shredded toilet paper. âThe fun never stops, huh?â
âHe mustâve nosed his way into the linen closet. I just have to clean this up.â
âWhy donât you take care of these?â He crossed to her,held out a bottle of wine and a dozen yellow roses. âSimon and I can clean it up.â
âNo, really, you canâtââ
âSure I can. Got a vacuum cleaner?â Brad asked Simon.
âI was getting it.â He dashed off.
âReally, you donât have to bother. Iâll . . . get it later.â
âIâll take care of it. You donât like roses?â
âYes. I do. Theyâre beautiful.â She started to take them, then looked down at her hand, and the soggy remains still gripped in it. âOh,â she said on a very long sigh, âwell.â
âTrade ya.â He plucked it out of her hand before she could stop him, then filled hers with the flowers. âYouâll want to take this, too.â He passed her the bottle of Chianti. âYou might want to go ahead and open that, so it can breathe.â
He turned away from her when Simon hauled in the vacuum. âPlug her in, Simon, and letâs get this done because something smells really good around here.â
âSpaghetti sauce. Mom makes the best. But we gotta have salad first.â
âThereâs always a catch.â He smiled at Zoe as he rolled up the sleeves of his dark blue shirt. âWeâve got this covered.â
âAll right. Well. Thanks.â Not knowing what else to do, she carried the roses and wine back into the kitchen. She could hear Simon still chattering away, then the quick roar of the vacuum, followed immediately by Moeâs insane barks.
Sheâd forgotten Moe considered the vacuum a mortal enemy. She should go back and get him. Then she heard Simonâs peal of laughter, the deeper, but equally delighted sound of Bradâs, and the increasingly frantic barking that meant man and boy were only encouraging Moe to go postal.
No, they were fine. She should leave them alone.
And it gave her the opportunity to simply bury her face in the flowers. No one had ever given her yellow rosesbefore. They were so sunny and elegant. After some debate, she settled on the slim copper urn sheâd rescued from obscurity at a yard sale. With the brilliant shine sheâd given it, it was a suitably bright home for yellow roses.
She arranged them, opened the wine. After putting a pot of water on to boil for the pasta, she went back to the salad.
It was going to be okay, it was going to be fine. She had to remember he was just a man. A friend. Just a friend whoâd dropped by for dinner.
âBack to normal,â Brad said as he strolled in. He noted the arranged bouquet sheâd set on the counter. âNice.â
âTheyâre really beautiful. Thank you. Simon, why donât we put Moe out back for now? You can take your books in the other room and finish those last couple of problems. Then weâll eat.â
âWhat kind of problems?â Brad asked as he wandered around to Simonâs books.
âStupid fractions.â Simon opened the back door for Moe and sent his mother a long-suffering look. âCanât I do them later?â
âSure, if you donât want your hour after dinner.â
Simonâs mouth curled in what his mother recognized as the onset of a serious snit. âFractions bite. It all bites. We got calculators and computers and junk, so how come I have to do it?â
âBecauseââ
âYeah, calculators make it easy.â Brad spoke casually over Zoeâs heat, and traced a finger over Simonâs work-sheet. âThese are probably too tough for you to figure out by yourself.â
âNo, theyâre not.â
âI donât know. Look pretty tough to me. Youâve got to add this three and three-quarters to the two and five-eighths.