The young boy had clasped his hands in front of him and was looking at Rye hesitantly now. “Um...” He stuck his hand out, as though to offer Rye a handshake. “I... would normally give you a hug. I mean, my mom says I’m ‘a hugger,’ or whatever. I love to hug people. But maybe you’d like a handshake better?”
Rye’s tight smile loosened up, and he huffed a small laugh and then shook his head and opened up his arms. “I... can hug you,” he said, because really, he felt no hesitation at all.
Phil’s expression brightened into another of those huge, wide grins, and the boy moved forward a step and wrapped his arms around Rye’s waist. “Aw, good, ’cause I do really love hugs the best. And it’s so great to finally meet you.”
“You, too,” Rye said, though his voice was low now.
It was a really good hug. He hadn’t ever been hugged by a child. Well, at least, not since he was now an adult. But it felt so warm and so... not heavy. He loved his mom’s hugs, but there was always still some sense of uncertainty or shame or his own sense of guilt when he hugged her. Guilt from all the pain he’d caused her because of the awful, awful mistake he’d made so many years ago.
But this hug, with Phil, felt free and light and just... nice.
Phil finally pulled back, still grinning from ear to ear.
“Hey, Rye,” Jake said gently, and when Rye looked up at him, Jake’s soft smile erased that final bit of discomfort that was lingering in his stomach from earlier. Jake tilted his head toward the woman now standing just behind Phil. “Rye, Shirley, this is my sister, Krista.”
Jake had talked about his sister often, but from everything he’d said, Rye had pictured this large, overbearing hulk of a woman who was as intimidating as any man Rye had ever met. Yet the woman who stepped up around Phil and greeted him and his mom with a soft smile looked nothing like that image he’d had in his head. Shedidlook familiar, because even though she was short—an inch or so shorter than Rye’s mom, actually—her deep brown eyes were a perfect matchto Jake’s, and she and Jake both had the same strong, kind, gentle composure. Her hair was much lighter than Jake’s and pulled back into a long braid, and her voice when she greeted him had that same quality that Jake’s had—a rich tone to it that just made Rye feel... safe.
Or something.
Healmostfelt like he could talk to her.
And so he forced himself to try.
“H-hi, Krista,” he managed, his voice faltering just slightly. Her eyes lit up in response, though, like he’d done something so incredibly impressive.
And that made him want to crawl into a hole.
Just how... low was the bar set? He thought that was the phrase anyway. People didn’t expect much of him, and being able to say hi to a stranger should not be some miraculous feat.
Yet if he let himself think about it, maybe it kind of was.
“It’s so great to finally meet you. Phil’s been going on and on about how you beat him atMario Kartlast week,” Krista said, and she was smiling, her eyes bright.
Phil popped back into the conversation, eager and enthusiastic as he described just about every second of that race—a race Rye had only won at the very last moment because one of the computer players had hit Phil with a blue shell, knocking him out and back to fourth place. But Phil somehow made it sound like... like Rye had won the Olympics or something.
Rye found himself grinning and shaking his head as he listened to Phil continue on, and he was about to try to jump in, to argue something about Phil exaggerating—if that was the right word—when he caught Jake’s eye. Jake was watching him with that same kind smile he always had, and it seemed to grow brighter when Rye blinked and shook his head again.
“It was amazing! Really! I hope we get to play again sometime soon. Will we, Rye?” Phil didn’t wait for Rye to answer before he kicked his legs up in the air and stood on his hands again, somehow perfectly in control. “I’m off school for the next week and a half at least. Right, Mom? I mean, I still have gym, but no schoolwork, and so maybe we can play again soon? If you’ll be going over to Uncle Jake’s?”
Krista mumbled some response that didn’t seem to be a commitment either way, and Jake laughed.
“I... would like that,” Rye managed, though as soon as he did, his throat seemed to close up and his chest tightened. He blinked and forced back the feeling. Hecouldtalk. He focused on Phil rather than Krista or all of the other people milling about, moving around them. “I, um, work s-sometimes, but...”
“Oh?” Phil stepped down with his feet and stood straight up again.
Rye managed a nod, but that was it this time. He looked to his mom and pursed his lips, knowing she’d step in and help him. She’d just taken a sip of her hot chocolate, which reminded Rye that he had his own, and she nodded and then began explaining Rye’s “work” at the bookstore as he took a careful sip of his drink.
Did it count as work if he wasn’t getting paid? He wasn’t sure. His mom called it an “internship,” which he’d figured out meant that he was working for free in exchange for learning about a job. And he supposed maybe that was true. He was learning about how Janice kept her bookstore. But he really spent most of his time reading books. Or trying to read. Many of them had words that were still too hard or text that was too small and gave him a headache when he squinted at it for too long.
But his mom sounded really, really proud of him as she told Krista and Phil about his “job.” And that honestly felt pretty good, too.
When Rye’s mom finished talking, Phil finally seemed to notice the hot chocolate table. With a squeal of delight, he grabbed his mom’s hand and hauled her away in that direction.
Laughing, Krista called over her shoulder, “Want a cup, little brother?”
And Rye had to stifle a laugh. Jake’s cheeks, which were already pink from the cold, turned an even darker shade, and he rolled his eyes.
“I’m bigger than you, Kris!”
