They waited a few minutes, then Alejo said, “I’ll go check on her.” He left.
Sam said a little thickly, “Can I tell her I’m okay? I want to ask her to show me her secret animal. I only saw it on the phone, and it wasso cool.”
Wendy bit her lip. “Let’s ask Alejo first, okay? It might be considered rude to ask people to shift if they aren’t ready to. Especially someone who just got here after a long plane flight, and who has to communicate in another language.”
“Oh.”
Alejo was soon back. “Knocked and knocked. Got no answer. She might be in the shower. In any case, I don’t think I ought to barge in there.”
Wendy agreed. “She knows where we are.”
Alejo looked worried. Over the mate connection, he thought:What if she doesn’t come out?
Wendy’s heartbeat thumped, then she took a deep breath and calmed herself.She’s a teenager. She’ll get hungry, sooner than later. Let’s make it easy for her. I’ll leave a meal out.
Alejo dipped his chin in a nod. It was clear he was accepting Wendy as the expert on kids. He looked a little worried as he said, “I did promise to contact Roxane as soon as she was safely here. I should have done that before.”
“Text her,” Wendy suggested. “Unless she calls to ask, don’t say any more than you have to, because there isn’t anything she can do from so far away. Let’s keep her stress low, if we can.”
“Good thinking. I’ll do that now.” He pulled out his phone, tapped out the message, and they all heard it whir away. Then he picked up his fork. “Now, unless there is another emergency, as a man I feel it incumbent upon me to do justice to this excellent meal.”
Wendy’s heart squeezed with laughter and love when she saw Sam pick up his fork in exactly the same manner as he whispered soundlessly,incumbent.
My men, she thought happily as she, too, resumed eating. For the rest of the meal, they discussed local sights to show Oriane. Wendy reveled in the way Alejo included Sam in the conversation, and in the most natural way. “You’re a kid. What would you want to do, after we show her the beach and the rest?”
Sam’s ideas were very much Sam-oriented—visiting the comic book store first, then explore the garden—but Alejo accepted his suggestions, and as they ate their slice of pie, Alejo said, “Roxane wants her enrolled right away in a local school. She sent along enough paperwork to register a small planet, but I’m wondering if we ought to let Oriane get over jet lag, at least. I did suggest we contact a school, and got no answer at all. Maybe she needs time to get adjusted to the language?”
“That sounds good,” Wendy said cautiously, aware that this was not her child. She was afraid to be too interfering.
“Maybe...” Sam began.
Alejo turned to him. “Have you an idea, Sam? Go ahead, shoot it out!”
“…Teach her to fly?” Sam said.
Alejo rubbed his hands. “You know what? That’s the best idea of them all.”
“It is?” Sam asked, his eyes round as marbles.
“Most definitely,” Alejo said. He held up his hand for a high-five.
Sam smacked Alejo’s hand, his face beaming with pride.
On that promising note, as Oriane still had not come out, Wendy dished up a meal for her to find in case she got hungry. Alejo cleared the table—Wendy noted that Sam rushed to help him—as Wendy added a slice of pie, covered it, and left the plate on the counter in front of the microwave. She got out a post-it, then hesitated. English? French? What would the French be for “This is for you.” Ce-la? Ce-ci?Cuisinewasfood, that much she remembered, or was that the word for cook? And was that le or la? Finally she just wrote, ORIANE on the note, put it atop the wrapped food, and then tidied away the leftovers.
By the time Sam had finished his nighttime routine, Oriane still hadn’t come out, so they sat down to the TV, and Alejo said, “What do you recommend, Sam? I like anything, especially funny things with action.”
Sam named his old favorite,Kiki’s Delivery Service, and they watched that, then Sam went off to bed.
“Uh, where should we sleep?” Wendy asked.
Alejo grinned. “Afraid we might scare her off with our love noises?”
Wendy blushed—but didn’t deny it. “You do share a wall with her guest room.” She made a daring suggestion. “Why don’t we sleep in my room?”
No snide comeback about “pushy” women, or men’s needs. “Great idea,” he said. “Let me grab my stuff.”
SEVENTEEN
