followed the kids. “Good, you’re up.”
Jack had buried his head beneath his pillow, and his reply was muffled. “We are now!”
Josie curled up with Max on her left and Sam on her right. The girls, Hannah, Sarah and Rebecca, bounced up and down and giggled. “Morning.”
“I tried to keep them upstairs as long as I could,” her sister Miriam said. “But they were dying to get down to see you.”
“No problem.” Josie snuggled with her nephews for another moment before tumbling them off her in a fit of giggles. She got up and stretched out the soreness in her back.
“What’d you do to your hands?” Mim sounded concerned, and Josie looked at the scrape marks the chains had made last night.
“Nothing,” she said vaguely. “Hey, Mim, how about we take the kids to the zoo today?”
“We?”
“Me and Jack.”
Jack stuck his head out from under the pillow. “What are you volunteering me for?”
“The zoo.” Josie bent to push Sarah’s tangled hair out of her face.
Jack yawned and sat up, scrubbing his face. “Do I have a choice?”
“Nope.” Josie staggered under the weight of her nephews and nieces clambering on top of her, shouting. “Unless you want to stay here and make matzo balls.”
“Zoo it is.” Jack got up and rolled his neck on his shoulders, then cracked his back. “Lemme grab a shower.”
He left the room to use the small bathroom. Mim’s eyes followed him as she shooed the kids toward the family room’s couch and television. When they’d been settled in front of some inane cartoon adventure Josie didn’t recognize, her sister turned to her.
“What on earth is wrong with you?”
Josie had been fumbling in her suitcase for a toothbrush and shampoo. Her sister’s question made her look up, confused. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that guy has a body on him that could make a nun horny. I mean what’s wrong with you that you haven’t snapped him off the market already?”
Josie bit back a smile. “Mim, that’s none of your business.”
Mim rolled her eyes and gave Josie the big-sister death look. “Don’t tell me you have somebody else.”
“Actually, no.”
“Then what’s up?”
Josie shook her head. “Fine, fine. Have it your way. The truth is, Jack and I have been humping like bunnies since September. We mostly do it twice a day, although sometimes we take a day off. My hands are scraped up, in fact, because last night on our walk we stopped and had mind-blowing sex on a swing at the playground.”
Mim frowned. “Yeah, right. On a swing? You expect me to believe that?”
Josie shrugged. “It’s true.”
“Okay, fine.” Mim threw up her hands in a gesture so like their mother’s Josie had to grin. “Tell all kinds of stories. I’m just telling you, you have a prime catch right under your nose and you don’t seem to be aware of it.”
“Believe me, Mim,” Josie said solemnly. “I’m totally aware.”
Mim gave a snort of total disbelief. “A swing. Where’d you read about that, Playgirl magazine?”
“Mommy, what’s Playgirl magazine?” Hannah asked.
“Never mind.” Mim shot Josie a look. “C’mon, precious. Let’s go get ready to go to the zoo.”
Josie stared after her sister for a moment, then just shook her head. Apparently, sometimes truth really was stranger than fiction. Then she went in search of a shower.
Chapter 6
The day at the zoo passed quickly enough. Josie and Jack were heroes to her frazzled siblings, who’d welcomed the break from their spawn, and heroes to the kids, who’d run their aunt and “uncle” ragged. When they finally brought the children in the house, little Sam snuggled asleep on Jack’s shoulder, everything had already been prepared for the first Seder.
The house had been full yesterday, but with more friends and family invited for the special Passover dinner, it was now bursting. Three leaves had been put into the table that had been Ava’s grandmother’s. A folding table, made fancy with a white cloth and drapes over the chairs had been set up for the overflow, and the kids had their own small table off to the side.
Everything gleamed and glittered. Flowers gave the tables a festive air. Josie breathed in the delicious scents of good home cooking—matzo ball soup, roast turkey, brisket.
“Time to get started, everyone!” Dan Levine’s booming voice got everyone moving to find their place cards, charmingly scrawled in Hannah’s childish hand.
This time, Jack and Josie’s places were next to each other. The table was crowded, with chairs so close, once they sat down, it was almost impossible to get back