Page 8 of A Heart of Little Faith
…and there she went. “Don’t do this, Sam,” he warned as he rolled back and forth from one end of the room to the other. He smacked the wheel rims, each slap an echo of his frustration. “It’s bad enough you felt it necessary to tell her all about our childhood, as if she’d care. Don’t do this too.”
“Don’t do what?” she asked.
He hated when she played dumb. It was a device she used when she was trying to get her way. He hadn’t liked it when they were kids; he liked it even less now. “Don’t try to fix me. I’m not broken.”
“I never said you were, brother dear. I just thought you might enjoy getting to know my friends.”
“You mean one friend in particular.”
“Well, actually two. She has a daughter, you know.”
Gideon removed his glasses and scrubbed a hand over his face. That’s what made this tough, and Samantha knew it. “Yes, I know.”
“So, what do you think of her?”
“I think Claire is adorable.”
“And her mother?”
Lily. His stomach knotted thinking about her. She was fascinating. Strong with an air of fragility. Confident with a hint of vulnerability. At another time he would have been interested. His voice lost some of its forcefulness. “Her mother is… amusing. There, are you satisfied?”
“Very. Now how about coming over Sunday for brunch?”
“Will it get you to lay off of me?” he growled. Anything to get her off the topic of his love life. He sagged back in his chair. No matter how much she begged, he wasn’t giving in.
“It’s free food, Gideon, what’s the harm?”
Chapter 3
Saturday morning dawned sunny and warm, so Lily decided to spend time with Claire riding their bikes. A beautiful day, not even the stink of car and bus fumes could dim their enthusiasm. Lily gripped the ridged handlebars as she simultaneously watched her daughter pedal on the sidewalk and watched for cars and distracted pedestrians. Claire’s bright pink bike had a bell and long pink and white tassels on the handlebars. She loved to pedal ahead of Lily and rang the bell incessantly, which pretty much guaranteed everyone steered clear of her.
Along the way to the subway, they passed the community center on St. Marks, enclosed within a tall iron fence and surrounded by shade trees. On the blacktop, some boys played and Claire slowed to watch them. With a squeal of brakes, Lily stopped too. The chipped iron bars were cool in Lily’s grasp and the splat of the ball against the pavement kept time to the symphony inside her mind—a rhythm comprised of spring sounds in the city. She sighed as she listened to birds chirp, boys grunt and the ball bounce. The scent of lilacs in the corner of the yard completed her sonata.
“What are they doing?” Claire asked.
“They’re playing dodge ball,” Lily replied.
“That looks like fun.”
“Mmm. I think it might be the place where Gideon works.” Samantha mentioned he mentored kids at a community center nearby. Her skin tingled at the thought of him being this close to their apartment. How often had she passed this exact place? Would she run into him?
“Is he there now?” Claire craned her neck.
“I don’t know, honey.”
“What does he do there?”
“He probably plays with the kids, helps them with homework, that kind of thing.” A desire to go inside and find out what he was like with the kids overwhelmed her for a moment. Was he grumpy with them like he was with her, or was he kind, like he was with Claire? She huffed.Why do I even care?
“Maybe we can visit him here sometime,” Claire said.
“Maybe,” Lily said with a shrug. “Now come on. I’ll race you.”
After a trip on the subway to Central Park, they both enjoyed their ride down their favorite paths toward Heckscher Playground. They passed lots of other kids and their families biking. The scent of popcorn and hot pretzels scented the air and made Lily’s mouth water, as the memories of this place made her smile. She had taken Claire here to learn to use her bike without training wheels and the flat, wide, even stretches of pavement made it a great area of the park to ride.
When Claire started to get tired, they picked a shady, grassy area near Wolman Rink to picnic. Lily had brought a basket filled with sandwiches—peanut butter for Claire and turkey for herself—along with water, cookies and fruit. They munched as Claire chatted about her friends at school.
When they finished eating, they walked their bikes across the grass to the Central Park Zoo. They visited Claire’s favorite animals, the sea lions, and watched them frolic in the water and eat fish the zookeeper fed them. After a brief visit to see the polar bears, penguins and monkeys, Lily and Claire decided to return home. Tired, they found a cab willing to put their bikes in the trunk.