“Well, it’s no trouble for us to keep her while you go to your appointment,” I quickly said.
Thiers’ eyelids rose then fell. “No, I couldn’t ask you to do that.”
“You’re not asking us,” Robert replied. “We’re happy to do it.” He looked back, staring at Aaron who stared up at him with a questioning expression on his face. Robert turned to Thiers, gesturing with this head.
I followed the two toward the den’s doorway.
“It’s the first time Aaron’s come out of that dark shell he’s cocooned himself in.” Robert glanced back at Aaron and Patience before turning to Thiers again. “He’s not as dark and angry looking around her. She can stay here while you make your appointment, and then you can come over for dinner.”
I sighed in relief. Robert seemed to get it without needing a long explanation. Another reason my love for him grew with each day, even after nearly nine years of marriage.
“Okay,” Thiers finally acquiesced. “I’d rather not have my girl at this meeting anyway.” Thiers walked over to Patience and placed a kiss on her forehead. “I’ll be back later, okay?”
“’Kay, bye!” Patience waved, and then laid her head back against Aaron’s chest, eyes peacefully closing.
“I’ll be damned.” Robert’s voice was just above a whisper as he and I watched Aaron flip open the page of the book, moving his lips silently as if trying to recite the letter. One arm protectively wrapped around the sleeping girl in his arms.
****
Robert
“That was …”
“Wasn’t it?” Deborah retorted to my unfinished statement. We were sitting in my downstairs office, having just finished dinner with the kids, Thiers, and his young daughter, Patience. Throughout the entire day, since Patience arrived, it was as if she was glued to Aaron’s side. And for his part, he wasn’t too keen on her beingunstuck.Not only was it the age difference that surprised me—since when did eight-year-old boys want to hang out with three-year-old girls—but the fact that simply because of Patience’s insistence, Aaron had spent the day attempting to read, or at the very least, sounding out different letters. Something Deborah and I had to threaten to take away toys or video games to get him to do.
“Even at dinner—”
“He insisted she sit next to him,” Deb finished.
I shook my head. “It was almost as if—” My comment was silenced by a knock on the door.
My head pivoted in the direction of the knock to find Aaron standing in the doorway, that surly expression firmly planted on his face.
Deborah immediately stood up from my lap, going to him. “Is everything alright?”
Aaron nodded before speaking. “I wanted to, um, ask you something.”
“Come in.” Deborah stepped aside, allowing space for Aaron to enter.
Taking a seat on the edge of the chair directly across from me, he set his hands in his lap, allowing his feet to touch the floor. His positioning looked as if he kept himself prepared to make a run for it, just in case he needed to.
Just seeing him sit there like that, reminded me of the times where I made a too-quick movement near him and he’d flinch as if expecting a smack or punch to the face or body. I tightened my grip on the pencil I was holding, until I heard it snap. If I could resurrect my shithead of a younger brother just so I could beat his ass for what he did to his own son, I swear I would’ve.
“What did you want to discuss, son?” I questioned, folding my hands over one another, placing them on the desk.
He looked around the room, briefly, before his eyes came to rest on Deborah and I. She stood over me, as I sat in the high back leather chair, her arm resting against my left shoulder.
“I think I should learn to read.”
I looked up at Deborah; her eyebrows nearly touched her forehead. “Oh.”
Aaron nodded. “Patience is only three and she can read.”
He mumbled that last part but I’d heard it.
“Well, we can make arrangements with the tutor we were talking about.”
“Aaron, we know this might be tough for you,” Deborah began as she rounded the desk and stooped low in front of Aaron, “and that the other kids might—”
