Chapter 3

Wolfgang wasn't given much of a reprieve and was immediately set to work by her father. He didn't even have any time to unpack his things, which weren't much to begin with. He only had two duffle bags that he'd tossed in the corner of the big shed before he was called to the bay so her father could show him around.

Danielle had quickly cleaned up the tool shed with her baby brother's help. She'd found some fresh sheets and an old comforter she hadn't used in years, and what Jaeger could now borrow for the time being. She now had a duvet on her bed, which she liked much better—it had goose down filling. After she'd removed the protective plastic from the cot's mattress and Febrezed it, she laid fresh linens and her old dark purple and black comforter over the cot.

The hardest part was cleaning the bathroom. She really needed to do a thorough job since it was where most of the smells were coming from that stank up the place. After removing a lot of dead insects, using CLR on the tub, sink, and toilet, both Davenport kids could stand, tired but happy, in the doorway to admire their work.

"We got'er done, Davey," Danielle said, smiling happily.

"Sure did!" he said, happily.

When Danielle and Davey were completely finished—Danielle having done most of the work while Davey was her assistant—they left the shed spic and span and smelling like lavender and orchids. Then they made their way to the stairs on the side of the two story building that led up to their home where they could freshen up.

Davey sped for his bedroom to get ready for soccer practice as Danielle locked herself up in the second bathroom for a thorough scrub down. She was surprised to find two dead spiders had somehow gotten under the kerchief she'd wrapped around her head when she was cleaning out the shed.

She wondered if they were dead when they got under the kerchief, but she didn't want to spend too much time thinking about that. It wasn't a very pleasant thought.

Even though she was beat as hell, she didn't show it. Her little brother was so excited to try out his new moves on the soccer field that night that his energy alone was enough to give her enough to pull herself through. Besides, she didn't have the heart to tell him she was barely able to stand on her own two feet.

"He's a very nice and polite young man, that Wolfgang Jaeger," Dana Davenport said when she entered the kitchen looking younger than her forty-six years. "And he knows a great deal about German engineering," she noted as she began preparing dinner as Danielle sat with her little brother at the round kitchen table, washed up and ready to go.

The kitchen table doubled as their dining table.

"Didn't you think he was a little ... strange?" Danielle asked her mother.

Dana frowned at her daughter. "In what way, sweetheart?"

"Danielle says Wolfgang stares a lot," Davey answered, already dressed in his blue and white soccer clothes and shoes, having a banana like his older sister. He copied just about everything she did.

Their mother was, secretly, very content with that. She was happy Danielle was such a health-food nut. If she weren't, she was sure David would be one of those American children on the list of most obese.

"No. Didn't notice that at all," Dana answered her daughter. "As a matter of fact, I thought he was a very polite and cordial young man." Then she turned to start cutting up some fresh vegetables for homemade pizza.

Danielle frowned curiously at her mother's back, but that frown disappeared when she noticed Davey silently watching her, and she quickly smiled before she had another bite of her banana. "If you say so, Mom."

"Anyway," their mother continued, "if Wolfgang stares at your big sister, David, it's because she's got the cutey-genes from the Stratfords." Their mother smiled proudly over her shoulder at her daughter who arched an eyebrow, making her smile. "Well, it got me your father, sweetheart, so don't underestimate your Stratford genes."

"Cutey genes?" Danielle shook her head.

"Daddy says Dani looks like Nana Catherine when she was younger," Davey said.

"Hmpf! He wishes!" Dana dismissed. "Your sister looks like Nana Darlene, sweetie."

"Dani looks that old, Mom?" Davey said, and giggled when his sister glared at him.

"If I were you I'd be careful about teasing your sister like that, David. She just might get it into her head to leave you stranded on the soccer field after practice just for vexing her," Dana said with a teasing twinkle in her hazel-green eyes. "Besides, when I said your sister looked like Nana Darlene, I meant when she was Danielle's age. She's sixty-eight now, after all."

"But he says Dani looks like Nana when she was a professional model," David said.

Danielle bit into her banana and frowned at her little brother. Professional model? Highly unlikely.

"Your father should stop talking nonsense about his mother," Dana said. "It's not like she was this big shot Cindy Crawford or something. She might have the diva attitude, but she never had the status. Nana Catherine was no supermodel," their mother said with a sniff.

