The Neighbors

Chapter 9

I walked up to Harold's door, intending to leave the muffins on the step since his car wasn't in the driveway. However, his front door was open with only the screen door blocking his house from the outside. Then I realized that there was very loud music coming from the basement. I let myself in, placed the muffins on the kitchen counter and ventured downstairs, calling out Harold's name to alert him of my presence. For a brief moment, I thought, What if she's here? But I realized I didn't care that much anymore. Harold was my friend, and I planned to do whatever I could to preserve our friendship.

When I reached the bottom of the stairs, I was startled to see two teenage boys dancing around like maniacs and laughing.

“Oh!” I said. “I'm sorry, I thought Harold was down here.”

The boys were clearly startled by my presence as well. One of them scrambled to turn off the deafening music. And then he strode over to me with his hand outstretched. “Hello, I'm Charlie.”

The other one stood where he was, looking like a deer in the headlights, and said, “I'm Harry.”

“Oh, hello! Harold told me you were coming! I'm Lise. I live next door. I brought a basket of blueberry muffins over.”

“Blueberry?” Charlie asked.

“Sure. Don't they have blueberries in England?”

“Not that I'm aware of.”

“Well, try one,” I encouraged them. “I have to get back home, my girls are napping.” I headed to the stairs, but stopped and added as an afterthought, “Why don't you come over and go swimming later? It's awfully hot outside today.”

They both said they'd love to and that they would come over in about an hour.

I got the girls up from their naps, dressed them in their swimsuits and sprayed on the sunscreen just in time to meet the boys in the back yard. They were more than ready to swim, apparently. Charlie dove in the moment his feet hit the concrete. Harry, on the other hand, came over to meet my girls. Harold did say that his younger son loved children.

“This is Rachael,” I said. “And here are Aurora and Grace.”

He squatted down to their level and said, “Hello, I'm Harry.”

“Mr. Styles is their dad,” I told my girls.

“You're a grown up and you have a daddy?” Aurora asked incredulously.

Harry laughed and I replied, “I'm a grown up, and Grandma and Grandpa are my mommy and daddy, remember?”

“Oh, yeah!” she said, playfully smacking her forehead, which earned another hearty laugh from Harry.

Then Harry yelled to his brother, “Get over here and greet our hosts, you dolt!”

Charlie joined us, already dripping wet, and I made the introductions again.

“Swim!” Grace demanded, grabbing Charlie's hand. She was my little water baby, for sure. I couldn't keep her out of the pool for anything. She was clearly glad to have a swim buddy. Charlie laughed and jumped in alongside her.

Harry turned to Aurora and asked, “Do you want to swim, too?”

She nodded excitedly. Harry stepped into the pool and held his arms out for Aurora. She rolled her eyes at him and said, “I can jump!” She shooed him back, away from the wall of the pool so he could watch how high she jumped.

I threw a towel over my shoulder and nursed Rachael while they all got acquainted. The boys were strikingly similar to their father in looks. They both had the same smile and the same dimples as Harold. Charlie's hair was a bit lighter than Harry's dark brown locks, but both of them had wild curls. Harold always kept his hair close cut, but I had still noticed his bit of curl, especially when it got humid outside.