Lex and Lu(52)
“She’s tough, Lu,” he said glumly.
Looking for a change of topic, Lu went back to his internship. “So what hospitals are you looking at?”
“Not so fast. Tell me about your dissertation. Done?”
“I am,” she said, smiling widely. “Submitted and accepted. Degree conferred in December.”
“And work?”
“Slow. It’s hard without having a pro team nearby. After I graduate, I’ll probably have to do some traveling back. The team has been calling for consultations. Technology is an amazing thing. We’ve been Skyping, so I’ve managed to keep working.”
“Lu, have you considered trying to work with one of the soccer teams over here?” Pete asked, a question he’d been hanging on to so that he could ask in person.
She looked stricken. “Absolutely not. Not a line I’m crossing. The last thing I need to do is try to get into Lex’s world.”
“Sweetie, you are amazing at what you do. You had teams clamoring to get you to work with their athletes. Don’t you think the English would snap you up if they knew you were here and available?”
“Discussion over, Pete,” she snapped at him.
“Fine.” Taking another sip of his drink, he stopped when he heard the door open.
Nina walked in first. Turning toward the kitchen she let out a scream of excitement. “Uncle Pete!” Running across the room, she threw herself into his arms.
Preoccupied with twirling Nina around, he didn’t notice Willa follow her in.
But Willa saw Pete. “What the fuck are you up to, Lu?” she said accusingly.
“Language, Willa!” Lu yelled, as Pete turned around to face her.
Dumbstruck at Lu’s conniving, “Hey, Will,” was all he could manage.
22
Seething at her sister but ever conscious of her niece watching the exchange, Willa tamped it down and headed to get herself a drink. Nina filled the awkward silence with a running commentary on the shopping she had done with her aunt. When she paused to take a breath, Pete managed to slip in a question and send her off in another direction.
“How’s school, Bit?”
“Good. It’s different.”
“Do you miss your friends?”
A small frown formed on her face.
“Way to go for the jugular,” Willa muttered from her place across the kitchen.
Pete glared at her. Lu jumped into the uncomfortable silence. “Dinner’s almost ready. Nina, why don’t you tell them what you can do with my phone.”
At this, Nina smiled big. “I FaceTime with my friends at home. It’s really cool. We can see each other and everything.”
“Ah,” Pete managed. “How come we don’t get to FaceTime?”
“Mommy says you’re too busy with school and you have an antique phone.”
“Antiquated,” Lu corrected.
“Antiquated,” Nina mimicked.
“Only nine-year-old in the world to use that word,” Willa muttered again.
“True,” he acknowledged, while shooting Willa a death look. “What about your grandparents? Are you getting them to FaceTime with you?”
“No,” she said. “We Skype with them.”
“Wow, you know more about all this stuff than I do.”
“Well, you’re cutting up dead people so you can be a doctor, Uncle Pete.”
They all laughed. Pete looked at Lu with a baleful glare.
“Sorry,” she said, unapologetically. “When we don’t talk to you for a couple of weeks, that explanation always seems to make her feel better.”
“Great. You’re teaching her to be morbid.”
“Whatever works!” Lu replied saucily.
Pete rolled his eyes. Lu smiled sweetly at him and shoved the turkey into his hands. “Put this on the table, please.” Doling out dishes for everyone to take to the table kept the tension to a minimum. Lu grabbed another bottle of wine for the table and refilled Pete’s glass with Scotch, hoping the alcohol would keep things from getting too tense, although she knew the chances of that were slim to none. Willa couldn’t pretend if her life depended on it. And Lu thought she may have misjudged how truly hurt Willa had been as she took note of the rage emanating off of her.
Rather than put Pete and Willa next to each other, Lu put them across from each other, hoping that Nina and she could provide some buffering. Pete couldn’t do mad, but he did hurt pretty well. Lu could tell that Willa’s anger was killing him. Lu tried hard to keep the conversation moving, but the tension continued to mount. Somehow they made it through dinner. Lu sent Nina off to shower and forced Willa to do the dishes so she could have a few more minutes with Pete. Pulling him over to the couch, they sat down to chat.