He tried to do that every time we fought as kids. He managed to pull it off once, when I had the flu and was weak. He will never stop talking about it though. “The fact that one ridiculous moment is the highlight of your life is bloody sad, baby brother.”
“The fact that you keep clinging to the silly fact you’re six minutes older than me is sadder,” Finn replies and gives me his trademark sarcastic grin. “So you’ll come to the meeting tomorrow?”
“Yeah. For Mom and Dad,” I say through gritted teeth. “But I’m not promising to stay the whole damn time. If Declan pulls his passive aggressive bullshit, I’m out. I don’t need him to make me feel guilty.”
“I know. Hell, if he starts in on you, I’m out too,” Finn promises even though I don’t want him to stand with me because then Terra will too, and it’ll just make Mom and Dad upset if we all walk out.
He grabs my half-finished coffee from my hand and starts walking toward the door as I call, “Hey!”
“What? You shouldn’t drink too much caffeine while you’re working. It’ll make you jittery,” Finn says and sips my coffee. “No one wants a paramedic who shakes when they’re saving your life, dude. It’s disconcerting.”
“It’s right across the street,” I remind him. “Get your own damn coffee.”
“Three o’clock tomorrow,” Finn calls out still walking away with my coffee. “You can tell me how your date went then!”
“Or not at all,” I call back as the doors swish shut behind me.
I don’t want my family reading too much into this pseudo-date or making me overthink it. Last night she was in a desperate situation, and I helped her out. Tomorrow’s brunch invite is just her way of trying to thank me. The fact is though, I find her fascinating, and I like the way I feel when she smiles at me, so I’m excited to spend time with her when it’s not medically necessary or a landlord-tenant situation. I don’t need anyone else knowing that right now, though.
9
Logan
For the firsttime in a long time, I get out of work on time. I call Terra as I am walking across the snowy parking lot to my car. She answers sleepily on the third ring with nothing more than a “Mmm…”
“Hey sleepy head,” I say and bite back the urge to ask if she’s okay. Terra was diagnosed with Lupus as a teen, and it hasn’t been an easy road. She’s had lots of medical hurdles, but she’s persevered. Lately, she’s been in a good spot, or so I thought, but it makes me nervous she’s not up and on her second cup of tea by seven in the morning. I don’t ask her about it though because she hates when we fuss over her. “I’m just calling to ask if you can keep Chewie a while longer?”
“You woke me up to tell me you won’t be waking me up by coming to get your dog?” she says.
“Well, yeah. Which, when you put it that way, makes me feel like an asshole,” I say with a sheepish chuckle. “I just didn’t want you to worry if I didn’t show up after my shift.”
“I guess I would have worried…if I woke up and you weren’t here, but I’m planning on sleeping until next Tuesday, so no worries,” she replies and yawns audibly into the phone.
“I really want to ask you if everything is okay, but I don’t want to get punched when I see you,” I can’t help but say.
“I’m fine. I stayed up late last night,” she replies. “Jake Facetimed and we had a very…heated discussion.”
I stop abruptly a foot from my car. “You guys fought?”
“Not that kind of heated. The better kind. The kind that requires nudity.” She lets that hang between us and I scrunch up my face and swat the air in front of me like I can swat away the words, or at the very least the images they conjure up. “Why can’t you get your beast?”
“I have a date,” I blurt out, and I blame the burning desire to change the subject.
“Jesus, have locusts started falling from the sky? Are their headless horsemen trotting around Ocean Pines?” She snickers at her own apocalypse joke. “With who?”
“Nope,” I say as I unlock my car and get inside.
“I’ll get the details out of you eventually,” Terra promises. “See you later today at the family meeting, right?”
There’s trepidation in her voice but also a challenge. As if she’s daring me to say no. She’s the best at manipulating me into doing what she wants. “Yeah. Yeah. See you at three. Go back to sleep.”
I hang up and start my car. Traffic is non-existent, and I get home without an issue. I figure I should power nap for an hour or two so I’m not yawning through the whole brunch date. I tear off my shoes and peel off my clothing as I make my way to the bedroom, leaving each piece where it falls. I stop briefly in front of the empty spare bedroom. Well, empty as in my son isn’t in it. I did decorate it with that cool bed shaped like a boat, a small bookshelf filled with books, toys and stuffies, and a Montreal Canadiens hockey poster. It will kill Finn and my Dad when they see it because their souls belong to the Boston Bruins, but River’s favorite team is their oldest rival. He hasn’t seen the poster or even the room yet, but he’ll be so excited when he does. I try not to worry about the fact that the social worker hasn’t popped by to visit yet, and keep heading down the hall to my own room. By the time I cross the threshold into my bedroom, I’m naked and I drop onto the unmade bed and pull the cover up over me. I keep my eyes open just long enough to set the alarm on my phone.
When it starts ringing, I swear it feels like I’ve been asleep fifteen minutes, but it’s been hours, and it’s now almost eleven in the morning. I pull myself out of bed and into the shower. After, as I’m standing in my bedroom pulling a shirt out of the drawer, there’s a knock at the door.
I have no idea who it might be. I wander into the hall and glance toward the front door and then I hear a bark I’d recognize in a room full of howling mutts. Chewie. I assume Terra must have decided to bring him to me instead of waiting for me to pick him up, so I walk over to the door in my towel and swing it open. But it’s not Terra.
“Nova! Hey!” I’m a little shocked to see her there. Chewie jumps up and almost knocks me over. I pat his head with one hand and hold my towel in place with the other. “Down, buddy.”
