Jennifer nodded again.
“So, does it seem like a good idea to you?”
“Melinda Bergman would sure be surprised.”
“She will,” Crystal agreed with a smile, just as Larry and David appeared.
“So, tell me,” said Larry. “Which is the coolest phone here?”
Jennifer’s shoulders squared, and her chest puffed out ever so slightly. She pointed to the slim black phone with the touch screen.
“Excellent taste,” said Larry, lifting it up.
Crystal silently and sarcastically thanked him very much on behalf of her credit card provider. It was going to take her a few months to pay the darn thing off. Still, if it meant Jennifer would keep it charged and with her, it was worth it. You couldn’t put a price on safety.
“The LG-Quantum it is,” said Larry, flagging down a sales clerk.
Before Crystal knew what was happening, Larry had handed over his credit card.
“Oh, no, you don’t,” she muttered to him, following one clerk toward the cash register, while another walked Jennifer to a demonstration counter to go over the phone instructions.
“You said I could,” Larry countered, putting an arm around her shoulders to slow her down.
“I did not.”
“You said I couldn’t spend money on you unless we were dating.”
“That’s ridicu-”
“Well, we’re dating now.” His voice went lower. “By any benchmark, we are totally dating.”
“I never said you could spend money on my niece.”
“The phone’s not for your niece. It’s for you. To give you piece of mind.”
“That’s the lamest, most convoluted-”
“Most logical argument you’ve ever heard.” He talked right overtop of her.
“Would you care for one of our prepaid plans?” asked the clerk.
“Yes,” said Larry.
“No,” said Crystal.
“There’s a fifteen percent discount on plans over twelve months.”
“Sounds good,” said Larry.
Crystal gritted her teeth. “I’m paying you back.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, good luck with that.”
“You are impossible.”
He nodded toward the kids. “Look.”
Jennifer stood with rapt attention, watching the phone demonstration. The clerk handed her the phone, letting her try something. Another phone, somewhere in the store, rang, and she grinned.
Then her phone made a chiming noise, followed by a screeching rock song.
“Pick that one,” said David.
Jennifer shook her head, while the ring switched to symphony music.
“Your card, sir,” said the sales clerk, and Crystal admitted defeat.
Jennifer had her phone. That was the important thing. And Crystal would figure out how to pay Larry back somehow.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
AFTER THEY PURCHASED THE phone, Larry wanted to make sure that David didn’t feel left out. So he’d offered everybody a ride in his airplane.
Crystal graciously wedged into the backseat with Jennifer, and David spent the entire hour in the copilot’s seat with his nose pressed up against the glass.
Afterward, they stopped for burgers at a fast food restaurant. It was nearly bedtime when they stumbled laughing up the stairs to Crystal’s apartment.
“Can Rufus sleep on my bed again?” David called as they piled through the doorway.
Feeling unaccountably good, Larry draped his arm loosely around Crystal’s shoulders. Then he stopped short at the sight of Crystal’s mother standing in the kitchen.
She took in Crystal and the kids, and then her gaze stopped on Larry.
“Larry Grosso,” she confirmed, her expression not nearly as welcoming as it had been the last time they talked.
“Stella,” he responded with a nod, guiltily removing his arm.
“Grandma, Grandma,” David cried, breaking from the pack. “Uncle Larry took us for a ride in his airplane.”
All three adults froze on “uncle.”
“It was awesome,” said David.
“Hi, Mom,” Crystal quickly put in, moving forward.
“I see you have the kids,” said Stella.
“They’re staying over,” Crystal explained.
Larry gestured behind him to the door. “I guess, maybe I’d better-”
“Nonsense,” said Stella, eyes glittering. “Since you seem to be part of the family.”
Larry looked to Crystal, and she sent him a clear “it’s now or never” look back.
“I’ll put the kids to bed,” Crystal said, ushering the children toward the spare bedroom and closing the door behind them.
In mere seconds, Larry was alone with Stella, and the silence boomed hollowly around them.
She folded her arms over her chest. “I didn’t realize you were dating my daughter.”
Well, that certainly cured the silence problem.
“We started off as friends,” Larry said honestly.
“
“I don’t think David knew what to call me.” He thought about offering Stella coffee or tea, but realized she was more the hostess than he. Pretending otherwise might offend her.
“I know your brother,” said Stella.
Larry nodded his acknowledgement.
“And I know your nephew.” She paused. “And I know you’re a lot older than my daughter.”
Larry moved toward the living room, uncomfortably hovering in the entryway. “I realize that, too,” he said.
“And what are your intentions?”
“I have no intentions.” Right now his only intention was to spend as much time as humanly possible with Crystal. He hadn’t allowed himself to look beyond that.
“She wants children,” said Stella.
“I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves.”
“So, you’re only interested in a fling. Is that it?”
“No.” He realized the word had been sharp and forced himself to tone his voice down. “No. I’m not only interested in a fling. I like your daughter very much.”
Stella harrumphed her skepticism.
Larry glanced toward the bedroom door, willing Crystal to join them again.
“Stella.”
“You like my daughter?”
“Yes, I do.”
“You want to do right by her?”
“Of course.”
“Then don’t encourage her in this.”
