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Callie smiles. “Donny told me.”
“You’re not surprised?”
“A little, to be sure, but mostly just happy for you. Very happy for you.”
“Thanks, Cal. I know there’s not much to laugh about, but you know what’s funny?”
“What?”
“You and I, the Pike sisters. We caught two of the Rake-a-teers.”
Callie giggles. “That is something, isn’t it?”
“Men who we didn’t think would ever settle down.”
“Wait… Are you saying…?”
“We’re going to move in together. Brock and I.”
“Oh my God! This is amazing, Rory.”
“It is kind of cool.”
I smile at my sister. She smiles back. And they’re good smiles, radiant smiles, but they’re only masks. Underneath the smiles, though we’re both happy to be in love, we’re both worried about Dad.
And everything else.
“Compartmentalizing,” Callie says.
“What?”
“I’m compartmentalizing. Just Dad right now, Rory. Let’s just focus on Dad right now. Trying to deal with everything else… It’s just too much.”
I nod, take another bite of my dry cupcake. Then I twist open the cap on my water and take a drink, washing down the chocolate sawdust.
Compartmentalizing.
Callie’s good. She has an analytical mind, and she can file things away in mental folders and leave them for another time.
Good. Good for her.
The only problem is that I can’t do it.
I have an emotional mind, and an emotional mind doesn’t file things away. An emotional mind feels. All the feels. All at once.
“Okay?” Callie says.
I nod again. “Okay,” I lie.
CHAPTER FORTY
BROCK
“What do you think?” Donny says, as we gaze at the reception desk. “You think they like blond hair or dark hair?”
“How the heck should I know? At least it’s not a dude.”
“Yeah, that would complicate things.”
