Roll them balls
FIRST THING LUKE DID?when we were back in his kitchen was take out a small glass bowl and fill it with water for Drixie. I melted right then and there at his thoughtfulness.
“Do you mind if I let my family know that Drixie is all right before we start cooking?” he asked after he’d placed the bowl on the ground, slightly out of the way so we wouldn’t accidentally trip it over.
Shit! Glen! She hadn’t gotten an update from me either. “No, it’s okay. I should tell Glen.”
I fished into my pockets for my phone and shot a quick message her way, while Luke fired up the tablet again. I looked up just as his grandmother appeared on the screen.
“Fagiolo,” she exclaimed happily in the midst of sizzling and clattering, obviously still in the kitchen cooking. “We didn’t expect to hear from you again today, thought you’d be busy.”
“Just wanted to let you know we found Drixie,” Luke said, then pointed a finger at the meatballs she was frying. “I see you didn’t wait for me. Smells good.”
“You think yourself a comedian.” She waved a spatula at the camera as Luke chuckled. “You can’t smell a thing.”
“I know your cooking,Nonna. It smells good whether I’m there or not.”
Their good hearted banter, sometimes mixed with Italian, went on a few minutes longer. The smile interacting with his family brought to Luke’s face was priceless but left a void in my heart. My parents and I were never like this. Neither were my grandparents and I. Dad joked sometimes, but it was often short-lived, and any such occasion was clouded by the countless times Mum frowned at me in disapproval or outright lectured me for the choices I made. Or the ones I didn’t make. There wasn’t this level of affection expressed in my family, and I didn’t know how much I’d been missing something this simple—this essential—until I saw Luke on that video call.
I didn’t even realise I was crying, which I seemed to be doing way too often lately, before my sniffles caught Luke’s attention, and his sole focus turned on me as his grandmother stilled on the screen.
“Haylee, are you all right?” He touched my shoulder carefully. “What happened?”
It was stupid, so stupid, which is why I closed my eyes and shook my head, even as the tears kept flowing down my cheeks. My mouth pressed into a tight line to keep the words in.
A warm thumb caressed my cheek, wiping at the wetness. “I can’t even begin to fathom what goes on in that lovely head of yours, but know that I’m here to listen if you want to talk about it.”
I opened my eyes to find his green ones really close. He dropped his hand but didn’t otherwise move as we stared at each other. I gathered my thoughts and said, “Your relationship with your family is beautiful.”
Luke quirked an eyebrow.
“You’re crying because you think my relationship with my family is beautiful?” he asked gently.
I closed my eyes again. “I know it’s silly. I’m sorry.”
“Haylee, it’s not silly. Nothing you say or feel could ever be that.”
“You really think that?” I sniffed.
“Of course,” Luke replied without missing a beat.
The conviction in his voice assured me it was safe to look at him, so I did. He still stood very close, but his presence felt comforting, and he wasn’t doing anything to make me feel crowded. In fact, after the soft caress on my cheek, he kept his hands to himself. “It feels stupid. I’m not usually emotional like this.”
