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Rue shakes her booty and sings a song she apparently made up called “Where the Potty At.” Nolan joins her, beaming as he shakes his naked little ass and tries to sing along.
She’s adapted very well to her change in circumstances. Rue was loving her single, unattached lifestyle, but when Dean left, she insisted that Nolan and I live with her. Now she’s got a potty, a Lego table, and a giant basket of toys in her living room where she used to have a drink cart. Not to mention that vacuuming crunched up Goldfish and never sleeping in has become her new normal.
“Get over here!” she calls to me as she takes both of Nolan’s hands and dances with him. “You need to learn the potty dance, Indie!”
So I do. I take a five-minute dance break before I clean up the puddle on the floor. After the day I’ve had, I’m not passing up any reasons to smile.
I’ll face the music for what I said to Pike tomorrow. Tonight, I just want to do the potty dance.
Chapter Six
Pike
* * *
“You’re alive!” my sister Kylie says in answer to my phone call.
“Hey, sis. Sorry it took me so long to call you back.”
“Well, you’re famous, so if I’m ever worried about you, I just check the ESPN website to see if you’re okay.”
I scoff. “Don’t worry about me. I just get busy and it seems like every time I think about calling you back, it’s too late.”
Kylie laughs. “Please don’t go into detail about why you’re up late every night. I’ll either worry or get jealous.”
At age thirty, Kylie only has two years on me, but she’s been through so much that it feels like she’s much older. She married her high school sweetheart, Eric, right before he left to serve in the Marine Corps after their high school graduation. When they were both twenty-four, Eric was wounded in action serving in Iraq. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and will never be the same. Eric lives in a nursing home and Kylie is now pretty much a single mom to their daughter Jasmine, who is eight.
“How’s Jas?” I ask her.
“Good. She loves her dance classes and asks me at least ten times a day why all the other kids at her school get to watch Squid Game, but she doesn’t.”
“Why are you so mean to my niece?” I always tease Kylie about being the mean mom, but in reality, she has to be the parent that lays down the law because she’s the only one Jasmine has.
“Oh, please. Between you and Mom, she’s plenty spoiled.”
I switch Kylie over to speakerphone so I can unload the groceries I just had delivered. I’m leaving in an hour for a short road trip, and don’t want to have to deal with grocery shopping the day I get back.
“How’s Eric doing?” I ask.
There’s a pause for a second before Kylie says, “About the same. I didn’t make it for my weekly visit last week because Wednesday was a half day of school for Jasmine.”
“That’s okay. You know he’s getting the best care, and I hate saying this but he doesn’t know if you’re there or not.”
“I know, though,” she says softly.
I set down the box of crackers I’m holding and lean back against the kitchen island.
“Tell me you’re not feeling guilty about missing that visit,” I say.
“It’s so hard. Even after six years, it’s still so hard.” Her voice is choked up with emotion and I close my eyes, wishing my sister and I didn’t live so far apart. It’s tough to feel like you’re really there for someone over the phone.
“I can’t imagine,” I say. “But remember what the therapist told you. What happened to Eric was a death in some ways. The man you knew isn’t there anymore. He doesn’t know you anymore, or Jasmine, and he’s not able to get back to a place where he does. He may still physically be on this earth, but you’ve had to grieve for him as if he’s not. That’s…”
I search for the right words, but come up short. It’s completely fucked, but that word doesn’t do justice to what my sister and niece have been through the past six years.
“Someone asked me out,” Kylie says. Her voice trembles a little and I can tell she’s crying.
“Oh.”
Wow. This is the first time she’s mentioned anything like this since Eric’s accident. Kylie has been in love with Eric since they were fifteen years old, and since his injury and TBI diagnosis, she’s been in love with his memory.
“I said no, of course.”
I frown, understanding her hesitation, but also a little confused. “Because you’re not interested in the guy?”
“Because I’m married, dumbass.”
Rubbing my forehead, I try to think of the right words to say. What happened to Kylie is so damn unfair. My brother-in-law wouldn’t want her serving a life sentence of guilt and loneliness, but how can I make her see that?
