32. Epilogue I
32
EPILOGUE I
ALYSSA
One month later
“And then she laughed at me,” Charlotte signed. We were sitting on the sofa in the living room, trading stories about our bad days. “And she said all those things while we were in line for lunch when she knew it would be harder for me to understand her.”
“I’m sorry. She sounds horrible,” I signed back.
Charlotte nodded, but a tear slid down her cheek. “I thought she was my friend.”
“Some people don’t know what friendship means.”
Then Charlotte asked about my day, and I gave her a simplified version of how busy and stressful it was. The long hours were really getting to me, but I tried not to unload too much on the little girl. Instead, I asked her aloud, “How’d I do?”
“Pretty good,” she answered, also speaking instead of signing. “You’re not spelling as many words, so that’s better.”
I nodded, pleased that she’d noticed. I’d really tried to study sign language, but I’d gotten off to a rocky start. Working at Zee Tech didn’t give me much of a chance to study online, so I mostly just stuck to lessons with Charlotte and Lucas. Then Raphael had noticed mistakes I was making and taken over my training.
But the mistakes kept happening, and neither of us could figure out why. I attributed it to stress, until we figured out the real reason. It turned out that at some point, Charlotte and Lucas had deviated from American Sign Language and developed a kind of hybrid “twin speak,” or whatever the sign language version of that was.
Now, we all took lessons from a tutor as a family, but I felt my progress was slow. I wished I had more time to devote to it—and more time to spend with the kids.
I sighed, and then looked over at Charlotte. Her story had broken my heart, and her frenemy had reminded me a little of Lauren. I’d told Spencer, Raphael, and Flynn what I said to her that day, of course. They all believed that she’d backed down when she realized what it would do to Nana if we moved away.
But I held a different opinion. To me, it wasn’t even the thought of Nana being miserable that did it. The way I saw it, Lauren had finally relented when I suggested how disappointed in her Nana would be if Lauren was the one to drive us off.
For all I knew, Nana might be one of the only people on earth who truly loved and admired her granddaughter. I thought Lauren hadn’t wanted to risk that changing. It was a subtle difference, one I thought the men didn’t quite get, but it made sense to me.
Charlotte scooted next to me and lifted my arm, pulling it around her shoulders. “Are you okay?” she signed.
I made her laugh by trying to sign an answer with one hand by my side and the other around her shoulders. Then I resumed speaking aloud. “We’re two girls who’ve had a bad day,” I began. “Did you know that there’s a universal cure for that?”
“What’s that?”
“Ice cream.”
I hugged her tightly, and she laughed. “I think that’s for when girls have bad breakups.”
“I’m expanding the definition,” I told her. “Want to go make us two bowls?”
A few minutes later, she returned with three, plus her brother in tow. “Lucas needs ice cream today, too.”
“Got it. Let’s dig in, and then Lucas can tell us about his day.”
The little boy smiled, a dab of chocolate ice cream on his nose.
I loved these kids so much… and I loved the men who’d raised them.
Hours later, after dark, those men and I sat on the deck. We had wine, but I ignored mine.
“Want to talk about it?” Spencer asked.
I shook my head.
“You did with Charlotte,” Raphael observed.
“That was the short version.”
“Then give us the long one,” Flynn said. He had a bottle of beer instead of wine like the rest of us.
I sighed. “It’s just not what I was expecting.”
Lately, I’d been going back and forth about Zee Tech. Was it just me? The others seemed content there. Of course, they were so tired after sixty-hour weeks that they probably didn’t have the energy left to complain.
“So quit,” Spencer said.
I gave him a tired smile. “It’s a nice thought, but not a very practical suggestion.”
“Why not?” Raphael asked.
“What would I do if I quit?” I asked, my voice harsher than I meant it to be. I took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I don’t expect you guys to have all the answers.”
“Maybe you should,” Flynn said cryptically. “Because we do.”
“We think we do,” Spencer amended.
Maybe it was because of the crappy day, but I couldn’t quite wrap my mind around what they’d just said. “What do you mean?”
“Let me ask you something,” Raphael said. “Which do you enjoy more… working at Zee Tech or fixing up Nana’s home?”
“Fixing up Nana’s home,” I said without needing to think about it.
“What if you could do that for your career?” Flynn asked.
I laughed. “What else is there to do at her place? I’d say we got it in pretty good shape, unless you want to give it all the bells and whistles of the twins’ magic treehouse.” Every so often, we still got out the sketch pad and refined the sketches and floor plans.
Flynn rolled his eyes. “What if your job could be helping other people like Nana? Seniors who need accommodations to make their homes safer for them?”
For a moment, joy filled me at the thought of doing that. But this was the real world, and things weren’t that easy. “Most of those people are on fixed incomes. We wouldn’t be able to afford to give away our labor for free like we did for Nana.”
To my surprise, Raphael grinned. “Yes, but you’re forgetting that one of the men you love, the incredibly dashing and handsome one, is also a formidable researcher.”
Flynn scoffed. “Why don’t you just tell her what you found out, O Formidable One.”
“All right,” Raphael said, not taking offense. “There are grants out there, and state and federal programs, that provide funding for those kinds of home improvements, especially for low-income seniors. We can help people in the community make their homes more accessible, and then get reimbursed by those programs.”
My jaw dropped. “Really?”
“Really,” Spencer said. “I’ve seen the research.”
“Me too,” Flynn said.
“So… so, we’d work together on the homes, just like we did at Nana’s house?”
“That’s the plan,” Flynn said.
“It’ll be mostly you two,” Raphael said, “Since Spencer and I have our jobs. But we’ll help out on weekends when we can.”
It all seemed too good to be true. Could I really work with the men I loved, help people, and engage in meaningful, engaging work? But then I thought of a downside. “I wish I could, but… Zee Tech stood by me when I was injured. They kept me on the payroll and made sure I had health insurance. I can’t just quit.”
“We figured you might say that,” Spencer said. “So why not think about working there part-time? That’s what Flynn does at the clinic.”
Part-time. I’d never considered it, but they might actually go for that. It seemed surreal, but maybe... possibly… this might actually work.
I launched myself out of the chair and practically skipped across the deck. Thank god I had a walking cast now, otherwise I might’ve done real damage. As it was, I clipped the edge of a chair with the cast and fell into Flynn’s arms. He caught me and grinned as Spencer and Raphael moved in. I reached out, trying to hug them all at the same time. “Have I told you today how much I love you guys?”
Raphael chuckled. “Yes, but it’s been at least an hour.”
Spencer whistled. “You haven’t said it for an hour? That sounds like a punishable offense to me. Wouldn’t you agree, Flynn?”
He gave me an evil, dangerous, hot-as-sin smirk. “Let’s go upstairs and find out.”