someone you mean…”
“Hypotheticals, Rabbi Lev,” Jason replied.“Hypotheticals over grilled breakfast, unless you want me to burn the food, and then I get in trouble, and then my already crappy reputation gets ruined worse.”
Lev, the man with a face of stone, nodded again.“I see.Although because you’re giving me hypotheticals before coffee, you run the risk of me forgetting that I’m supposed to just listen and instead start asking you weird questions about what you say.Like you think someone ruined your reputation, and that’s why you’ve been walking around like a hurt, angry puppy for the last few days?”
He didn’t say anything.Not a word.He didn’t want to encourage the man.
“I’m reminding you,” Lev continued, “that I’m the first line of defense against anybody you might think would want to…shall we say, cause trouble as a result of what you’re telling me?”
“Look,” Jason said.“I’m fulfilling my obligations.Doing what I need to.Then it seems I need to replan some of my life choices.”
“Replanning your life choices?”
He nodded.“I need to talk to my brother about business.”
“Fair enough,” Lev said.“Although weren’t you all excited about a business opportunity?”
“Here’s a tip,” Jason said.“And it comes for free, because I know you’re looking for information.Don’t tie yourself to someone too tightly until you’re sure.Because if a relationship or anything, really, seems too easy, then it most likely probably is.”
Lev shuddered.“Well,” he said.“When you’re ready, we should talk before anybody else gets the idea that conversations need to be had.”
“Thanks,” he said.“I’ll think about what needs to be discussed when the time comes.”
“Or someone else comes knocking.”
Which, he knew, was an inevitability.All he had to do was hope he could get ahead of the storm.
*
