Brynn eyed the set skeptically.“You want to play chess?With me?”
“Why not?”I arranged the tray table over her bed and began setting up the pieces.“You scared I’ll beat you?”
Her eyes narrowed at the challenge.“I was captain of my school’s chess club in fourth grade.”
“No shit?”I raised my eyebrows, impressed despite myself.“Then this should be interesting.”
“Language,” she muttered automatically in a perfect impression of Lavender, but she was already helping me set up the black pieces on her side of the board.
The first round went great.
“Checkmate,” she announced, not even trying to hide her satisfaction.
I stared at the board.Little imp.“Well, fuck me sideways,” I muttered.
“Language,” she repeated, but this time with a snort of laughter.“Mom’s gonna put a swear jar at home if you keep that up.Ada and Hannah said Knuckles and Jag both keep their swear jars full.And the jars of all the kids.Figured you’d be like them with us.”
The casual way she dropped that little bomb, like we were already a family, hit me harder than I expected.I cleared my throat.“I figure it’s a great way to save for college.Now, I call rematch.I was just warming up.”
“Were you scared?”Brynn asked suddenly, hesitating as she set up her pieces.“In prison, I mean.”
The question caught me off guard.I considered bullshitting her, giving her the tough-guy answer that would make me sound invincible.But the genuine curiosity in her expression made me hesitate.As I studied her, I realized this was the moment I either gained or lost her trust.
“Every Goddamned day,” I admitted, watching her carefully.“Not the kind of scared that makes you freeze up.The kind that keeps you alert.In there, you can never let your guard down.You learn to sleep with one eye open, to watch the shadows, read people’s intentions before they even know what they’re planning.”
She nodded slowly, absorbing this.“Did you… did you really kill someone in there?”
“Yeah.”No point sugarcoating it.“He was trying to shank my cellmate over something stupid.I reacted on instinct.One punch too hard, wrong place, wrong angle.”I rubbed my knuckles unconsciously.“Wasn’t trying to kill him, but that doesn’t change what happened.”
“Do you regret it?”
Tough question.I considered it carefully.“I regret that he died.I don’t regret protecting my cellmate.”I watched her face for signs of disgust or fear, but she just looked thoughtful.“Prison isn’t like the movies, Brynn.It’s not about being the biggest badass or having some grand criminal enterprise.It’s… survival.Pure and simple.Sometimes that means hard choices.”
“Mom never told me much about why you were there.Just that you got caught doing something illegal with computers.”
“Cyber fraud and embezzlement.Got cocky, got caught.Wanted to provide for your mom, give her everything she deserved.Instead of working hard and proving myself -- which I kind of already had -- I made stupid choices and got stupid results.”I shook my head at the memory of my younger self.“Turned out what she really needed was for me to just be there.Lesson learned the hard way.”
“I was scared too,” Brynn said suddenly, her voice small.“When they first told me about my kidneys.Not so much for me, but…” She swallowed hard.“I kept thinking about how Mom would have nobody if I died.She’d be all alone.”The raw honesty in her voice sliced through me like a blade.I set down the rook I’d been about to move, my hand not quite steady.“I think that was when I started hating you.”
“I can understand that.And it’s nothing I didn’t deserve.When I got that email from your mom, it scared me,” I confessed.“Terrified me that I could lose you before I got to know you.”I met her eyes across the board.“Still am, sometimes.”
She looked down at the chess pieces, blinking rapidly.“That’s stupid,” she muttered, but there was no heat in it.“The doctors said everything looks good.”
“Doesn’t stop me worrying.Pretty sure that’s part of the whole dad package.”The word felt strange on my tongue, but right somehow.“Listen, Brynn.If this transplant ever fails, you know I’ve got a spare, right?I’ll be on dialysis myself before I let anything happen to you.”
She rolled her eyes, but I caught the slight tremor in her hand as she moved her queen.“Pretty sure that’s not how transplants work, but whatever makes you feel better.”
“I’ve done my research,” I insisted.“And I’ve got friends in low places.We’ll make it work if we need to.”
“You’re such a weirdo,” she muttered, but I saw a fragile trust begin to take root right in front of my eyes.And maybe even the beginnings of respect.
Chapter Fifteen
Lavender
I smoothed the fresh sheets over Brynn’s bed, tucking the corners.Two weeks since the surgery, and finally -- finally -- we were bringing her home.Everything had gone according to plan, but Dr.Patel wanted to keep her longer than strictly necessary to make damned good and sure they got on top of any bumps in the road.
“You’re going to wear a hole in those sheets if you keep fussing with them,” Ada said from the doorway, a steaming mug in each hand.She crossed the room and handed me one.Chamomile with honey.“She’s going to be fine, Lavender.She’s tough as nails, that kid of yours.”
