Pilot
Sam watches from his sisters porch as the man in the yard beside them heaves another box from the van parked sideways on the asphalt. It looks like most of the moving in has been done already, the mans not carrying furniture or valuables. The box held in muscular arms is sideways, Sam tilts his head subtly to read the sharpie inked into the the cardboard. 'Nat clothes' it says in thick, dark letters.
"What are you doing over here by yourself?" Sarah, Sam's sister elbows him gently in the ribs, follows his eyes over to her newest neighbors, "Ooh, yeah. They technically moved in last week. He was out here all day everyday moving furniture and stuff. They're just now actually sleeping there, I think, though. He's cute, right?"
Sam rolls his eyes, Sarah scoffs, "Oh c'mon, he's cute! Admit it. We all know you-"
"Nah, c'mon Sarah, don't you say-"
"-have a thing for pretty white boys." She finishes anyways.
Sam shakes his head, mocking disbelief even though he's not the slightest bit surprised at his sisters behavior.
"Food 'll be done in a bit, you should invite them over."
"Them?" Sam focuses on taking a long drink of his beer and picking at the label to avoid staring down the new neighbor like an absolute freak.
Sarah nods, "He's got a girl close to the boys' age," she references her own ten and twelve year old children, "and another younger girl."
"Married then," Sam assumes.
"Maybe, maybe not. You should go find out, then we'll both know."
Sam turns, leans his upper body against the corner porch railing, back turned into a corner between the railing and the brick of the house. "He's your neighbor, Sar," after another sip of beer, Sam finishes his thought, "you invite him."
Sarah blinks once, then she's turned to step down the small set of stairs leading off of her property. "James! Hey, hi, James, we're having a little cookout if you and the girls want to-"
"Jesus," Sam mumbles to himself, trying to look busy as his sister makes a fool of them both, tripping over herself to get the 'pretty white boy' neighbor in the general vicinity of her brother who, in Sarah's opinion, has been single for far too long.
****
Despite Sarah's goading and poking, Sam has yet to speak to the neighbor- James, apparently.
James seems like an alright guy, if a little shy. He speaks when spoken to, seems to keep okay conversation as long as someone else starts it for him. He keeps mostly to himself, though the same cannot be said for his youngest daughter, Yelena, who made fast friends with Sam's brother Gideon and cousin Cyrus' kids. The small blonde zipped around Sarah's backyard like she'd lived and played there her whole life.
The older girl was a direct contrast to her sister. Stuck close to her father and seemed to talk even less than him. When the food was pronounced ready, she made her own plate but whispered questions to her father as she did. She moved from sitting tightly beside her father to across the picnic table once the food was out, likely so that the smaller girl could sit near James.
Gideon called out to his daughter to come eat before continuing their play. Sylvia whined and complained about wanting to keep playing with her new friend who hadn't been asked to sit down to eat yet.
James fixed that with a swift call of, "Lena," which was answered with the six year old climbing onto the bench beside him and no whining.
"If you're not gonna flirt with him, I will." Sarah says, sliding onto the bench next to her brother. It was more or less a joke, Sam knew. Sarah had said many times that she didn't think she was ready to start dating again so soon after her husbands passing.
"You don't even know if he's into guys." Sam points out, "What if-"
"Sam, stop makin' up excuses and go talk to the man."
So he does. Sam waits until his brother, Gideon, has offered to take the kids down to the small creek behind their row of houses. Both of James' kids following along. Yelena had needed no convincing but the older girl had hesitated. She looked to her father, starting to follow the growing group of children when he nodded encouragement. She lost her nerve a few steps away from the table, shuffling back to James who pulled her close, said something in a low whisper in her ear, then he ran a hand through long red curls and shook them around until they fell into her eyes. "Go look after your sister, Lia." He says, like he's giving her an excuse to go play with the other kids. It must be what she needed because she hurries to catch up with the group.
Sam takes the opportunity to chat up her father. To which James mostly hums and grunts but Sam does learn that the new neighbor is a mechanic moving from Illinois. Something of a nasty divorce with the girls’ mother that Sam is absolutely not going to be asking questions about.
“Yelena doesn’t really notice anything is different, I don’t think, or she doesn’t care. I had them more often than not even when their mother was around,” James Belova explains when the kids come rushing back all at once. Yelena panting from sprinting back to the table, noisy breathes puffed into her cup. She rambles about tiny fish, yells something about basketball courts and a playground as she flees back to the group of kids.
The older girl doesn’t return to playing as quickly. She spares Sam the quickest of glances, slides onto the bench up against her dad and takes his cup from his hands.
James’ hand moves up to push a bit of fire-red hair out of the girls face, “Natalia has always been a daddy’s girl though. Yeah?” She doesn’t respond vocally but leans her head on James’ shoulder and nods very small.
“Are you going to go back?” He asks, shrugging just to jostle her.
“Yeah,” it’s the first time Sam has heard her speak, she has some sort of accent he can’t decipher that doesn’t quite match her family’s. “Lena wants to play basketball. She’s never even held a basketball,”
“I’m sure the boys have one around here somewhere,” Sam offers, “and there’s a youth league through the schools in the colder months if she ends up liking it. Older teams if you want to try too.”
Natalia’s eyebrows come together, like she doesn’t understand why he’s talking to her or maybe like she’s translating the words into something that makes better sense. Still, she nods slowly.
“There should be a couple in the ball rack around the corner,” he points out to her, there are three basketballs visible from where they’re sitting, “if you wanted to take one over to your sister.”
She nods faster, more sure of herself. Steals a glance at her dad but doesn’t wait for his approval, instead she takes off picking out a light blue colored ball and bouncing it experimentally.
“Thanks,” James let’s himself smile a little, “I’d put money on Nattie being the one actually interested in basketball. She’d never ask for herself, she’s so damn shy.”
Sam would put money on there being more to it than just ‘shy’, given just the way James says it.
That’s a question for another day, though, and Sam goes back to trying to gauge the other man’s receptiveness to an offer of a date. Both missing the toy drone that wasn’t piloted by the neighborhood kids.