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“Hey,” Alex said, coming to sit next to him at the table set up in the corner. He had two plates of food. One was just french fries. Neither of them were for Micah. “This picnic thing you’re doing two days after Madison Square Garden?”
“Haven House? What about it?”
“You sure it’s smart? Two days after Madison Square Garden?”
“I’ll be fine,” he said. There’d been a time before the lockdown when the band had been hard-drinking and hard-living and it would have been impossible to leave the city and go play a picnic and think he might be sober.
“What’s the big fucking deal about this place? Is it just the girl?”
“Again, her name is Helen,” Micah said with patience. “And she’s in my life, so how about you call her by her name.”
Alex sat back, his blue eyes wide. “Wow. Look at you. So, are you doing all this stuff just for the girl? Because I think you’re trying—”
“Haven House is a charity for single moms and their kids. They help moms struggling with addiction and living in poverty. They give the kids a chance to be kids outside of the strain of living in fear or stress.”
Alex sat back, very still. Very quiet. A version of his brother he didn’t always see.
“How do you know about it?” Alex asked.
“How do you think I know about it?”
They stared at each other, and Micah’s old habit was to catalog the differences between them and to get angry about it. But there was so much similarity.
“Mom went there?” Alex asked.
Micah nodded.
“With you.” Micah nodded again. “Where was I?”
“You stayed with Peter.” Alex nodded, like that made sense, but his jaw was tight. And his hand was in a fist beside the fries, and it was ridiculous but it was their childhood all over again. What Micah had, Alex wanted—even the shitty things.
“I used to be really jealous of the way you two had this whole bond without me. This, like, secret language I would never understand.”
“I’m sorry if we made you feel that way. But it wasn’t…good, Alex. It was scary. And Mom changed everything to protect you, you know. To give you a better childhood.”
Alex nodded, biting his bottom lip. “Dad used to feel the same way, you know? Jealous. I think that’s why he was so hard on you.”
As insight it was more than a little stunning coming from Alex. All Micah could do was nod. This was unfamiliar territory for them and he had to think it was good. Progress.
“You want some fries?” Alex asked, pushing the plate over to him.
Micah’s phone buzzed and he knew without looking that it was Helen. “Sorry,” he said, unable to hide his smile. “I gotta take this.”
Alex nodded. “Hey,” he said as Micah was walking away. “It’s really good to see you happy. You deserve it.”
The words threw him for a loop and he was rattled when he answered the call and heard Helen’s voice.
“Hey,” she said. “Did you get a chance—”
“Helen, I want you to come to the Madison Square Garden show.”
“Oh…okay. Sure.”
“And I need to tell you something. Something important but I don’t want to do it over the phone. I’ll send a car for everyone and after the show we’ll get a chance to talk. Really talk.”
“Micah,” she said, and he could hear the smile in her voice. “I’d love to. I’ll be there.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Helen
All the details for the picnic were taken care of. Going to New York City for the night was maybe a little stressful, but she was not about to say no. Bea was staying with Daniella and her daughter and going swimming in the morning at the apartment complex pool.
Josie was in town for the picnic, and she insisted they go shopping in Catskill for new clothes for the night. A sparkly shirt. Brand new jeans. A little fake leather jacket that was kind of like wearing a ziplock bag. And booties with a sexy zipper and sharp heels.
Josie curled Helen’s blond hair and loaned her a bright red lippie.
“You’re smoking hot,” Josie said, looking over her shoulder in the mirror.
Helen couldn’t even argue. The woman looking back at her was young and alive in a way she hadn’t felt…ever.
Micah sent a car, which Jonah wanted to decline.
“It’s really unnecessary, isn’t it?” he asked, even as they were waiting for the car to arrive. “We can take the train and walk.”
“Look at my shoes, Jonah,” she said.
He glanced down and winced. “I guess the car makes sense.”
They stood, each of them looking out a different window for a sign of the car. “He had coffee delivered,” she said, tilting her head to see down the road past the driveway. “At that hotel we stayed at. He had coffee and toiletries delivered, and I’m telling you it seemed like the most decadent thing I’d ever seen. He bought me underwear.” She laughed. “Like, a Walmart three pack.”
