“Poor you,” Hannah said. “Going to my school and you’re not even Jewish.”

“No pressure to stay, Gabe,” Decker said. “It’s your decision. We’re here to accommodate. Think about it and tell us what works for you.”

“I’m okay here.” Gabe took off his glasses and rubbed his bloodshot emerald eyes. “I like it. Thank you very, very much.”

Decker got up from the table. “See you all tonight, providing that the good people of my district behave themselves.”

“Bye, Abba. I love you.”

“Love you, too, Pumpkin.” He kissed her flaming hair. “Drive carefully. Oh, and you might want to change your top.”

“Ha ha.”

“I need to sort through a few things on my computer before I go to work.” Rina kissed her daughter. “I’ll see you both later at school. Drive safely.”

“Bye.” When her parents were gone, Hannah turned to the boy. “Are you okay?”

“Tired, but I’m okay.”

“A bummer about your dad.”

“Honestly, it’s better. I’ve known your dad for two days and I like him a hell of a lot better than my own dad.”

“He’s a good guy—my dad.”

“You’re really lucky, having a normal mom and dad and brothers and a sister and a regular dinner and all those kinds of normal things.”

“I am lucky. I love my family. But we’re not normal, Gabe, because there’s no such thing as a normal family.”

She pulled her chair closer to him so she could drop her voice without her mother hearing.

“My sister is from my father’s first marriage, my brothers are from my mother’s first marriage. My mom and her first husband got married when my mother was only eighteen. Then he died of a brain tumor when my brothers were real little. My father adopted them. Actually, my father is adopted. My grandparents from his side are like really religious Baptists who probably think I’m going to hell because I’m Jewish. But they love me and I love them and Grandma Ida makes the best pies in the entire world. My father’s brother, my uncle Randy, has been married like three or four times. My mother’s parents are Holocaust survivors, so there’s always that ghost in the background. My mother’s brother lives in Israel and is a religious fanatic. Her other brother is a doctor and he and my aunt are nice folk. Their first two kids are doctors as well, but the youngest one has been in and out of rehab since he was sixteen. If I dug deeper, I could probably even pull up more pathology.”

She shrugged.

“Sorry to disillusion you, but as far as our family goes, you’ll fit right in.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN