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  The crowd hooted. Bubbe Esther led the ladies in, and they took their seats next to their spouses and boyfriends. Laila's expression was excited, but Hal knew she was faking. Neither of them had volunteered for the game, but had been recruited to fill the last empty slot. He knew she was worried his answers would expose how little he knew about her.

  The emcee went down the line, asking all the women to answer the same question. After they gave their answer, their respective partner was supposed to show what he'd written on the card. Most of the men, Hal was relieved to note, got a slap or an outraged squawk when they read their answers.

  It was their turn. "Brown," Laila answered confidently when the announcer asked her eye color.

  Hal looked at the answer he'd written. "Brown with amazing flecks of gold, like the finest expensive caramel."

  Laila stared at him in amazement. The catcalls and teasing shouts coming from the audience turned to oohs and ahs. The announcer chuckled and gave them the point.

  She looked at him again with wonder when he named her perfume, favorite color and shoe size all correctly. That he'd only guessed at the shoes didn't seem to matter. Out of all the couples playing along, Hal was the man who got nearly all the questions right. The only one he missed was her middle name, Eliana, and he'd had no way of even guessing that.

  "We have a winner!" The announcer declared when the game ended. "Hal and Laila!"

  The family members and strangers in the small room cheered and hollered. Everyone congratulated them. The prize was a weekend for two at Bramblewood. The package included the honeymoon suite with private whirlpool tub, champagne breakfast in the room and a horse and carriage ride, plus dinner at a neighboring gourmet restaurant.

  "Laila, it looks like you and David will be coming to Bramblewood for your honeymoon, just like me and Zayde did." Bubbe Esther linked her one arm through each of Laila and Hal's. "Oy, sixty years ago. How time passes! I wish the same joy for both of you that your grandfather and I have had, Laila."

  "Thanks, Bubbe." Laila accepted Esther's kiss on her cheek.

  When the old lady motioned to Hal to bend down and get kissed, too, he did so with a major pang of guilt. He knew he was being paid to deceive these people, but did they all have to be so nice?

  "Bubbe, we're going down to the game lounge to shoot some pool!" Some of Laila's teenage cousins crowded around them, jostling for kisses and nose squeezes from Esther.

  "Go, go," Esther said, unlinking her arm from Laila's to flap her hand at them. "Enjoy!"

  The announcer was setting up the room to start another couples game, but most of the Alster family was leaving for other pursuits. From what Hal had read on the activities menu, there were plenty to choose from. Esther seemed content to walk with them to the cozily decorated fire lounge.

  "Sit," she said, indicating the pair of sofas in front of the merrily crackling fire. "I need to get to know my future grandson-in-law a little better."

  Hal and Laila sat together. He slipped his arm around her shoulder, trying to make the movement look casual and practiced. The only problem was he didn't know what to do with his fingers. Did she like him to slide them along side her neck or curl them around her upper arm? Was he pulling her too close? Was he choking her?

  "David?"

  Too late, he realized Esther had asked him a question. "Sorry?"

  The old lady laughed, leaning forward on her couch across from them. "That's all right. Lose yourself in my granddaughter's candy eyes. That's what young lovers do, don't you know?"

  Hal was glad the glimmering firelight wouldn't show his flushed cheeks. Laila sat too tensely beside him. Should he move his hand?

  "I asked you what sort of wedding you were planning," Esther said.

  "Big," Hal said at the same time Laila said, "Small."

  Laila cleared her throat. "We haven't talked about it much yet, Bubbe."

  "Sure, sure. There's lots of time to talk about that." Esther grinned, her eyes twinkling. In the dim light it was hard to see, but Hal would have bet anything they were the same color as Laila's. "What I really want to know is why you hid this handsome fellow from us for so long."

  "Ah, that's been my fault," Hal broke in. "My busy schedule, you know--"

  "Oy vey, yes," Esther said, nodding. "Doctors, they run themselves ragged, nu?"

  "Uh--yeah." Hal racked his brain for something, anything, he could say about being a proctologist. "There's certainly a lot of--stuff. To do. A lot of people to--probe. I mean my practice is pretty full."

  Esther nodded again, sympathetically. "Laila told me all about it. What a wonderful thing, to be a healer. Now my Saul, he goes to the proctologist. He has these polyps, you see--"

  "Bubbe!" Laila coughed. "Hal--oh. Hello! David's on vacation."

  "Oh, sure, sorry." Esther waved her hands and sank back into the cushions. "Don't you pay attention to me, David. I'm just an old lady who likes to flap her gums."

  "Not at all," Hal said. "I don't mind."

  "I like your looks, David." Esther propped her feet up on the low trunk serving as a coffee table between the two couches.

  Hal grinned. "Thanks."

  "I'd always hoped Laila would find a man with a big nose like the one you've got."

  "Bubbe!" Laila cried. She twisted to look at Hal, and he dropped his arm from her shoulder. "His nose isn't big!"

  Hal knew he had large features. He'd been told he had a big nose before. Esther's comment didn't hurt his feelings, but he could see that Laila took it personally. For his sake? The thought made warmth flood him.

  "Big nose, big hands." Esther craned her neck to peer at Hal's shoes. "Oy, and big feet, too!"

  "Bubbe!" Laila cried again.

  "Laila, don't you know that men with big noses make the best lovers?" Esther asked her granddaughter. "Look at the size of your Zayde Saul's schnoz!"

  Now Laila was practically writhing in mortification. "Shh. Shh. I don't want to hear any more."

  "I ask you," Esther said conversationally to Hal. "How did my son and his wife raise such a prude for a daughter? None of your brothers or sister was this embarrassed when I talked to them."

  "It's all right," Hal said, as much for Laila's sake as for Esther's. "Your grandma's right."

  Esther hooted. "And such modesty."

  He'd just meant she was right about the size of his nose, but he wasn't going to protest the part about being a great lover. "I wish my grandma talked like you do."

  "No, you don't," Laila said with a shake of her head. "Bubbe, you're incorrigible."

  But now she was smiling and had even relaxed a bit against Hal's side. Laila propped her feet on the table, toying with Esther's boot clad feet playfully. Laila gave the old lady such a look of fondness that, for one instant, Hal was jealous.

  "Aunt Laila! David! Come quick!" Noah ran so fast toward him that he skidded on one of the throw rugs on the polished wood floor.

  "Whoa, slow down there, buckaroo." Laila caught the boy before he could careen into the furniture. "What's up?"

  "It's Henry!" Noah's lip trembled, but at the same time his eyes were alight with excitement. "He was trying to play ping-pong with the big kids and he got hurt! You have to come see!"

  Esther leaped to her feet with an agility admirable in an eighty-year-old woman. "Where are they now? Did you tell your mom and dad?"

  Noah nodded, full of self-importance at being the messenger. "They said I should go get the doctor."

  Hal's heart sank to his ankles and he stifled a groan. He was the doctor. Still, how bad could a ping-pong injury be?

  Esther had already set off down the hall with Noah tugging at her hand. Hal followed Laila, who moved with a swift, purposeful strides. Her protectiveness of her nieces and nephews was an intriguing look into her character. He'd meant it when he said he thought she'd be a good mother.

  "Hurry up!" Noah called back to them before ducking through the doorway to the games lounge. His voice held unmistakable glee. "There's lots o