Page 69 of Suddenly Dating
“Maybe because she wasdatingWill and she’s not dating Harry,” his wife Tasha pointed out. “If you’re dating, you don’t want to spring this on your guy. No offense, Harry,” she said apologetically.
“None taken. Look, I gave her a ride. It seemed really serious and she was freaking out a little, so I—”
“Like, what do you do?” Kennedy interrupted.
“I build bridges.”
“Bridges!” Kennedy looked at Mario. “How are you her roommate? I thought she had a friend with a fancy house up at Lake Haven.”
Harry was beginning to understand why Lola thought he should stay in the truck. “We have the same friend,” he said. “He’s letting us both use the lake house.”
“He?” Ben said. “I thought it was a she.”
“Yeah, it was definitely a she,” Ty agreed, nodding. “Sara someone.”
They all stared at him, expecting him to explain that.
Harry decided his best course of action was to say nothing at all, and fortunately, Casey was there to help him.
“Can you guys please leave the poor man alone? He gave Lola aride,for God’s sake. Jesus, we’re like a herd of vultures, ready to swoop in.”
“Actually,” said Mario, “it’s a venue.”
Now all the Dunne eyes turned toward that poor man with the collared shirt and rectangular glasses. “What?” Kennedy snapped, seemingly annoyed with him, too.
“A group of vultures is called a venue. Or, sometimes, a committee. Or, if they’re in flight, a kettle.”
“Mario, stop talking,” said Ty, throwing up his hand. “Venue, kettle, whatever, yeah, we are protective of Lola, because the last guy pretty much destroyed her,” he said, his voice accusing, as if somehow Harry had been in on that.
“Hey!” Casey interjected, throwing her arm up. “That’s Lola’s story to tell him, not yours, Ty!” She suddenly lunged forward and grabbed Harry’s arm. “Let’s go wait in the cafeteria,” she said, and shot a dark look at her siblings as she pulled him out of the waiting room.
“I’m coming, too!” Kennedy said.
“No you’re not! You need to sit with Mom when Lola comes out.”
“Seriously?” Kennedy said, and groaned toward the ceiling. “I already had to see her once!”
Harry gladly allowed Casey to pull him out of that room.
“I am so sorry,” she said, when they were out of earshot. “We really are super protective of Lola.”
“So I gathered.”
“It’s just that... well, it’s weird, but she was more of a mom to us than Mom ever was, you know?” She stopped at a vending machine and opened her purse and pulled out a dollar. “I’m sure she hasn’t told you about Mom, because Lola never tells anyone anything. Keeps it all very close to the vest. But Mom was never around, and when she was, she was up to no good. So Lola took care of us.” She fed the dollar into the bill slot, then punched a button. Nothing fell.
“And then Will dazzled her but turned out to be such adick—” She gave the machine a shake. “Lola didn’t deserve that. She was so good to that asshole—” Casey kicked the machine. “What the hell? I want some M&M’S!” she said loudly.
Harry reached around her and punched the second button required for candy to drop. The packaged twirled forward and fell into the slot.
“Oh. Thanks,” she said. She picked up the candy and started walking again. “The thing about Lola is that she is super nice, and people take advantage of her. They just walk all over her because they know she won’t say anything, and she will accommodate whatever they want, and so yeah, we’re protective of her because she protected us.”
They continued on into the cafeteria, where Harry picked up two coffees for them. His tasted as if it had been sitting on the burner for a week. Casey talked a lot. She talked about what brought her mother to the hospital—she couldn’t breathe, she said, and passed out, but as of yet, the doctors weren’t sure why.
She talked about her job as a journalist. She talked about her dream to become an editor at a periodical, and how promising that looked for her right now. She talked about how the man who had lived downstairs from Lola in Brooklyn didn’t look so well the last time she saw him.
Harry’s head was spinning by the time Lola found them, and frankly, Lola didn’t look much better.
“What’s going on?” Casey asked.
