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“Uncle Reed! You’re here!” Ari screams.
Kennedy launches herself into my arms and squeezes my neck so tight I can’t actually breathe.
“How are my girls?”
“Juliet has been painting our nails and now we gotta go to bed, but I missed you so much.”
Ari hugs my leg and puts her feet on mine, and I carry all three of us up the driveway while they giggle. Although they aren’t my nieces by blood, they’re my nieces all the same. When Liam’s wife left him, when Ari was only a toddler and Kennedy a baby, I stepped up and did whatever I could. Learned how to change diapers, how to make a bottle, how to pat their backs so they would burp.
We spent the majority of our time calling Liam’s mom and pleading with his sister to take mercy on us. But… we did that shit. And Liam excelled at it. He’s the best dad I’ve ever seen. Then, he met Juliet and everything changed, but for the better. They recently got married and, of course, I was the best man.
I walk through the door and Juliet’s standing in the foyer smiling. “These girls. They couldn’t wait another second for you to walk through the door.” She pulls Ari off my leg then tickles her stomach, causing her to giggle even more. “C’mon girls, let’s get you two to bed. Liam’s outside on the patio.”
“Thanks, Juliet.”
It’s crazy how much things have changed since he and Juliet got together. How much Liam has changed. He’s opened up and he’s happier than I’ve ever seen him.
And I’m so fucking happy for him. If anyone deserves happiness, it’s him. And Ari and Kennedy are ridiculously happy, and that’s what matters most.
When I walk out the back door, I find Liam at the table, nursing a beer.
“What’s up, stranger?”
I sit down in the patio chair opposite him and run my hands through my hair. “Sorry I haven’t been by. Things got complicated quickly.”
His eyebrows rise in surprise. “Yeah? What happened?”
“My sister, Amelia, the one from Robert’s second marriage? Her and her husband… they were killed in a robbery in New York.”
It still feels unreal to say it out loud, and even more insane that I’m sitting here about to ask Liam for the most important advice of my life.
“Holy shit, Reed, I’m sorry.”
I nod. “Thank you. It’s a weird feeling. Like she’s my sister, even though I barely knew her, and it hurts, man. It hurts to know that I didn’t do more to make that relationship work. And then I spoke with Robert for the first time in years.”
Liam sits up in his chair. “How’d that go?”
“As expected, he was the one who broke the news that Amelia passed away. He seemed genuinely upset and emotional. Fuck, I was emotional. It was so much at once, ya know? But that’s not even the most shocking part.” I stand from the chair and walk over to the cooler, grabbing a beer. I twist the top off and take a long sip.
“They have a son. Evan. And Robert has cancer. Stage Four.”
“Reed, fuck man, that’s a lot. I’m sorry.”
I look down at the beer cap in my hand as I run my thumb along the jagged edge. “I’m the next of kin for this kid, Liam. They want me to take him, be his legal guardian. Technically, it’s Robert, but he’s terminally ill. They won’t place Evan in his care.”
“Wow.”
I nod. “I mean fuck, Liam, what am I supposed to do? If I don’t accept then he’s going to go into the system. A group home or foster care. I can’t imagine doing that to him. I think about my dad and what it was like to grow up without one. If I say no, then I’m essentially leaving this kid without his parents or his family.”
Liam exhales. “That’s a big decision. You know it as well as I do. You remember what it was like being a single dad to the girls. Shit, I barely kept my head above water. If it wouldn’t have been for you, then I wouldn’t have made it.”
“Yeah, but I don’t know how to be a parent. Sure, I helped out when I could, but raising one? His life being solely in my hands? That seems like a responsibility that’s… I don’t know, fucking scary.”
I drag my hand down my face. It’s not an easy decision, but something in the pit of my stomach tells me if I say no and don’t help him, I’ll be doing the wrong thing. Abandoning him the way my father abandoned me.
“Fuck yeah... parenting is scary. There’s no doubt about it. And you know it doesn’t get easier as time goes on. Yeah, you learn a little more as you go, but it’s like walking around in the dark with a blindfold and hoping you don’t fuck everything up. But with that being said, Reed, you’d be an amazing guardian to that kid.”
My stomach dips at his words. It feels weird to hear them, for this to even be a reality right now.
