"If you both are finished," Rome says, beyond annoyed. "What's this about Will also coming?"
"He's ready to come with us." Callahan's arm tightens around me. "If that's what it takes."
"That's insanity."
"I think that's so sweet," Erin counters, her eyes soft.
"No, man." Callahan meets Rome's gaze head on. "That's how my father loves."
"And you're just going to leave work and everything?"
"I'm pretty sure they have fires in Chicago." Callahan turns to me with so much love I struggle to contain it.
"And if they don't, I'll set them myself. For her, I'll do anything it takes."
Rome squints at that, but his mouth twitches. It’s not a smile, not yet, but close.
"I have one condition," he finally says, "if I'm going to let you two off into the sunset." He straightens, going stern and cold, but I can see he's all talk. "I pay for her school."
Callahan frowns. "That won't be necessary. My dad and I have it covered."
"I have no doubt." Rome acknowledges it almost gently, a softness in his voice I don't hear often.
"But it has always been my mission to get her through school safely. I started saving the day I got her, and it mattersto me, Cal. It is the most important thing I have ever done, and I need to finish it."
Callahan's hand on my hip loosens, and I watch the resistance leave his face as he understands what this is. What it means. Why it matters.
"You're not responsible for me anymore, Rome.”
I look at him, still holding onto Callahan, not ready to let go. "You know that, right? I'm grown. I'm okay. We did it."
Rome doesn't answer, but his throat moves several times.
"Let yourself be the partner now instead of the parent," I say. "You've earned that."
He looks so visibly sad that I have to make it better. I step away from Callahan and cross the room to my brother. I put my arms around him, and he's stiff for a second, caught off guard, and then his arms come up and hold on so tight I can barely breathe.
"Thank you," I say to him. "For everything. For all of it. You have to save for your own family now."
He scoffs, the sound vibrating through him.
"Shut up, Lily." He says it roughly, emotions too big for his vocabulary.
”I haven't had to save for you or anyone else for a long time. I'm doing this for my own sake."
Still holding me, he turns to Cal. "It's not easy to uproot your life, no matter how much you love a person. You two need to love each other and not think about logistics or tuition. Things that are still my responsibility."
He pauses, and when he speaks again his voice is quieter.
"I know it may not make sense to any of you. But it's important that at this stage you be boyfriend and girlfriend, or whatever you're calling yourselves. She still has me. Andone day she will out-earn us both, and you do whatever you kids want to do."
One would think this man is old, when he is barely four years older than Callahan. But he's my brother, who loved me with a ferocity that looked like strictness and overprotection, but was really just a man terrified of failing the one person he'd promised not to fail.
My brother, who till the end wanted me to be free and independent and not rely on anyone for anything. To give me a chance to have a love without burdens, without friction.
"You're just a mushy soft teddy bear, you know that?"
"Am not." His voice is gruff. "Don't spread lies."
