Silver Fox (Silver Shifters 2)

Joey again. She had to get her mind off him. She was casting around for conversation topics when Mom sailed in, carrying a heavy tray loaded with crisp latke, steaming knishes, and cinnamon-laden babke for those who wanted something sweet.

Saved by the bell. It might be the first time in years that she’d been truly glad to see her mother.

“Eat up, eat up,” Mom said cheerily. “Warm you up inside!”

Sylvia was right behind her, passing out plates—and coincidentally skipping Brad. Isidor calmly snagged another plate and handed it to him. Mom and Sylvia scowled—but Isidor the rabbi’s son could do no wrong in their eyes, so nothing was said.

However, Mom was an expert at the underhanded lob. “Nicola, you and Isidor should go make sure the heat’s turned on at the side wing. We can put the children there.”

Pink looked up from her play. “Doughnut,” she stated.

Brad whispered, “Remember your manners, Pink. What do you say?”

“Pease. Doughnut,” Pink said obediently.

Nicola jumped up to snag a babke as she said over her shoulder, “Dad turned on the heat, but it’s still like an ice chest back there.”

The magazine rattled at the word ‘dad’ but Doris’s father didn’t look up. He hated tension, Doris had realized when young. His defense was to somehow withdraw in a way that made him effectively invisible, though he was there in the room.

“Please, can I have a doughnut?” Lon piped up in a small voice.

Meanwhile, Mom was staring at Pink, who clearly loved the babke, and Doris could see the grandmother-hug fighting to get out past her determination to dislike her father.

Doris smothered an impulse to laugh at Mom’s inner struggle as Nicola served the boy, saying, “It does look kind of like a doughnut, doesn’t it? It’s made by rolling the pastry and putting good things in between the layers, then slicing it into circles. But no doughnut hole!”

“Thank you,” Lon said thickly around an enormous bite.

Mom’s expression was a sight. Manners always got in under her defense. She retreated swiftly, towing Sylvia, no doubt to plan their next method of attack.

Brad looked a little bewildered, and Doris wondered if he was sensing Mom’s Jekyll and Hyde struggle. Nicola was right. Those two kids were adorable, and completely unconscious of it. Mom and Sylvia were determined to dislike Brad, but they hadn’t counted on Brad’s kids. Polite kids who loved Mom’s cooking could get under her defenses like Patton sweeping across France.

Doris was wondering if Brad would consider her another interfering relative if she dropped a hint to keep quiet and let his kids win the Titans over, when the door knocker banged. Everyone looked startled. “Who could it be?” Mom said, and bustled to the door. Then, in a tone of astonishment, “Mother Zinna?”

Doris’s heart leaped. Granny Z, at ninety-eight, was invariably deemed too fragile to be invited anywhere. Doris caught sight of her father smiling tightly behind his newspaper as Granny Z walked in, her arms full of grocery bags.

“Mother Zinna,” Mom exclaimed. “You didn’t try to come up here alone?”

“I’ve been coming up here ever since I was a bride,” Granny Z retorted. “If it kills me, well, I say, what a way to go.”

“How did you get here?” Sylvia asked, as the three exchanged kisses and hugs.

“Took the bus to Meadowlark,” Granny Z said triumphantly. “Then caught me a Lyft from there. Tipped that nice young man fifty bucks, too. Seeing as this was pretty much the only ride he was going to have all day.”

Mom gave a scandalized hiss. “That’s so dangerous. Something could have happened!”

Sylvia darted forward. “Here, let me get those bags. You shouldn’t be carrying all that stuff!”

“My neighbor came over and we baked up a fresh batch of Hamantaschen,” Granny Z said, handing S

ylvia the bags. And rugelach with chocolate and my own apricot preserves. Oh good, we have kids here! Children love pastries,” Granny Z added. “And the Lyft driver told me that when the sky looks like this, it usually means a big storm, so we’d better have enough food!”

If we can manage to keep from killing each other while we eat it, Doris thought.

NINE

JOEY

It looked like it was going to snow, Joey thought. But that posed little problem for a fox and two wolves.