Chapter 26
Note to self:
You can never have too many brothers.
The ride to Denver went much too quickly, each spin of the wheels ratcheting up my anxiety. Between Mack’s excitement, Karen’s growls, and my nerves, a strange tension filled the car. Even thoughts of Theo Goodnight, Romance Author, were pushed out of my brain. I couldn’t stop conjuring up every bad outcome possible. What if Abe slammed the door in my face? My stomach roiled at the thought.
“About time this got taken care of,” Mack said from the backseat. “That boy has always had a good heart. It’s a shame he’s been gone so long. Been over a year since I’ve seen him.”
“Wait. You saw him?” I twisted in my seat to look back at Mack. Karen turned up her nose like she’d smelled something rotten. Then she hopped off Mack’s lap and disappeared under the seat as though my very image was offensive.
“Sure, when Gracie passed, he came after everyone left. Didn’t want to run into your parents.”
“I…Wow.” Why hadn’t he told me?
This whole road trip was a series of revelations I didn’t know what to do with. I pressed my forehead to the window, letting the coolness soothe me on the outside. The inside was an entirely different story, spliced wires wiggling around in chaos.
Theo glanced over at me from the driver’s side. “Doing okay?”
“Yeah,” I whispered, then cleared my throat. “Yeah.”
Forty-five minutes later, we pulled up to a row of generic houses on a regular street in a suburban neighborhood on the outskirts of Denver. The lawns were carefully mowed. The trees and bushes were trimmed. Flowerbeds burst with zinnias and marigolds and asters. One yard had a kid’s bike propped against a tree. Another had a small pool set up, waiting for the chill of the morning to burn off.
It looked so… normal.
“Not what I was expecting,” I said.
“What were you expecting?” Theo asked.
“Not the suburbs.”
Abe had always been the rebel. I expected a sweet apartment downtown, maybe over a bar or something. Not a cookie-cutter with an attached garage. But I’m not sure how well I knew Abe anymore. Even with our phone calls, it appeared there were a lot of things he hadn’t told me.
A middle-aged woman in hot-pink leggings speedwalking her way down the sidewalk smiled as she passed us.
“Ready, kiddo?” Mack asked, slinging an arm around my shoulders.
I nodded, my tongue glued to the top of my mouth. I needed water. And a chocolate croissant. And about seventeen more months before I did this.
Mack led the way to the door of the unit right across from us, Karen basking in his arms like an Egyptian queen. The house was white with black trim and shutters, the yard simple but neat. An older model Land Cruiser was parked in the driveway. I smiled, thinking of how Abe had always wanted one.
I wiped my sweaty palms on my shirt and took the last two steps, Theo just behind me. I held up my fist to knock and hesitated.
Theo leaned closer and whispered, his breath warm and citrus-y from his morning orange. “A.N.”
I turned my head. “What?”
“A.N.” he said again just as quietly and while I was still confused, he knocked on the door. “The initials of my pen name.”
“You’re telling me that no?—”
The click of a lock halted me mid-sentence. The door swung open, and my chest grew tight.
“Hi,” a tiny little voice said.
I shifted my gaze down, down, down to the source of the tiny little voice. It belonged to a tiny little girl with huge brown eyes and light-brown hair currently tied up in what had to be the worst excuse for a ponytail I’d ever seen. I guessed she was about four or five, around the same age as Ellie’s son, Oliver.
“Oh, um, hi?” I turned back to Theo. “Are you sure we have the right address?”
He peered through the door. “I’m pretty sure we do.”
I crouched in front of the tiny human. She had a doll, with a hairstyle that remarkably resembled her own, clutched against her chest. Up close, I could see the faintest dusting of freckles across her nose and cheeks. A little cupid bow of a mouth, long, dark eyelashes, and ears that stuck out a bit.
“Hey, is your mom or dad here?” I asked.
“I’m not a’pposed to talk to strangers.”
“That’s a good rule. Are you supposed to answer the door?”
Her eyes widened with surprise and perhaps a touch of guilt. Before anyone could say another word, she slammed the door.
I rounded on Theo and propped a fist on my hip. “What the heck is going on?”
Theo adjusted his baseball cap. “No idea.”
“Who is this kid?” I asked.
“I’m Hallie and I’m four years old,” the little voice shouted at us from behind the door.
“Hallie, it’s nice to meet you,” I yelled back. “Is your daddy home?”
“He’s in the shower but I’m a’pposed to sit on the couch and watch a cartoon and not answer the door ever but…” She mumbled something I couldn’t quite make out.
“What’s your daddy’s name?” I asked.
“His name is Daddy,” she said, and I did not miss the hint of Duh, Lady in her tone.
“Not helpful at all,” I muttered.
“Here he comes,” Hallie said and then in a slightly quieter voice, “Don’t say I opened the door, ’kay? ’Cause then I won’t get to have ice cream for breakfast.”
“Hallie, what are you doing by the door? Is someone out there? You’re supposed to be sitting on the couch.” My stomach dipped. I recognized that voice.
The door pulled open again and this time, my brother Abe stood in front of me. He froze, his eyes darting from Theo to Mack and then to me. “Ali?”
I nodded, the lump lodged in my throat making words a challenge. “Hi.”
“Ali,” he said again, a touch of awe in his voice. He wrapped me in a bone-crushing hug, practically lifting me off the ground. “I can’t believe it.”
“Me neither,” I mumbled against his chest.
After unfolding his arms, he took a step back and inspected me from toes to hair. “You’re so grown up.”
“It’s been a few years.” Sniffling, I smiled. “You’re looking pretty grown up, too.”
In the eleven years since I’d seen him in person, the handful of blurry selfies notwithstanding, he’d gotten a little taller, his shoulders had filled out, his jaw sharper, his eyes older. Still wet from his shower, his hair hung just past his shoulders, leaving damp spots on his t-shirt.
And then there were the tattoos. A lot of them. He’d gotten one the day he turned eighteen (which Dad hated). From what I could see of his arms and the one that peeked out from the collar of his t-shirt, he’d clearly gotten more. But there was also a silver hoop in one of his eyebrows and nickel-sized gauges in his ears.
If I talked him into coming to this wedding, I could already hear my father now.
Abe cupped my cheek. “I’ve missed you.”
The tears I’d been trying desperately to restrain lost the battle. “I missed you, too. So much.”
“Shhh.” He crushed me to his chest again. “It’s okay.”
“Let me get in there.” Mack wrapped his arms around both of us.
Hallie peeked around our tangle of people. “Is that a puppy, Daddy?”
That’s when it clicked. This little girl was talking to my brother, calling him…“Daddy?”
Abe wrapped an arm around the little girl’s shoulders and gave us all a small, nervous smile. “Meet my daughter, Hallie. Hallie, say hi to your Aunt Ali.”