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“Of course.”
“We’ll be up front. I’ll save you the seat next to mine.”
“Oh. It’s family time. A family thing. I don’t belong—”
“You belong next to me,” Alec said firmly, ignoring Kane’s speculative glance and Lilly’s wary gaze. “Tonight, you belong next to me.”
“Great way to work her out of your system,” his second cousin said, with a hearty slap on Alec’s back as they made their way to the front of the theater. “Get her right there close and personal.”
“Fuck you,” Alec muttered, then busied himself pouring his sister into one of the plush chairs just as the lights in the room dimmed.
Lilly arrived as the opening credits rolled. He drew her down beside him as the song “Total Eclipse of the Heart” swelled from the speakers and passed off one of the coffees she carried to Jojo. Then the audience burst into mingled laughter, hoots, and applause, as a much younger Miranda and Vic appeared center screen. During college, Alec guessed, with his dad needing a haircut and his mom wearing an embroidered shirt that looked like something suited for a character in Heidi, one of the books he’d been forced to read as a kid.
The image dissolved into a bit of old video, slightly grainy, but recognizable as his mom and dad during their wedding rehearsal. He looked completely pleased with himself. She, carrying a “bouquet” of what had to be a mish-mash of ribbons from gift boxes, ran down the aisle and into her gonna-be groom’s arms.
Another round of applause from the attendees in the theater.
The film chronicled Vic and Miranda’s early lives—from driving up in a ratty truck to their first apartment, to random shots from a variety of get-togethers they’d hosted pre-kids. His parents had always loved to entertain. Photos of poker parties, Halloween parties, and one strange event where his dad was wearing a huge sombrero appeared on the screen.
“Cinco de Mayo, 1984,” someone in the audience yelled. “We made margaritas with that really cheap tequila.”
A collective groan sounded from the older generation in the room. “Sexto de Mayo, 1984,” a man two rows back commented. “Worst hangover I ever had.”
Grinning, Alec glanced over at Lilly. She was smiling too, and when she looked his way, he didn’t think twice about taking her hand.
It felt good, her small fingers in his, and even better when the Thatcher kids began appearing in the movie of his parents’ marriage.
On his other side, Jojo sucked in a quick breath at the first appearance of baby Simon. But God, then they were all laughing because their brother had the most uncooperative hair on any infant of all time. It stood straight up at the crown, and the filmmaker had chosen to display the many times and many ways in which his parents attempted to tame it for the camera.
“Mom,” Jojo remonstrated with a giggle in her voice. “Are you actually licking it there?”
Miranda groused that she should have pre-screened the film, but then more Thatcher siblings marched onto the screen. First Alec, then Jojo. They were all there, growing older, opening gifts, on family ski vacations, in Hawaii, that time their mother attempted to exhibit her famous swan dive and made a spectacular belly flop instead.
Alec’s eye kept being drawn to his big brother. He hadn’t seen him in five years, he realized. Not once had he been tempted to look at old photographs or videos. And it wasn’t because Simon was an active presence in his memory.
Alec had been actively working to avoid his memories of his brother altogether.
I think we all retreated to our preferred refuges and now it’s time to step out of them.
Settling back in his seat, he absorbed each image, remembering his brother’s infectious grins, his athletic grace, the big-brother glee on his face when he threw both his siblings in the pool and then followed after them. Damn it, Alec thought, rage slicing through him like the blade of a knife. Simon shouldn’t be dead. Simon shouldn’t be fucking dead.
“Are you all right?” Lilly whispered, her hand tightening on his.
He glanced her way, light from the movie playing over her face and clearly showing her concerned expression.
