Lighting the Way Home (Delectable) by Lynley EM & Anthony Shira

Author:Lynley, EM & Anthony, Shira [Lynley, EM]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2013-03-27T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

JOSH took the steps down two at a time, dodging one of his mother’s friends at the foot of the stairs. He headed for the kitchen where he ran into several more ladies sipping coffee and eating cake and sweet noodle kugel at the kitchen table, gabbing away in Yiddish.

They all looked the same to him now: soft, gray-haired women in flowered dresses and fluffy sweaters. All with the crablike pincers. He had to get out of this noise, this craziness, this meshugas, and think. Too many things were happening at once. Information overload. He’d been away so long he barely knew what was happening with his own parents.

“Nothing serious,” his mother had said when she asked him to come home, and now he finds out his dad needs heart surgery and they’re thinking about shutting the restaurant. If that was nothing serious, he’d hate to see serious. He could barely breathe as he went out the back door and stood, chest heaving as he sucked in freezing cold air. It hurt. He could see his breath with each exhalation, but he drew in more, each breath more painful than the last. His throat burned as the cold settled into his body, wove its way under his clothes and spread goose bumps across his flesh.

“Joshy! Come in here or put a coat on!” One of the women was shouting at him. He didn’t care. He needed the cold. Needed to feel. Needed to let out the emotions boiling inside. The cold was good for that. He slipped into the back alley and wandered toward the street, shoving his hands in his pockets. He was cold. Now he wished he’d gone back to get his coat. Odd how the yenta was right.

Odd how many things people told him to do turned out to be right.

The kitchen and the house were stifling. Too hot and crowded with his mother’s friends checking in on her. His dad was smart, sitting in the living room away from the chaos.

Dad.

Josh thought about how his dad looked, small and gray in the big armchair. His dad was really sick, but he’d never said a word. Micah knew more about his family than Josh did. How had that happened? Jenna should have told him! He needed to talk to her. What else were they hiding from him?

Josh turned the corner. He’d lived in this neighborhood as long as he could remember. He knew every crack in the sidewalk and every shop on the street. He knew which neighbors had big TVs and what kind of music they listened to. In the summer, everyone had their windows open and no one kept secrets. He knew which husbands yelled at their wives, and which wives had male friends visiting when the husband was at work.

But now, as he shuffled down the block, he didn’t recognize anything. Even the pavement was new. Old, run-down shops had been replaced with sleek boutiques and restaurants he’d actually eat at. No wonder his parents’ restaurant was failing.

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