Page 14
“What about Avy?” Mason asks, concern scrunching his little face.
“I’m in charge of lots of kids already,” she tells him with a smile and waves a hand around. “That’s enough for me.”
And I know it is, because she’s the only one who knew my plans before today and has told me as such enough times for me to believe her.
“But if Avy wants a job, I’ll give her one in a heartbeat,” I tell the boys.
“She should be in charge of behaving,” Mason says, very seriously. “She always gets everyone to behave, so if anyone’s being bad, she can put them in time-out.”
“Great idea.” I smirk over at Avery. “She’ll be the president of Time Outs, and that . . .” I pause to look around the room. “Is the best way to bring in a new era of Barclay Sports. Let’s go win some trophies.”
3
SUNNY
Having the energy to wake up before my alarm and the will to jump out of bed and get ready for the day isn’t something I regained overnight.
It’s been one battle after another for the past two months, and I’ve lost almost as many as I’ve won.
I feel the victory of each one as I tiptoe down the stairs to the kitchen to get breakfast started. After two months living with Barry and Hannah, we’ve gotten into a routine that works for all of us.
To say I’m grateful would be an understatement. I still don’t know how I’ll repay them for . . . everything.
Not the money part—after many discussions they’ve both made it abundantly clear that me offering up hours of babysitting when my little niece gets here is more than enough.
We’ve learned to have hard conversations with pure honesty and to not take anything personally, to actually listen to each other. We even had a few family therapy sessions that our parents and Jace also attended via video call.
That one was hard, not only because they all realized just how much I’d changed from the man they knew and loved, but because—irrational or not—there are feelings of resentment from all sides.
How come I didn’t leave before?
How could I stop talking to Hannah for so long?
How could I stop visiting home?
How come they didn’t try harder to intervene?
How could they allow me to push them away?
All those questions are irrelevant, is what we’ve all learned. What matters is that they now understand what I was going through, and I also understand that from their point of view, there was little they could do.
Moving forward and staying safe, keeping up with therapy, and finding my way back to the life I dreamt of building before Henry came into my life four years ago, that’s what matters the most.
None of them—of us—have heard anything from Henry, and I’m working on my fear and foreboding uneasiness over that during my own sessions with Dr. Natalie.
I know two months isn’t really enough to get rid of all the side effects—because I don’t call them my stupid reactions anymore—but it’s incredible what true support can do for someone.
I hear Barry’s heavy footsteps coming down the stairs and turn quickly to fill his stainless-steel shaker with water. It’s on the edge of the counter and ready for him by the time he walks into the kitchen, and he takes it with a grateful smile then gets to work on his protein shake.
“Thanks, man. It’s a rest day, so I’ll be back just in time for breakfast after my two miles.”
“No hurry,” I reassure him. “We both know Hannah’s going to sleep a while yet.”
The sappy smile he offers me at hearing my sister’s name is enough to have me chuckling at him.
“Get out of here already, loverboy.”
He straightens his broad shoulders, endearingly proud of the nickname I’ve started calling him, then he’s gone for his morning run. I think it’s just another show of his true character, how he calls today a rest day even though the Demons’ season has been over for a few weeks now since they didn’t make it to the playoffs.
