“He’s different, Ad. He’s... really committed.”
“Honestly, it’s kind of obvious.” Her expression relaxed some, and she turned thoughtful. “I mean, let’s be honest, there’s always been something between you two. But now, I don’t know, instead of the constant tension, there’s a strong bond or something.”
My cheeks flushed with the compliment. And I didn’t even know if she meant it as one. But she was right. There had always been something between us, but now, we finally got to put a name to it. We finally got to treat it with the respect and dedication it deserved.
“I like him, Sis. I mean, I really like him. I think I always have.”
She hid her smile behind a sip of wine. “I think you more than like him, babe.”
Before I could deny her subtle accusation, our phones dinged with a simultaneous text. I pulled mine out of my pocket to find a group text to both of us from Chris. My stomach dropped to my toes. And one look at Adleigh’s pale face sent it nosediving to the basement of this building.
I knew what was coming. My entire body braced for it before I’d even opened the text.
Adleigh’s face crumpled with disappointment, and I was injected with the sick, crushing feeling of being right.
Chris:Hey, girls. Wish I could make it tonight, but I’ve been called up to Indiana for a few months. Job starts tomorrow morning, so I had to get going. Was good catching up with you. I’ll reach out next time I’m in town. Stay safe...
Stay safe?Stay safe?
I wanted to chuck my phone against the wall and punch something. But one look at Adleigh’s tear-streaked face made me pull it together.
I wasn’t a hugger, but fuck this. I stepped up to Adleigh and pulled her into a tight embrace. She wept on my shoulder, sobbing and shaking and grieving in a way I was unfortunately well acquainted with.
“What happened?” Shane demanded over my shoulder.
Adleigh attempted to explain but only managed high-pitched squeaking sounds that didn’t make sense.
“What?” Shane demanded.
I turned us both around and said, “Our dad left town. Again. He texted to let us know he couldn’t make it. Which was actually more thoughtful than usual.”
Adleigh cried harder.
The boys looked at us with real fear in their eyes. What were men supposed to do with hysterical women, after all?
“Do you mind if we hide out in the bedroom for a bit?” I asked Shane, already tugging Adleigh along with me.
“By all means,” he said, gesturing toward the door.
“Okay, take your time,” Charlie called from behind me. “I’ll just be out here... with your sister’s boyfriend.”
I didn’t bother responding. He would be fine. He lived for this stuff.
Adleigh and I collapsed on their tidy bed. We immediately moved into sister positions. Her head resting on my outstretched bicep, tucked into my side like she was the smaller human. I played with her hair. And she cried into my side until she had no tears left to shed.
Then she sniffled.
Adleigh and I had done this countless times before. When mean girls excluded her from a pool party in middle school. When a boy had broken her heart her junior year of high school. And then again her senior year. When Mom moved away. When she’d failed out of her first biology class in college and had to retake it over the summer. When she and Shane had fought the first time. And now this. When her dad had left her the second time. With only a “stay safe” to keep her heart warm at night.
I was so angry.So fucking angry.
My heart wasn’t particularly dented, especially given how low my expectations of him were, but Adleigh’s? She deserved so much more, and Chris’ssadly expectedbehavior totally pissed me off.How. Dare. He.
“He’s broken, Ad,” I said after a long time of lying there, thinking about the right thing to say. I trembled with fury and half-cocked plans for revenge, but she needed me to hold it together. And so I was going to do that for her. This was the revenge I was going to mete out—I was going to help my sister recover, walk her through the worst of this trauma, and then make sure she knew how to fill up her life with people worthy of her love. “This is what he’s done. What he’s always done. He doesn’t know how to be different.”
“But I don’t understand why he doesn’t want us in his life.” Her voice was muffled behind her hands, thick with raw emotion. “We’re awesome, Ade. We’re like the coolest. Why wouldn’t he want to be around us?”
I pulled on something Charlie had said to me. Something that had healed me more than anything else. “Because it’s not really about us at all. We’re disposable to him because there’s something wrong inside him. It has nothing to do with us. It never has, and it never will. His choices are his own. And while we have to carry the weight of them and make them somehow fit in our own lives, they were his to make, his to regret. He didn’t leave town because he met his two daughters and realized he would never be as cool as them. He left town because he doesn’t know how to fix the brokenness inside him.”
