“Well?” Cassie prompts me.
“See Cwover!” Willa yells.
A FaceTime call comes through and I answer it, my sister’s long brown hair coming into view. I always forget how similar we look. Same color hair, same freckles, similar eye shape, but hers are blue. Being that we’re only two years apart, people assumed we were twins growing up. She smiles, but she looks tired. Being shoved into adulthood before you’re ready will do that to a person.
“Hey sis,” I greet her even though we were just talking. It’sbeen way too long since I’ve seen her face, not to mention my niece. “I see you finally decided to join us in the twenty-first century.”
“Ha-ha,” she deadpans. “My flip phone may have fallen into the hot tub, and before I could order a new one, Owen changed my number over to this ridiculous thing.”
“I see.”
“Anyway, she wants proof of life.” Cassie rolls her eyes, dismissing me.
“Okay, okay.” I flip the screen around so Willa can see Clover’s cage, but I can still see Cassie. Willa comes into view, sitting on her mom’s lap. She squeals in delight and claps her hands when she sees her pet bunny.
“Tanks, Uncle Ash,” she yells into the speaker. My sister moves her back.
“He can hear you. You don’t have to yell, baby girl.”
I smile at my niece’s innocence. My sister may have been pressured into a lot at a young age, but the look on her face when my niece was born was love like I had never seen before.
“Are you having fun in Nantucket?” I ask Willa.
“So much fun! Mommy bought me cotton candy and ice cweam. Daddy couldn’t come because he had to talk to his sociates.”
I chuckle at her trying to say the word ‘associates,’ but I hate hearing that my brother-in-law isn’t even taking time off to be with his family on vacation. That’s part of the reason I left Tyler Hotel Corp. I was working nonstop. It felt like I had no time to just live.
“That sounds like a blast,” I tell her. “I love you, Will. Can you put Mommy back on?”
“Wuv you!” I hear her little feet scamper off, and my sister comes back into view.
“She looks so much like you,” I say.
Cassie sighs. “She may look like me, but she’s fearless. Iwish I could stand up to people the way she does. She told one of the partners’ wives that she was mean because the lady told her that little girls shouldn’t catch frogs.”
I snort out a laugh. “Sounds like Willa.”
“The woman was so mad that she stormed out of the house with her cocktail still in her hand.”
“I love that girl.”
“How could you not?” she replies. “Anyway, I should let you go. Please call Dad back.”
“I will, I promise.” I shift the phone to my other hand. “Hey, Cass?”
“Yeah?”
“You’re fearless too.”
She gives me a half-smile and says her goodbyes.
That’s when another fearless woman comes to my mind. I check my messages to see if any came through while I was on the video call.
Nothing.
I guess it’s time to go on an apology tour.
24
