Listening for Lucca by Suzanne LaFleur

Author:Suzanne LaFleur
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780307980311
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2013-08-05T21:00:00+00:00

I was in the kitchen chopping up veggies from the farmers’ market when the house phone rang.

“I’ll get it!” I yelled. It was kind of exciting to have the phone ring. So far it had only rung twice, when Grandma called.

“Hello?”

“Hi. Is this Siena?”

“Yes.”

“It’s me. Sam.”

“Oh, hi!”

Sam. I don’t know who I’d been expecting.

He was so funny: just showed up when he felt like it, just called at dinnertime. Wacko.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“Just called to say hi. What are you doing?”

“Helping make dinner.” I headed back over to the counter and the cutting board. “How’d you get our number? I don’t even know this number.”

“It was on your fridge. With a note that said ‘Learn this number: our new house phone.’ ”

At first I thought he was joking, but when I turned to look at the fridge, he was absolutely right; the note was there, in Dad’s handwriting.

“And you memorized it?”

“Well, I only had to remember the last four digits. The others are the same as everyone else’s in town.”

“Is that Sam?” Mom asked. “Let me talk to him after.”

I gave her a look like she had ten heads.

“Just really quick. When you’re done.”

I nodded at her and turned away.

“What did you do today?” I asked him.

“Morgan and I went tubing.”

“You did?”

“Yeah, it was fun! You should come next time.”

“Maybe I will.” Maybe. If I was actually invited. “Where do you go?”

“There’s a good river about twenty minutes away. My uncle drops us off a few miles up and then meets us at the end where the river dumps into the ocean.”

“Do you worry about getting pulled out to sea?”

Sam laughed. “No. Should I?”

No, that was me. I was the worrywart, about everything.

“Oh—my mom wants to talk to you.”

“She does? What for?”

“No idea.”

I handed over the phone.

“Hi, Sam. Yes, I’m fine, how are you? I was wondering if you would be interested in coming over to play with Lucca and I’ll pay you. It will be kind of like babysitting, except we’ll be around most of the time. He seemed to like you and I think having a boy around might be good for him. We could make it a regular thing.”

My mouth dropped open. What was she doing?

“Yeah, okay … so twice a week? That sounds good for us. Okay, see you then.”

She hung up.

“Mom!”

“What?” she asked innocently.

“You’re asking him to work here?”

“Well, not exactly. I’m asking him to play with your brother.”

“Mom!”

“Chill out. Didn’t you think he played nicely with Lucca?”

“Yes, but—”

“And Lucca liked him. There’s a chance he’ll warm up to him some more.…”

“Yes, but—” She had just been talking about how she was waiting out this thing with Lucca. Yeah, right! She did nothing but try to get him to talk!

“And look at it this way.” Mom gave me a goofy smile. “I’ve just ensured he’ll be coming back here. So he’ll be around to spend more time with you, too.”

“That doesn’t— You hardly— You didn’t even— Agh!” I stormed out of the kitchen.

But …

Infuriating as Mom was, it would be nice to have Sam around.

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