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“Have fun with that,” I said as he walked backward to open the gate.
“I’ll see you up there.”
“He’s so nice,” Emilia said, glancing at Gray out the back window. “Why doesn’t he have a girlfriend?”
“I haven’t asked,” I replied dryly. “Why, you lookin’?”
“Puhlease.” She elbowed me in the side.
“Not everyone settles down when they’re kids,” I pointed out as I found a place to park.
“I guess we just got lucky.” She unbuckled her seat belt and leaned up to kiss my cheek.
“I guess so.”
“Gram!” Rhett yelled, kicking his feet and pointing.
“Give me a sec, bud,” I said, catching a glimpse of Gram out the window. “I’ll get you out.”
The party was in full swing as I carried the cooler over to the picnic tables, and it reminded me of that first one I’d brought Emilia and Rhett to. I had a feeling if I left her now, she’d wave me off and tell me she’d see me at home.
“I like it better when the kids are here,” Emilia said to me quietly as a group of them went running by, squirt guns in their hands.
“You had a pretty good time when they weren’t,” I reminded her. I’d never forget Emilia drunkenly trying to teach the women to do a backbend. We were lucky we hadn’t had to take anyone to the hospital.
“Yeah, yeah.” She strode away to a group of women who were walking toward the building and I dropped the cooler off on one of the tables and took a seat beside it to watch my gram teach Rhett how to blow a bubble.
She’d blow some, and he’d giggle and chase them around. Then he’d try to blow one and would spray the soapy water everywhere, get frustrated, and she’d blow another batch of them to distract him. It worked every time. I laughed.
“Hey, kid,” my uncle Will said, slapping me on the back as he sat down on the table next to me. “How goes it?”
“All good.”
“Yeah? That’s good. Settlin’ in?”
“Like she never left.”
Uncle Will nodded. “No nightmares?”
I glanced at him in surprise. “How’d you know that?”
Uncle Will scoffed. “Swear to Christ, nightmares might be the thing all these women have most in common.”
“Seriously?”
“Someone broke into your house, man,” he said, watching Rhett and Gram. “Ended fine. No one was hurt. Still leaves a mark.”
“Sometimes I gotta get out of bed and check the entire house before she can fall back asleep.”
Uncle Will nodded. “It’ll get better.” He looked around the yard until he found my aunt Molly. “Never fades completely, but it gets a helluva lot better.”
“Does Aunt Molly still…”
“Rarely, but it happens.”
“What—” I swallowed hard. We didn’t talk about shit like this. With my dad, maybe. With my mom, sure. But never with Uncle Will. “What should I do?”
“Get up and check the house,” he said simply, smiling at me. “You’re a good boy.”