Danielle smiled and winked at Davey who put a hand over his mouth to stop himself from laughing.

"Well, we better get going," Danielle said as she rose with the banana peel in her hand. "It's a good idea to get there a little earlier or otherwise all the best parking spots are gone," she added as she stepped on the pedal of the flip-top trash bin and dropped her banana peel into it, waiting for Davey to do the same before she'd let the top drop again.

"You get'em, Tiger," their mother said to Davey as she hugged him and then straightened as he rushed over to his sister's side just when she got the keys to her brand-spanking-new neon lime green VW Bug—a gift for her twenty-second birthday which was supposed to be the gift for her twenty-first, but business was a little slow last year.

With a jumpy and excited Davey following her, they left the house before taking the stairs down with energetic steps. Davey was holding his new soccer ball between his hands, tossing it up and catching it, and seeing it, Danielle playfully slapped it out of his hands before she caught it, laughing when he guffawed. Using it like a basketball, she dribbled it away out of his reach.

"Dani!" he cried at first, but then he giggled and tried to snatch it back.

Not happening.

Danielle had always been an avid basketball player and she was pretty good, too. She swept the ball around her body as she walked backwards, daring him to take it from her, while they made their way to her shining new Bug.

"So you think you losers are gonna win a game this time?" she teased before she dribbled the soccer ball, and Davey shot to snatch it away, but she swept it away from him and popped it on her finger before she slapped it and made it spin on the tip of her finger. "Nope! Not when you're that slow, you're not!" she teased and he tried to smack her but she threw her slender hips out of the way, spinning away with trained balance. "Hah! Too slow for my Mojo!" she laughed.

Davey threw himself into a run and she shot behind her shining green Bug laughing the whole time when he couldn't catch her.

"You play basketball! I play soccer! If you'd play soccer, you'd lose against me!" Davey cried out.

"Hah!" she said, straightening on the other side of the Bug before she made a free throw and sent the ball sailing in a high arch over the car and straight into his hands. "Right! And all those soccer trophies in my room you keep trying to glue your name on were bought, huh? When your team wins one game and you get one 1^st Place trophy, then we'll talk."

"Oh we will! Just you wait and see!"

"That's the spirit," she said with a grin. "Never give up."

"I never give up," Davey said with a pout as he tugged open the passenger's side door a little roughly.

"Hey! Watch that!" Danielle cried out as she opened hers and was about to get in when her father appeared in one of the open bays.

"Danielle!"

She looked up over the shining lime-green roof. "Yeah, Daddy?!" Her gaze slipped over to the first bay seeing Wolfgang in a new blue coverall straighten from working on a classic Bug's engine while running a greasy rag along the long oil stick.

"If you see Ms. Annabelle Rossi, tell her the Jetta's ready for pick up!"

"Okay Daddy!" she put up a hand and dropped in behind the wheel and shut the door. "Buckle up, Loser." She grinned over at her brother who finally got to smack his sister's arm, and that made him smile! "Ow! Sister abuse! Sister abuse!" she cried as she buckled up and he followed her example as he laughed, cheerful again.

Danielle started the Bug and shifted before she laid an arm over the back of her little brother's seat to look over her shoulder before she backed out, but then she paused when she caught sight of Wolfgang as he stopped by the bay door.

He had come out to watch them, and he didn't look as if he were in any hurry to get back to work since he'd dropped a shoulder against the wall, staring at her while wiping the long dipstick in his hand. She put up a hand before she backed the Bug, and she noticed as they drove off how he never stopped watching them even as they drove down the boulevard!

The man sure loves to stare, she thought to herself.

By the time the lime-green Bug returned to the Davenport's property, it had two extra passengers, and Danielle didn't look like a happy camper since Davey was reduced to taking a seat in the back. It was already dark, and all the street lamps were already alight by the time she drove her Bug to its usual spot and parked it.

"I really appreciate it, Danielle," Ms. Annabella Rossi said.

That makes ONE of us, Danielle thought to herself.

