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She shrugged. “I didn’t want you to get hurt.”
That’d been her answer seven out of eight. The first time I’d asked, when she was getting her arm straightened out, was to say ‘go fuck yourself.’
I wasn’t holding that answer against her.
My brows rose. “And you think that I wanted you to get hurt?”
She shrugged nonchalantly. “It is my house that this happened to. If one of us was going to get hurt, it should be me.”
“I’ve been climbing trees since I was old enough to wear shoes,” I told her as I opened the screen door and gestured her inside. “Trust me when I say, there was no danger from me falling out. Can you say the same about yourself?”
“Aunt Raleigh!” Moira screeched. “You have a cast! Can I sign it?”
Raleigh’s smile was not forced when she greeted my niece. “Of course. Do you have a Sharpie marker?”
Moira didn’t ask why or how the cast came to be, only if she could sign it.
That girl.
“What happened?” my sister asked, sounding concerned.
“‘Aunt Raleigh’ fell out of a tree,” Colton said, sounding bored. “I saw it happen. I was across the street at Cristopher’s house. Uncle Ezra yelled at her and startled her. Then she fell out.”
Raleigh shot me a triumphant smile as if to say, ‘See?’
“I didn’t think she’d fall out of the tree when I yelled at her, or I never would’ve done it!” I shot a quelling look over at my nephew.
“Oh, we’re more than aware of that,” Johnson said. “And, also, everyone at the school knows y’all are banging now, too. We saw that kiss. We saw the look in both of your eyes. There’s no lying about the fact that y’all are together.”
Raleigh gasped, but I only shrugged.
“I wasn’t trying to hide anything,” I admitted. “There’s not a no-fraternization policy, and I haven’t been quiet about my feelings for her. It’s not my fault that y’all are just exceptionally unobservant.”
“We’re not that unobservant,” Johnson explained. “Mackie was the one to call it that y’all were together. He said y’all were f-u-c-k-i-n-g,” Johnson spelled it out so Moira, who’d arrived with her Sharpie, couldn’t understand the bad word. “The day that you made us apologize to her. Even though, technically, I wasn’t the one in the wrong.”
I blinked. “Mackie said that?”
Johnson shrugged, his eyes going away from his Xbox for a few short, precious seconds, before returning to the screen. “Yep. He was also adamant that he was going to get you back. I’m guessing he’s started with Raleigh, knowing you like her. Toilet papering has begun—and that’s his signature move. That’s usually only the first step, though.”
“What’s his next step?” my sister asked.
Johnson cursed quietly under his breath when he died, and he leaned forward and dropped the controller onto the couch cushion beside his hips. “He’s a douche. It only gets worse, but usually this is all reserved for kids. I’ve never seen him get mad at a teacher before. I don’t know his next step. Last fall, when Talia Rimmel broke up with him, he TP-ed her house, and then ran his tractor into her car…with her in it.”
I had a sick feeling inside my chest, and I didn’t like it one single bit.
“Great,” I muttered. “What a little prick.”
“Yep,” Johnson agreed and stood up. “I have a date. I’ll check y’all losers later.”
With that, he walked out the door, and we all watched him go.
I looked over to Raleigh, who was busy holding very still for Moira, who was drawing Elsa and Olaf on her ice blue cast, chattering away about the next Frozen movie that was due to come out next year.
Raleigh’s eyes lifted up and met mine, and she shrugged.
She’d heard the entire spiel as well, and I saw that she wasn’t bothered by it.
At least that made one of us.
“Where’s Dad?” I asked my sister, wanting to change the subject.
“Dad is in the, errrm, bedroom with Mom,” my sister whispered.
“Granddad is giving it to Grandma,” Moira chirped. “That’s what he said through the door when I walked past their room to their office to get this Sharpie.” She paused and looked up. “Whatever that’s supposed to mean.”
Every adult in the room, as well as Johnson who hadn’t quite made it out the door, gagged.
“That’s disgusting,” Johnson groaned as he slammed the door behind him. “I’m not coming back!”
I wished I hadn’t come at all.
***
Dinner, at first, was an awkward affair.
My parents, not realizing anyone was in their house, had gone about doing what they wanted to do—i.e., each other.
While we, my sister, her husband and my best friend, as well as Raleigh and I sat on the couch not speaking until they were done.
The kids had played quietly in the yard.
Which led us to now, all of us sitting at the table, eating in silence.
