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“We are going to be okay,” Lincoln says. “All of us. You, me, and Dad. It’s been a rough year, but we’re on the other side now.”
I hear the movement of a rock several yards away, and my foolish heart leaps up, thinking it’s going to be Abe. It’s not. It’s the giant grizzly bear with gray fur around the snout, chest, and wrist cuffs.
Lincoln stiffens. I put my hand on his forearm and ease out of the hug. “It’s okay,“ I tell him. “I know this bear.”
I lift an arm and wave. “Hey, bear.”
The bear rises on two legs and makes a warbling sound.
Lincoln takes a step back, pulling me behind him protectively. The bear stays upright, sniffing the air as he eyes us.
Then he lumbers away, lifting a great paw into the air as he turns.
“Did that bear seriously just wave at us?” Lincoln is in awe.
I laugh softly. “Yeah, he did.”
“Mom would’ve loved that.”
“Yeah. I feel like… maybe Mom sent him. Maybe it’s her way of watching over us.”
My vision gets blurry, but they are happy tears. Despite my epic breakup with a guy I wasn’t even supposed to be dating, this day feels significant. Magical in a way.
Because I know what Lincoln said is true. We are all going to be OK. Me. Lincoln. My dad. And Abe. He is part of the equation now. He belongs to me just like I belong to him.
But I can’t make him come around. If he wants me back, he will have to fight for us.
And I will fight too.
Abe
I wake in my dad‘s clinic.
“Fuck.” I sit up fast, making my vision recede into blackness again.
“Easy.” My dad pushes me back to prone.
I sense, rather than see, his light moving across my eyes.
“What happened?”
“You tell me, son. Asher said you had a seizure at school and then another one in your car while he was driving.”
“Fuck.”
“Watch your language.“
I sit up again, this time swinging my legs off the cot.
“Whoa. Where are you going? Can you even see right now?”
“What time is it? How long was I out?”
“About ninety minutes. I gave you a short-term sedative to try to relax your nervous system.”
I rub my eyes, light bleeding back into my visual field.
“I didn’t want it to interfere with the game tonight.”
