“Well,” I correct with a smirk. “I can carry a ball well.”
“So, anyway.” She heaves an exasperated sigh. “Paisley might have had trouble with her peers in her other school because there weren’t many she could communicate with, but in that school, she’ll have all the support she needs, and everyone will know ASL.”
I scratch at the back of my neck, asking Nadine the question I’ve been afraid of. “Do you get the impression she was bullied or anything?”
“Not bullied, but definitely left out.” She obviously had this conversation with Paisley, and it makes me feel like shit for not having it myself.
Almost as if Nadine can read my mind, she explains, “She didn’t outright express that, but I am assuming from everything she’s told me about her old school. About the difficulty your parents had with the administration pushing back on some accommodations, having the interpreter in class. Some bad experiences with teachers.”
“Like what?”
Nadine puffs up her cheeks and blows out a breath, her eyes staring into the house through the glass doors. “Common microaggressions deaf and hard of hearing students may face, talking down to her or outright ignoring her. The closest Deaf school in Iowa was three hours away.”
I knew that. I remember my parents considering moving to send her there, but that meant them giving up their jobs, unsure if they would be able to find new ones. That’s when I stepped in and offered to pay for anything they needed, even a new house, if that’s what they wanted. They refused a new house, but they did accept my paying for her to join clubs and go on trips to meet up with other children in the Deaf community. It was good for my parents too, learning how to navigate that world. Still, it wasn’t enough. As Nadine tells me, “It’s lonely to live in ahearing world when you’re deaf. It’s exhausting and sometimes very depressing without friends to build a support system.”
“I had no idea she was struggling so much.” Because once again, I’m the fucking worst. I spin around, gripping the railing tight, a punch of self-loathing hitting me worse than that tackle. “I should’ve known. I should’ve asked. Been there.”
Nadine doesn’t disagree, but she also doesn’t blame me. “You are her brother, not her parent. It wasn’t your job to know.”
“It is now.”
“And you can help her now.” She sets her small hand on my back, rubbing a small circle, soothing the tension gathered along my spine. “She’ll be okay.”
I’m not so sure of it.
“She will,” Nadine promises quietly as her hand slides off my back, settling on the railing next to mine, our pinkies separated by only an inch of space. “You see her,” she says, repeating the piece of advice she gave me the other night. All I need to do is see Paisley and love her. See the person she is and love her, no matter what. “She’ll be okay.”
I tip my head back, face up to the night sky. It must be almost eleven now. And Nadine is still here. Going above and beyond for her job. For my sister.
Maybe for me too.
“I’m not sure I’d be able to do any of this without you,” I confess, and when she doesn’t respond, I turn my focus on her. She’s staring out ahead of us, her profile is in shadow because I’m so much taller than her and blocking the light. Though I notice the way her chest rises and falls with each of her breaths, the tip of her tongue when it pokes out to wet her lips.
It’s an eternity before she finally replies, tilting her ice-river eyes up to mine, a familiar challenge in them. “I’m positive you’d have figured it out eventually since you’re sosmart. But if you need some emotional support, Jelly and Bean are waiting for you.”
“Those are dumb fucking names.”
She huffs, pivoting away from me to step back inside the apartment, and I follow as if she’s got me on an invisible leash. “I like them. I think they’re cute.” She bends, sticking her finger into their oversized cage to pet the black one with a white stripe on its nose, cooing, “Yes, you’re cute. Yes, you are, aren’t you?”
I’d like to make a joke about me being cute, but her ass is too distracting, and it isn’t until she struts away from me that my brain comes back online. I once again escort her to the front door, a pattern we’ve developed lately. I stop at the door, and she turns to me, one hand curled around the strap of her purse, the other pointing in the direction of my sister’s bedroom. “Nice work staying so calm.”
When I roll my lips into a flat line, she laughs at my expense. “You might just be all right.”
“Yeah.” I watch as she saunters away in her short shorts, oversized raccoon T-shirt billowing around her. “You too.”
CHAPTER 10
CAMDEN
“Which teammate wouldyou not want to date your sister?”
One of the social media managers stands at the fence as we exit the practice field, a tiny microphone held out in front of Erik and me. Momentarily caught off guard by the question because I’m suddenly thinking of Paisley dating, I’m stunned into silence. My best friend is not.
He punches me in the chest with his helmet. “Easy… Long.”
“What?” I guffaw. “You don’t want me dating your sister?”
“I don’t want you datinganysisters, butespeciallymine.”
