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“Are you sure?” Her voice was lower. “I mean…Zeke is on one side, Dad is on another. Maybe he’s misinterpreting things.”
I supposed it was a good question, but it still made me wish we were close so I could throw a pillow at her. “Zeke doesn’t misinterpret things, and he has no reason to make this up. Frankly, I don’t know that it matters to him one way or another if you are in the path of this blast, except that it matters to me.”
She sighed. “How bad is it?”
“Bad, Hopey. It’s the worst kind of bad.” I threw my pillow just for good measure at the window. It plopped down on the ground. The experience missed what I needed from it —Hope rolling her eyes at me but listening.
She was quiet. “Just quit. Abandon Dad.”
I rolled my eyes. “Hope, you can still be there for him without running his charity. I’m talking about you not being a person who others are looking at for payback. I know you need to thinkabout things and consider all your options all the time, because you always worry you’re making the wrong decisions. We’re all like that. We get that because Dad told us all that our decisions were wrong, all the time.” I had to get this out. “But I’ll tell you what I mean. I will always have your back, Hope. Always. You can’t go down with this ship.”
I didn’t expect the tears that came, but they fell anyway. Streamed, like an explosion. I was the Niagara Falls of crying. “Even if you left me here. Went with Dad because he threatened me.”
“You told me to go.” She spoke in a low voice. “You did.”
“That’s right, because I didn’t think I was worth asking you guys to stand against him. But what I know now is that you stand with the people you love when they need you, whether you ask them to or not. You’re always there, even if they push at you. That’s called loyalty. It’s what you do.” I sat up on the bed. “And I love you, Hope. I’ll always love you. I’m trying to save you. Do the right thing.”
“I’m sorry, Layla. I…I did the wrong thing. I knew it when we got on the plane. Bridget and I both did. I’m sorry. You seemed so okay, so happy in all the photos and the texts. I decided you were doing fine.”
I nodded. “I am, and that’s lucky. Just have my back next time I need you, please. You’re my sister. I need you.”
It was hard to admit that; one of the most troubling things for me to say in the world, actually. To be needy was to be wrong. I felt that with Zeke, I felt it my whole life. I was expected to have my shit together twenty-four seven. How could that be a reasonable thing to expect of a person?
“I need you, too. I will, Layla. You’ll never have to worry if you can count on me again. I promise.” I believed her.
We said our goodbyes and hung up. That hadn’t gone at all the way I thought it was going to go.
I thought I might need a nap, but instead, I started drawing, finishing what I had for Zeke and moving on to the next one I hadn’t known I had inside of me to create.
After an hour, I rose to bring them to him, but nerves got the better of me. I didn’t want to hand them to him. I wanted to leave them for him to look at them when I wasn’t there to see it. Right or wrong, that was what I decided to do.
He was actually talking on his computer in his office when I entered his bedroom. I could hear him from the door. Dang it. He hadn’t been in there all week. What was he doing now?
“Layla? That you?” he called out. “Come here, princess.”
That nickname again. Good or bad, it was obviously now mine. I walked toward him, stopping in the doorway. “You okay?”
“Yep. Come meet my friend Kolby.”
He must be on the screen. I walked over and would have bent over to see him, but Zeke pulled me onto his lap. I sat instead, sort of delighted that he’d done that in front of his friend.
“Layla.” A happy looking brown-haired man with blue eyes smiled back at me. He had a toddler on his lap. Aha, so this was one of the ones with kids and not the one traveling the world. Or the one running the bar. This was the electrician. “So, you’re the one who is making this guy look happier than he has in years.”
Behind me, Zeke groaned. “Don’t embarrass me, man. Or I wouldn’t have called her in.”
I smiled at Kolby. “How are things where you are?”
The toddler grinned at me, and I grinned back. He clapped his hands, and I did the same. I’d always loved kids, even if that weren’t a fashionable thing to do. I did. I’d own it.
“Well, they’re going well. Mommy is napping. She’s pregnant. Yes, Zeke, again. Three is not that large a number, and she needs to rest. So, we are watching big brother build with Legos while we are distracted by talking to Uncle Zeke.”
Behind me, Zeke laughed. “Now I see why you contacted me. You’re distracting Simon. I get it. I see. Using me.”
“Totally.” Kolby laughed back. “So, Layla. How did you get him to take an afternoon off? This has to be your doing.”
I shook my head. “Not me at all. Zeke is his own man. He makes his own decisions. He wanted this afternoon off, he took it.”
“I see.” Kolby smiled again. “Well, it’s nice to see the two of you.”
