Page 114 of The Newcomer
“No way.” He let it drop onto the countertop.
“Joseph?”
He knew that tone. It was the same tone Ava used when she guilt-tripped him into following Isabelle’s date’s car in a city police unit when she went to the junior prom.
“Shit,” he muttered, pulling the shirt over his own T-shirt, leaving the front unbuttoned.
“You look ad-ore-able!” Vikki said, getting ready to leave. “Ava, can short-timers play too?”
“Absolutely,” Ava said. “Bring your money and take your chances. A dollar a card, a dollar a drink.”
“Hope you like Hawaiian Punch with lime-sherbet floaters,” Joe warned.
43
Saturday Afternoon/Night
“WHOOPS! LETTY, I ALMOST FORGOT.”Ava reached into another shopping bag and pulled out a grass skirt. She waved it in the air. “Here’s your outfit for tonight.”
“That’s it?” Joe asked, waggling his eyebrows.
She batted at her son with the skirt. “She’s supposed to wear it over her bathing suit.”
“Oh, Ava, I don’t know,” Letty protested. “Can’t I just wear shorts and my Murmuring Surf shirt and a lei?”
“No, no,” Joe said. “You don’t get off that easy. If I go native, you go native.”
“He’s right, for once,” Ava said. “We all get dressed up for Aloha Bingo. It’s everybody’s favorite night. Even the Feldman girls come in costume.” She gave Letty what Joe called her patented Mom stare, then pulled a miniature grass skirt and a toy ukulele from the shopping bag.
“I got this for Maya. Isn’t this the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?”
Letty smacked her forehead. “I forgot Isabelle’s going out tonight. But Ava, I’m not sure about taking Maya to bingo.”
“Nonsense. It’ll be an early night. You know these old geezers. We start at six and play the jackpot game right at nine. You can have her back at your place and in bed by no later than nine fifteen. And tomorrow, you sleep in. Right?”
Joe and Letty exchanged an uneasy look, which Ava didn’t miss.
“What? What’s going on?”
“Tomorrow’s the day Evan Wingfield is flying down. He thinks he’s picking up Maya.”
The color drained from Ava’s face. “You won’t really let him get near her. Right?”
“Right,” Joe said. “But let’s not talk about it right now. I’m gonna run home and shower, but I’ll be back in time for bingo.” He started for the door, but Ava grabbed his arm.
“Don’t forget your shirt.”
Mayadanced around the living area, twitching her hips and delighting in the way it made her ankle-length grass skirt swish against her bare legs. She strummed the plastic ukulele.
“Look at me, Letty. I’m Moana!”
Letty grabbed her phone and snapped a photo of her niece. Maya cheesed for the camera and twitched her hips again. Her niece loved playing dress-up, and she was particularly excited tonight, because Letty was also dressed up.
It had taken gulping down two glasses of wine for her to get up enough courage to don her most modest bikini and then slide the grass skirt down over her hips. She piled on three sets of beads from Maya’s junk jewelry trove and added two plastic leis in order to cover most of her cleavage, and then topped off the costume with an unbuttoned flowered blouse.
She was draping a plastic lei around Maya’s neck when she heard the putt-putt just outside in the breezeway.
When she opened the door, Isabelle’s friend Sierra was leaning the green scooter against the wall.
