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At that moment, for Sean, all teasing stopped. In a house full of boys and one harried, overworked mother, there had never been a dayjust for him. Not even on his birthday, because his father had always fucked it up.
He’d never realized until now, when she said that with such innocence, how truly precious a gift she’d just given him. He wanted to say something, but he was afraid he’d choke up, and men don’t cry. Especially in front of women.
He took a breath and then reached for her hand.
“I just want to be in your presence. From our first day of school, when I walked into the lunchroom and saw you sitting at the end of a table, and I wished I had the guts to sit beside you so you wouldn’t be alone, to this full-circle moment, having sat atyourtable, eating food that you made for me. I have enough.”
Amalie blinked. Her eyes welled. “I don’t understand quite how fate brought us back into the same circle, but I’m suddenly realizing how blessed I was then, and didn’t even know it. Would you be up for just going for a walk?”
“If you’re involved, I’m in,” Sean said. He grabbed the pot of chili, carried it to the stove, and put the lid on it. Set the bowl with three hush puppies on the counter, while Amalie rinsed their dirty dishes and put them in the dishwasher.
They turned, facing at each other at the same time.
Amalie could see the look on his face.
“You’re gonna kiss me, aren’t you?” she said.
“Can’t help it,” he said. “Just one for the road,” and swooped.
Fireworks!
When they came up for air, Sean was still holding her, reluctant to let her go.
“Ready for that walk?” he asked.
Amalie’s heart was pounding. “I’m ready for anything. Let me get my coat.”
The cold air in Amalie’s face always felt like an awakening, like a burst of adrenaline. She took a deep breath, then watched the little cloud form from the heat of her breath.
Sean reached for her hand as they set off. When they reached the end of her driveway, he paused.
“Which way do we go?”
Amalie hesitated. “That way, they said.”
A little chill ran up the back of Sean’s neck.She is hearing voices again and doesn’t even realize what she’s saying.
“Did they say why?” he asked.
She frowned, then looked up at him as they were walking. “What? Who’s they?”
“Never mind,” he said, and then saw a balloon drifting high up in the air and changed the subject. “Look at that red balloon! I wonder how far that little guy has traveled?”
She smiled. “I’ll bet there’s a child somewhere who cried when that happened.”
“In the summers when my brothers and I were young, we used to fill balloons with water and then throw them at each other. We thought it was hysterical fun, except for having to pick up the remnants afterward.”
“Having siblings has to be the best thing ever. Did you sleep together, too?”
“Oh sure. Aaron and I were the two oldest. Wiley andB.J. the next. We paired up like that, with all the fussing over pulling covers and boy stuff until we outgrew the beds. After that, we had twin beds, but we could never tuck the sheets in at the end, because our feet and legs always hung over.”
She grinned, imagining four little boys turning into the giants they were today, and Shirley trying to keep them fed and in clothes.
“What about you?” Sean asked.
Amalie rolled her eyes. “Foster kids. Always two to a bed, sometimes three. In every family I lived with, there was always one bed wetter, or one who cried themselves to sleep, or one who was mean. It was hard to sleep with all that.”
Sean hurt for the matter-of-fact way that she’d accepted her lot in life. No child should ever be abandoned.
