"So, any changes at the house of Eppes that I should know about?" Robin said, pulling on her seatbelt.
Don put the car in drive. "There's been talk of putting solar panels on the roof. In fact, Dad and Charlie have been having this stupid competition to see who can come up with the most over-the-top plan to green the house and incidentally break the zoning regulations into a thousand pieces."
Robin laughed. "Didn't your dad used to work as a city planner?"
"Yeah, that's part of what makes it so funny. Amita and I had a bet on which of them was going to come up with the hydro-electric power dam. I lost, I think she cheated. I keep getting these calls, 'Do you know what your brother's planning to do to the house?' I just go uh-huh."
"Oh, your brother, I like that," Robin said, spotting the point with lawyerly astuteness.
"Yeah, when I was four I asked for a puppy. There's no way Dad can pin this one on me." Don swung the car into the north-bound traffic. The slowly-moving north-bound traffic. "Uh…Dad talked about moving out—again—and Amita talked about moving in, but so far nobody's actually done anything about it."
Robin raised her eyebrows. "I didn't know Charlie and Amita were that serious."
"Oh, yeah." Don rolled his eyes. "I've taken to banging the front door deliberately when I go in. I think Chuck's trying to make up for leaving home when he was too young to get caught out on the couch." Apparently Dad had started dropping grandchildren hints to Amita. Don decided not to mention that.
"Anything else?"
"Charlie had to fix up the pond and the pump before all the koi went to the big pond in the sky. He had to draft me to move the heavy rocks, though. Lessee…Dad's taking some engineering courses at CalSci."
"Engineering? Not math?"
"I know. Charlie practically burst into tears when Dad told us. Oh, yeah, and he has this...thing...with Charlie's boss. I just sit back and be glad my boss is a guy. The house is like CalSci staff residences or something. Oh, and Larry went to outer space and came back even weirder, if you can believe that's possible. He sold his house and is now living in a monastery."
"As in, monks?"
"Yup. As far as I know, he and Megan are still...whatever, don't ask me how that works." He frowned briefly, which was what usually happened when he thought about Megan these days. Something was going on there, and it worried him.
Robin was laughing again.
"What, is my family weirding you out?" Don asked. "Don't worry, they do it to me too."
"No, it's just funny. You could write a book or something."
"Aw, how did I forget? Charlie did write a book. Not one of his math theory books, a book for normal people."
"Oh, the popularity one? I asked myself, 'Is that the same Charles Eppes?' but then I realised that there was a math pun in the title, it had to be."
"A lame math pun," Don corrected. "Did you read it?"
"Did you?"
"I spell-checked part of it, and I'm telling you, I earned that dedication he gave me. So spill, have you read it?"
"Haven't gotten around to it. My mom lent me her copy. I think she was hinting."
"Oh, what was she hinting?" Don pulled up at a red light and grinned at Robin.
"I think she missed an opportunity. She should have stuck a note in the front to say that the author's brother is—" she leaned closer, breath warm on Don's ear "—very sexy."
The light was still red. Don turned his head and—yeah. Nice.
"And is great at kissing," Robin murmured against his mouth, her fingers tracing his jaw. It was a shame that they had to go to dinner at the house, no time for a detour—
The car behind started honking. The lights must have changed. Don broke free reluctantly.
"Guy behind us must be single," he said, driving forward.
Robin shook her head. "Out of possible places to meet your family again, 'in the ER after being rear-ended' is pretty far down the list."
"Ha. Wait till you hear what happened to my brother when he met Amita's parents..."