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“Have you asked her what she wants, Wyatt?” Willa turns to me, hands on her hips.
“No. She’s—”
“Emotionally unavailable, sure. But you know what else she is? Incredibly lonely and incredibly hurt. Maybe she doesn’t want or need a boyfriend, but I will bet you my entire life savings that shedoeswant someone to just hold her every now and then. To remind her that even though her world is falling apart she has at least one solid thing in her life, one good thing, to hold onto. Sometimes, when everything is falling around you, you don’t need someone to start helping you clean up or drag you out, you just need someone to hold you. To weather the storm with you. Maybe she needs you to be that for her, Wyatt.”
I blink. “Is that what you needed, when Mom died?”
Willa sighs and brushes hair out of her face, looking me dead in the eye. “Everyone needs that, Wyatt—whether they lose someone or not. You need it, you just don’t know how to admit it. Humans are a social species, even if we like to pretend otherwise. We need each other. Sometimes we need a tribe of people, sometimes all we need is one.”
I step forward and wrap my arms around my little sister, she’s small enough still that I can rest my chin on the top of her head and her face is buried in my chest. She was fifteen when our mother died, far too young for a girl to lose her mother. Dad and I did the best we could, but most of the time, Willa was the one taking care of us—even before mom died. And I never really took time to thank her for that, and to be there for her like I should’ve been. I was always too wrapped up in my own grief, and in truth, Willa handled Mom’s death better than Dad and I. Or at least she acted like she did.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper.
“For what?” she asks softly.
“For the fact that you had to grow up so much sooner than you should have. And for not being there for you when I should’ve been.”
She squeezes her arms tight around my abdomen before stepping back a little and smiling up at me.
“You’re a good big brother, Wyatt. It’s not your fault life dealt us a sucky hand. I meant what I said about Lucy, though. She may be grieving, and she may be adjusting, but she’s still a woman. Maybe she doesn’t know exactly what she wants, but I know there will be times when all sheneedsis one solid thing—one good thing. Maybe that can be you.”
I smile at her and nod as she gets in the car.
“Be safe and let me know when you’re back at your dorm,” I tell her.
She smiles up at me and rolls her eyes, buckling her seatbelt.
“Yes, sir.” She salutes and I laugh.
I shut her door and wave as she pulls out of the driveway. I walk back up the front porch and lean against one of the pillars, looking out over the front yard. There are a million things I could be doing right now. I could get on the Gator and ride the fences, but I did that this morning, and everything looked fine. I checked the feeding troughs for the cows about an hour ago and there was still enough sweet feed in there. I sigh and run a hand over my face slowly.
My phone buzzes and I jump, pulling it out of my pocket.
“Hey,” I say into the phone, walking back inside my house.
“What time did you say again?” Alex asks me.
“Six, why?”
“It’s probably going to be seven-ish before we get there. Taylor had a crazy shift and is just now getting home, is that okay?”
I switch the phone to my other ear as I start walking up the stairs toward my room.
“Yeah, that’s fine. Want me to wait to order pizza until y’all get here?”
“If that’s an option, yes. You know my thoughts on cold pizza.”
“It’s the absolute worst thing in the world, right up there with the prequelStar Warsmovies and onions,” I say solemnly.
“Exactly. We’ll see you at seven.”
“Okay. Oh, and Alex?”
“Yeah?”
“Lucy is coming.”
“Graveyard Lucy? Dead dad Lucy?”
