“I think it’s adorable you think you’re getting under my skin.” Thankfully, I’ve gotten sunburnt sitting here without sunscreen for the past ninety minutes because my cheeks are burning from the inside now too. Who the hell is he to call me adorable? He doesn’t get to say thattome.
“Liam!” Dylan is shouting over to him as he’s running toward us. He has a smile from ear-to-ear. “Guess what mytimewas?”
Liam appears to think about it for a minute. “A minute and fifty-five,” he finally says with aproudgrin.
“How’d you know?” Dylan shrieks with excitement. Wow, the kid smiles. Who would have thought? He appeared to hate everything about everything when I was in his room with him before training, so this is a total one-eighty, aniceone.
“I was timing you, dude.” Liam holds his hand up for Dylan to slap. “I’m proud of you, kid. You’re five seconds away from passing out of your age group. That’scraziness.”
“You think I’ll get there by the end of the summer?”Dylanasks.
“No doubt, little man.” Liam grabs Dylan’s towel, tosses it over his shoulders and hands him his flip-flops.
“How’s your foot?” I finallypipein.
Dylan looks over at me and stares for a few seconds. It’s like he’s silently debating how to react toward me now that he’s in a good mood. “It’s okay. It only took a little skin off, and I can’t feel it much because of the salt water.” Wow. A whole sentence without a hint ofheartlessness.
“Can I see it?” I ask him. He responds by proudly holding is foot up for me to examine. “Wow, that looks like it hurt.” I lean down and glance at the raw mark left behind. “You’re pretty brave. I’m sure I’d be that brave.” I’m pressing my luckwithhim.
“You’re definitely not that brave,” Liam cracks. “You can’tevenswim.”
My eyes are bugging out, but he can’t see that because they’re hiding behind my sunglasses. It’s taking everything I have not to say something equally as obnoxious, so I grit my teeth and refrain from replying the way I’dliketo.
Once again, I follow them back to the house like the lazy third wheel I’m becomingtoday.
“What would you like for lunch?” I ask frombehindthem.
“It’s on the list,” Dylaninformsme.
“PB&J, a banana, and a smoothie,” Liam follows. “Protein helpshimout.”
I glance up to the sky, trying not to roll my eyes, but God, I need to memorize the binder worth of notes Samantha left for me so I don’t have to ask either of them any more questions. I thought I was on top of everything. I did. Not that it matters since Liam will be tripping to Samantha’s side later to tell her how shitty of a person and nannyIam.
When we get into the house, Dylan quietly goes upstairs and I hear the shower turn on a minute later. “Wow, he’s pretty on tap with hisschedule,huh?”
“He needs a schedule,” Liam tells me. “Predictability gets him through the day. When things are out of sorts, even just a little bit, that’s when he starts to lose his cool, which is why the switching of the guardians has been so detrimental to him thispastyear.”
“I’ll be doing my research on Asperger’s tonight. I don’t know much about it at all, and I’m not sure I understand why Samantha didn’t mention ittome.”
“She’s got her reasons.” Again, I’m left without many answers. At least I have a little bit of information now, which explains at least one thing, but I don’t know where the pain stops for Dylan and the disabilitytakesover.
I head into the kitchen and familiarize myself with the cabinets and the pantry to find where everything is, but once again, Superman comes in to save the day. Reaching above my head to one of the higher cabinets, he pulls down a jar of peanut butter, and I’m sure he “accidentally” dropped the loaf of bread on my head while doing so. “Thanks,” Imutter.
I head over to the fridge for the jelly, then continue rummaging around for the silverware. The kitchen is fairly large, making my search more difficult than necessary, but Liam nicely opens the correct drawer and takes a seat at the kitchen table, crossing one leg over another and resting his arms behind his head. “So, you’re just going to watch me make a sandwich? Is that part ofyourjob?”
“Why were you crying on thebeach?”
“Liam, when you tell me the real reason you’ve been such a jerk to me, I’ll tell you why I was a little misty on thebeach.”
“Your eyes are bloodshot and all puffy right now. I’d say that’s a little more than misty,” he counters with a raised brow. I turn back to the cutting board where I’m preparing the sandwich and ignore his statement. “No crust. Cut it infourths.”
“Anythingelse?”
“Peel the banana and slice it into tenpieces.”
“Are youserious?”
“Yes. It’s in the binder.” The fucking binder. “You’re fine,”Liamsays.
