It took less than two minutes for him to fall asleep.
Her mom padded softly into his room and knelt next to the bed, looking over his sleeping form at Abby. “Olivia went to bed,” she whispered.
Abby nodded.
“Tinker left,” her mom said.
“Okay.”
“We’re sorry, honey. We really lost track of time.”
“I know.”
“I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?”
Abby nodded. Her mom left and the backs of her eyes began to sting. She inhaled deeply and let it out slowly, counting an additional one hundred and twenty seconds to make sure Will was fully asleep, then slid off his bed and walked softly out of his room. She closed the door, leaving it cracked like she did any other night.
Back in the living room, everything was clean. There was no evidence that only twenty minutes earlier there had been bowls of popcorn and cups scattered around.
Her chin trembled and she pressed her lips together. Back in her room, she managed to take off her dress and change into a ratty T-shirt and shorts before the first tear fell to her cheek.
Deep sobs shook her body. She didn’t even know why she was crying.
She slid to the floor of her closet, tucked into the corner next to the door. It was her pity corner. That’s what she called it anyway. The one she curled into when she wanted to hide from the world. The first time had been when Will was one and teething. He’d cried for what seemed like days. She’d gotten him to nap and then her neighbor had laid on his horn for some reason and startled Will awake. It was the only time she’d let Will cry it out because she’d been too busy crying herself out.
The last time she’d crawled into it, Will had been three and had thrown a massive tantrum. They’d battled for hours before she’d finally gotten him to sleep. That’s when she’d figured out the bear hugging.
“Abby?” Olivia called from Abby’s bedroom.
Shit. She hadn’t closed her door all the way.
“Are you okay?”
Abby wiped her cheeks. “Yeah, sweetie. I’m just changing.”
“Okay. Are you sure?”
Abby tried to make her voice as normal as possible. “Yeah. It’s late. You should go to bed.”
“Okay. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.”
Abby gave her a few seconds to leave, then crawled forward and pulled the closet door closed.
Olivia was too perceptive to believe everything was all right, but she didn’t need Abby’s emotional burdens laid at her feet.
Abby grabbed a workout shirt from the laundry basket and used it to muffle her sobs. It didn’t smell the greatest, but it was already dirty, and she didn’t care about getting snot on it.
She’d just started to get her breathing under control when the closet door clicked open. Her head shot up. “Olivia?—”
Except it wasn’t Olivia.
Breaking Down
Tinker pulled the door shut as he stepped into the closet.
Abby had always appreciated how big her closet was. Except with Tinker filling it and displacing all the air, it seemed very, very small.
