Page 153 of Give & Take

“He didn’t say,” Lana says. She looks at me, an eyebrow quirked. “I don’t know how to explain it, but it didn’t sound like he had an angle.”

I feel a tiny burst of pride. Way to fuckin’ go, Mike.

Lana’s looking at me curiously. I give her a smile but say nothing. I will later tonight. Maybe. Or maybe I’ll just let Mike step up ahead of our meeting. I feel like he just might.

“Okay now yours, Raph!” Aurora says, jumping up and down.

Lana’s still looking at me in a half squint. But Aurora tugs on my sleeve. “Comeon, Raph!”

Aurora knows what my gift is. Nova does too. They’re part of it.

“Right now?” I ask the girls. “Are you ready?”

Nova jumps up, clapping her hands. “Yeah. Let’s do this.”

I nod to Lori, who tells Lana to close her eyes as she follows us into the living room. While they get situatedon the couch, I push the coffee table aside and Aurora dims the lights.

Nova turns on the TV and flips to the YouTube tab. She punches in “Dirty Dancing”and clips from the movie pop up.

“Hey!” Lana says, alarmed, from the doorway.

“We’re not watching the movie!” Nova says. “Sheesh. And my friend showed me.”

“I’m the friend. And I didn’t really show you, you just picked it up like a computer hacker. We only use it for dance clips!” I promise Lana. “I know nothing about Murder Teddy.”

“I can’t watch that here with the ‘strictions anyway,” Nova says with audible disdain.

“Here?” Lana says.

“Mom, shh!” Aurora calls from by the stairs.

“Sorry.”

Nova hits play, then dims the brightness on the TV. The three of us stand in a row and hold our flashlights. Soon, the opening line ofTime of my Lifecomes through the speakers.

And we’re off.

The dance is a mess of limbs and lights, and we all manage to bonk into each other several times. At one point, Aurora trips and her flashlight goes sprawling. I ask if she wants to pause and she pants, “No!” and jumps off the arm of the couch back into the middle of the fray without missing a beat.

By the time the moment comes, I have to call both their names several times to get their attention. “Now!” I cry. Aurora’s already running ahead of her mark. Shebarrels into me head first, not injuring me since her head hits my stomach, but I’m winded enough that I can only wheeze “try again!”

This time, the music has nearly finished but she still runs and jumps and I manage to get her over my head.

Lana and her mom cheer uproariously.

“We’re not done!” Nova and I say together.

At this point, the song is over, and the video has switched over to what I’m pretty sure is a monster truck rally ad.

“Smash smash, smaaaaash!” The announcer yells as Nova runs for me.

This time, we may be out of sync with the music, but not with each other. I get Nova up in the air perfectly, just in time for the announcer to shout, “We’ll sell you the whole seat, but you’ll only need the edddddddddge!”

Even Nova whoops from above this time, and when I let her down, she gives me a giant high-ten. “I think she liked it,” she tells me.

“I think so,” I say, glancing over at her mom, who’s laughing so hard she’s crying as Aurora jumps up and belly flops across hers and her mom’s laps.

Nova taps me on the shoulder then. I bend down so I can hear her over the ruckus. “I think she loves you.”

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