“I think I made the jewelry about you guys. You gave it to me, so it was mine because of you. When they took it, it was like…”
Julian finished for me. “Like you lost them. Jeremy and Phoenix. And eventually it was like you lost all of us.”
I wasn’t surprised he got it. Julian did tend to cue in on things super fast. “That’s it.”
“I’ll wait to get you more jewelry.” Jeremy smiled. “But I will not promise to never buy you any. I think you can count on that. And by wait, I mean only a little bit.”
I sighed. It was no surprise he was determined on this.
“Come on.” Phoenix took my hand. “Let’s get you home.”
8
We drove home together in the Jeep Barrett was tooling around in. I sat up front with Barrett, and Jeremy kept catching my eye in the rearview mirror and winking at me. It made me grin. Barrett drove in silence. Phoenix must have been thinking about something because he was quietly looking out the window, and Jules had his eyes closed. I was cramping a little bit and glad for the pad they’d given me before I left the doctor. Yeah… this was going to be painful for a few days. Worth it, but painful.
When we pulled into the driveway, he opened them.
I didn’t guess you could make up a lot of lost sleep in one night.
“Gotta work.” He groaned. “And then I’m going to write before we have to go eat shrimp. When was the last time my mother made this shrimp?”
Phoenix shook his head. “I know I ate it when I was young, but if she made it more recently I don’t remember.”
“It’s been about three years.”
Phoenix shrugged. “Guess I blocked it out or was too fucked up the last time I ate it to register.”
We all climbed out, and Barrett leaned against the car. “Some people around here make incredible barbecue shrimp. Mom isn’t one of them.”
“Hey,” a voice called to us, and we all turned around. It was a guy, about our age I would guess, who ran toward us. “How’s it going? Phoenix, I was hoping to just have a minute.”
“Yeah,” Phoenix nodded at him. “Of course. Hang on, Alatheia.” He put out his hand. “One second?”
“Sure.” I walked over to him, taking his outstretched offering that linked us together.
“This is Sam. Sam this is Alatheia.”
I stared at Sam for a second, still not sure exactly who he was. He stared back, not in an unfriendly way, but I became instantly aware of my hair. I touched the cap on my head. Thank goodness it was on.
“Don’t worry about that.” Phoenix caught my gaze and squeezed my fingers tightly. “You’re beautiful. Perfect.” That wasn’t true. Even when I had hair on my head. “Sam is my partner in sobriety. It’s part of the program here. He’s been clean about a month longer than me. And we support each other.”
Oh, wow. Okay. That made sense. “Like your sponsor?”
“No, not exactly. It’s not the same program. We’re both new to it, we couldn’t be sponsoring anyone. And we have a mentor who has been clean for a decade, who works with both of us.”
Sam made a waving motion. “Nice to finally meet you, Alatheia. I’ve heard so much about you that I feel like I know you. Sorry if I stared. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I paint. I think I stare a moment too long at people like I’m taking them and imagining recreating their faces. It’s weird. Anyway, you have great bone structure.”
Phoenix shook his head. “Don’t hit on my girl, Sammy.”
He held up his hands like he was surrendering. “I’m not. I wouldn’t do that. Besides, she wouldn’t care. She belongs to you guys. I can see it.”
The other three brothers said some semblance of hello to Sam and headed into the house.
“Yeah, I won’t keep Phoenix long. I could just use a minute. And, if you need anything, I live right there. The house next door to the left.” He pointed.
Phoenix kissed my hand. “He lives there with his two brothers and three younger sisters.”
“It’s nice meeting you, Sam.” I let go of Phoenix’s hand so he could go off with Sam for however long they needed. Really, other than seeing Phoenix sober and knowing he had a therapy appointment today, almost no sign of what he was doing here had presented itself before now. Was it okay to ask? What was the protocol? Was it secret?
