“Yeah, you are.” She watches me for a second. “Did you have a bad workout?”
“No, not at all.”
“Does your body hurt?”
“I’m a little sore, but not hurting.”
“Okay, well that’s normal.”
I move my feet off the coffee table and turn toward her. “My sister called today.”
Her face softens. Presley has always liked my sister. I think our relationship reminds her of hers with her sister. They’re super close too.
“How is she?”
“Good. She’s busy chasing Remy and Rhyan, but also hiding from them.” I chuckle.
“I can see that vividly. How are the kids?” she asks, smiling.
“Rhyan wants to marry a dragon, and Remy tried adopting a lobster.”
She laughs and tucks a piece of hair behind her ear. “That tracks.”
I smile, too, but it fades quickly. “She wants me to come down for Remy’s baseball game on Saturday.”
“Oh, man.”
“I know.”
Presley studies me for a minute. “You feel bad that you can’t?”
I look at the TV. “I miss them, yeah. I need to make more time for them.”
She doesn’t answer right away, but she reaches over and sets her hand on mine. The movement is so easy.
“You love them,” she says gently. “They know that.”
“Yeah, I know.”
She tilts her head to the side. “But?”
I let out a breath and brush my hand over my jaw. “I just worry I’m missing her life, you know. I wish they lived just a little closer so it was easier for us to go over to each other’s house on the weekend. Or so I could help her with the kids more during the offseason. She carries a lot of it on her own with Chris working at the hospital.”
She waits and listens. Presley knows me better than anyone. She knows when I need to talk. And she knows there’s something more underneath what I’m saying.
I look over at her. “I don’t think I’ve ever really told you the whole story about my parents.”
Her expression changes, like she knows whatever door I just opened isn’t one I open often.
“No,” she says quietly. “You’ve told me a little about your dad, but not anything about your mom.”
I nod once, then look back at the TV.
“My parents weren’t married, and after Savannah was born, they broke up, and we moved in with my mom, only seeing my dad really on the weekends. My mom was an addict. Or, well, she became one. She had worked in a food processing plant and slipped one day and broke her back. The pain pills turned into oxy, which turned into nothing … good. After she became addicted, she would disappear for days at a time. I was around ten when that started, so it wasn’t like I couldn’t take care of myself or my sister. But I never called my dad. I don’t know ifit was because I was protecting her or what. Because she always came home eventually and felt bad about being gone.”
I could feel Presley’s attention on me.
“One weekend, she dropped us off with our dad.” I pause. “She said she needed a break and would be back on Sunday to get us. I remember my sister packing her littleBeauty and the Beastbackpack, thinking we were just going to be gone a few days, like normal. She put two shirts, a pair of shorts, underwear, her favorite bear, and a granola bar in it.”
