Page 4 of Amore
“Cool.” I ran up the stairs to get dressed.
* * *
My dadand I went outside sometime later. The moving truck guys were still unloading all the stuff.
“He shoots!” I threw the basketball into the air at the end of our driveway, hoping it would go into the basket. “And—”
“And misses.” Dad chuckled, grabbing the ball and bouncing it. “One day, you’ll be able to make that shot if you keep practicing.”
“Let me have a do-over?” We were playing HORSE, and if he made the next crazy shot and I didn’t, I would lose.
Dad went to the end of the driveway where I was standing. He shook his head. “My turn.”
“That’s not fair!” I whined.
“Life isn’t fair, buddy.” He grinned and took the shot.
And missed.
“Oooo! You missed it too!”
“Yeah, yeah. Your turn.” The front door opened, and Mom and Lucy walked out. Lucy was carrying a plate. “Is that for us?” Dad asked.
“Lucy is dying to meet the new neighbors,” Mom explained.
The entire time I was shooting hoops with my dad, I had secretly hoped the girl would walk over to say hi. She never did, but I looked at the house often to see if I could see her, which I couldn’t.
“Should we come too?” Dad questioned.
I held my breath as I waited for Mom to respond. “If you want.”
“Yeah, let’s go be neighborly, Luke,” Dad said.
“All right,” I faked a groan, then threw the basketball onto the grass.
As we walked down the sidewalk, I wondered what the girl’s name was. How old she was. Why did they move into Mrs. Youngblood’s house? Did they know she died in it?
My mom had been worried about Mrs. Youngblood because she hadn’t heard from her the entire day and wasn’t answering her phone when Mom called to check on her like she did every day. So, she called my dad from work and made him check on her when he got home. He found her dead in her recliner withThe People’s Courtplaying on the TV. Lucy and I had stayed up for two days straight, afraid Mrs. Youngblood’s ghost would come floating out of her house and scare us. Of course, she didn’t.
The men unloading the truck ignored us as we walked up to the front door. It was open, but Mom knocked anyway. The lady who I had seen get out of the car came around the corner and smiled as she saw us.
“Hi,” she greeted.
“Hello. We live next door and wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood,” Mom explained while Lucy held out the plate of chocolate chip cookies.
“That’s so sweet of you. Let me call my husband and daughter to come and meet you.” She turned and shouted, “Francesco, Frankie! Can you come here, please?” Then she turned back to us. “I’m Jennifer, by the way.”
“I’m Renee. This is my husband, Matt, daughter, Lucy, and son, Luke.”
I gave a little wave while my parents shook Jennifer’s hand. Then the girl came around the corner, and I swallowed—hard.
“Frankie, these are our neighbors. They live next door and baked us some cookies.”
My brown eyes locked with Frankie’s brown eyes. She was so pretty. I didn’t care that she had a boy’s name.
“You can pick your jaw up off the ground now,” Dad whispered into my ear.
I closed my mouth, but I was instantly in love with the girl next door.