Annabella was a twenty-seven year old, buxom Italian beauty whose already ten-year-old son, Ricky, was sitting behind Danielle in the back seat beside Davey. Although the boy thought he was being discrete, he forgot the magic of rearview mirrors, and as he sitting on the other side of the small and narrow back seat, he was sticking his tongue out at her little brother the whole time they were driving back to the Stop 'n' Shop.

Davey, in turn, frowned unfriendly back at his fellow soccer team mate.

"Yeah well, I was going out this way, too." Danielle smiled over at the sexy Italian who had too much make-up on her and not enough class in her heart.

"It's too bad Danny—"

"—Davey," Danielle corrected, but Annabelle waved it off with long, fiery red acrylic tipped fingers.

"It's too bad he didn't score a goal like my Ricky."

"It's not like I didn't try!" Davey protested, and Danielle looked into the rearview with a compassionate look at her upset little brother.

"He's only been playing on the team for three months, and Nicky's—"

"—Ricky." Annabelle looked cross at Danielle's smiling face, but she saw the girl mimic her move and waved her off.

"Like I said, he's been playing ever since he was ... how long was it again? That year you were seeing the team's former coach while at the same time dating Harry Trot? Oh yes. Six years now." She smiled, smoothly.

Annabelle narrowed eyes on her, but Danielle swore if the woman said one nasty thing to her, she was going to pull over and shove her and her annoying son out to the curb! Annabella was nothing if not clever. She sensed Danielle's thoughts and remained wisely still.

Danielle never liked the woman because she was always putting her little brother down in favor of her son. Rickie Rossi had always played sports, probably ever since he could walk, and he was good at any one of them, but he also had a big head because of it. And that big head gave him one shitty attitude Danielle couldn't stand. The boy was famous for more things in East Elmhurst, too. He was borough's favorite pastime as people discussed and debated who the mystery father was of the boy.

Many were guessing ... there were many fathers. Not biologically possible, true, but that's what they were coming to terms with during the many discussions and debates in every clubhouse and every bar around town.

The foursome finally exited the Bug and Danielle leaned in and got Davey's soccer ball before she secured the alarm and followed the three to the shop. "Davey!" she called, and her little brother stopped and turned around before she tossed his ball to him. He caught it with a sad little smile.

Wolfgang had just finished cleaning up Ms. Rossi's white Jetta that was parked in front of one bay, ready to go.

Good, Danielle thought to herself. At least now that woman didn't have to stick around longer than necessary while constantly flirting with her father! She really hated it when Annabella did that. It actually pissed her off.

Ricky Rossi got impish as he looked at a quiet and sad looking Davey, and then he suddenly moved and slapped the ball out of his hands. Danielle saw it, and as if it happened in slow motion, she saw the black and white ball bounce before Ricky hauled back a leg to kick it into the street!

With lightning speed, and pretty much without a hitch, Danielle shot forward using her skill as a one-time top high school basketball player just when Ricky sent the ball toward the street before Davey could say a single word. But it didn't get any further than Danielle's body as she stepped in between it and the street, catching the soccer ball to her before she came to a sprinting halt.

"That was fast!" Ricky cried in genuine astonishment. "Never seen no girl move so fast."

"It's "never seen any girl move so fast", but thanks!" Danielle said with a forced smile as she tossed the ball to Davey who caught it and grinned proudly up at his big sister.

"And to think, what with all your brains, you never made it into college," Annabella said smoothly as she came to stand behind her son and smiled.

Danielle gave her a snooty and bland one back.

"Dani did go to college!" Davey protested.

"Sweetie," Annabella purred, "taking a couple of classes in community college is not going to college." Then she looked at Danielle. "Let's just hope your little brother can make it into one of the better four-year universities. At least one Davenport will be a college grad and break tradition. Wouldn't that be wonderful? You'd be starting a whole new Davenport tradition!"

What would be wonderful, Danielle thought, would be starting a tradition of throttling that woman every other Friday! But outwardly, she merely smiled. "Go on upstairs, Davey. The sooner I get Ms. Rossi to pay her bill, the sooner she can get to her favorite watering hole for the night." And with that, she gently pushed her bother toward the shop.

"You need to be more customer service friendly, Dani," Annabella pointed out with narrowed eyes just before she spotted Wolfgang as he walked toward the shop, too. "Well, hellooo there, handsome," she said, instantly transforming from hissy-cat to purring kitten when she saw him.