Chapter 17
SEVENTEEN
LARS
Lars heard the sweet peals of laughter as he walked up to the front door.
But inside, the house was quiet. He walked through, noting the backpacks on the table, the new picture of pumpkins on the fridge that Allie must have colored at school.
At the sliding glass door, he saw them. Aaron was playing with all three girls in the backyard.
“He’s so good with them,” Lars’s mom said, coming from the laundry room, scaring the crap out of him.
“Jesus, Mom.” He turned with a hand over his pounding heart. “You scared me.”
Chuckling, she apologized.
Lars looked out at his kids and best friend again. “He is.” Watching Aaron jump into the pile of leaves while holding a giggling Maddie to his chest, Lars couldn’t help but compare it to the madness of yesterday. Turning, he asked his mom, “How was Maddie today?”
“Oh, she was great. She fought her nap pretty hard, but other than that, she was her usual sweet self.” She patted his shoulder.
“There’s a load in the dryer; I just moved it over.
It looks like you two have it under control here, and I told your sister I’d pick up a few things for her on the way home, so I should head out. But if you need me to stay…”
Smiling, Lars shook his head and moved to hug her. “No, we’re good. Thank you.”
“And I know you said Aaron’s staying until Mel comes home, but if you guys need me, just call.”
“Thanks,” he repeated. “Tell Dad and Hannah I said hi.”
“Will do.”
As soon as she started toward the front door, he made his way out back. He walked down the steps of the deck and grinned as Chloe popped out of the leaf pile, throwing a bunch in the air as she let out a maniacal laugh.
Chloe stomped her way out of the pile before running to him, yelling, “Daddy!”
He bent to pick her up when she was within reach. Tossing her into the air, he adored the sound of her giggling. “Hi, baby,” he said, kissing her cheek. “Are you having fun in the leaves?”
She nodded. “Unc Aaron said we had to wait for you, but then he said we could jump now!”
“Oh, yeah?” He reached to remove a twig from her messy hair. Her braids were barely intact at this point. “Well, let’s rake them back up and jump again.”
“Okay!”
Lars put her down then grabbed the rake from the ground. She went to get her mini plastic one to help. Aaron stood, setting Maddie on her feet. She clapped her hands before grabbing a handful of leaves and tossing them around.
“I want to help too,” Allie said, skipping to the other small play rake.
“How was school, Allie?”
“Fun. We colored pumpkins and read a story about a ghost!”
He raised a brow. “Was it scary?”
She shook her head, her little braids swinging back and forth. “No, Daddy. She was a nice ghost.”
“That’s good.” He grinned and glanced at Aaron, who seemed unusually quiet. “You okay?”
Aaron nodded, his fake smile appearing. After nearly twenty years of friendship, Lars knew when it was real, and right now, Aaron was forcing it in place. Something was wrong.
They continued building the pile of leaves then began jumping in it again. Lars and Aaron joined them for a bit before Lars said, “Girls, I need to talk to Aaron for a minute. You keep playing.”
Chloe threw herself into the pile then started rolling around while Allie and Maddie tossed more on top of her.
Lars quickly pulled out his phone to take a short video of their adorableness.
Satisfied they would be occupied for at least a couple minutes, he put his phone in his pocket and grabbed Aaron by the arm to drag him to the deck.
“What’s going on?” Lars asked once they were both sitting on the steps.
Aaron sighed, seeming exhausted. “Someone showed up at the apartment right before leaving…”
“Who?”
“A little girl.” He groaned and turned to lean against the rail post. “Who said she’s my sister.”
Lars’s brow furrowed. “What?”
Aaron nodded to himself. “Apparently, she overheard some woman, I assume my mother, talking to my dad on the phone, giving him my new address and telling him he needed to come see me to tell me he’s… sick.”
Head reeling, Lars could only stare at his friend.
He didn’t know what to say. He wasn’t sure which part of this to tackle first, the fact that his dad was sick, that his mom was still in contact with him, or that there was a sister somewhere in the mix there.
“Okay, that’s… a lot to register. So, this girl just showed up to tell you all this? ”
“Yeah.” He let out a huff of breath. “To no one’s surprise, he didn’t want to come see me, so Bri took it upon herself to find me.
Apparently, he’d been talking to my mom on speakerphone, unaware Bri was listening.
She heard the address and wrote it down so she wouldn’t forget, and then she convinced her friend’s older sister to drop her off.
” Shaking his head, he said, “I need to find that girl or her parents. Who the fuck just drops off an eight year old at a strange man’s house?
What if she’d had the wrong address? What if I’d been dangerous or-or—”
Lars grabbed his arm, trying to ground him in the present. “Where is she now?”
“I called Aiden. He came over with Charlie and Harper, so they’re all with her. So is Vi. They said they’d figure out what was going on and get her home because I needed to leave to pick up the girls.”
This man… He could be so selfish at times, specifically when dealing with adult problems, but when it came to Lars’s daughters, he would do anything for them.
And he could see how scared he was about this new little girl.
The fact that his first concern wasn’t anything to do with his father’s health or his mom’s involvement, but rather Bri’s safety, was more than telling.
“You think it’s true?” Lars asked. “That she’s your sister? How old is she?”
Aaron shook his head, but not in answer.
More like he had no idea how to deal with this.
“Maybe. I mean, she had my address, my dad’s name…
I tried calling my mom, but she didn’t answer, so Aid was going to keep trying to get ahold of her.
” He sighed. “She looks like us. Same brown hair color, same hazel eyes… She’s eight. ”
This was crazy. He couldn’t imagine just finding out one day that he had another sibling.
Before he could figure out what to say or ask next, Chloe ran toward them, and Aaron held out his arms in preparation, putting his smile back in place. As he lifted her onto his lap, she said, “Snack?”
Aaron chuckled and hugged her close. “How about a banana?”
“Okay,” she said with a grin.
Lars loved that Aaron knew how to take care of them without needing to ask questions.
He was around enough to know that this close to dinner, Lars and Mel preferred to give fruit or vegetables if the girls wanted snacks.
And Chloe always wanted something sweet, which meant bananas or apple slices most of the time.
Aaron stood, gathering her up. As they went inside, Lars watched Allie playing with Maddie. She was so good with her younger sisters, looking out for them, taking care of them. Lars thought she took after Aaron a lot in the way she was always trying to help.
Lars put a hand against his aching chest. If Mel got this job, it wouldn’t just affect their immediate family. He knew that it would tear Aaron apart to see them go.
It would tear Lars apart to say goodbye to the man who’d been by his side for so long.
“Oh, shit,” he whispered to himself, realizing just how true that was. He whipped his head around as the two walked back outside, and he couldn’t help but dwell on that. He couldn’t even imagine not having Aaron around all the time. And the girls would be devastated.
Aaron took a seat once more, with Chloe on his lap eating her banana. “What’s wrong?”
Lars shook his head and lied. “Nothing.”
“Lawrence.”
With a soft chuckle, he said, “Just thinking about the future.” There was so much up in the air. Too much. It was overwhelming. “What are you going to do about… Bri?”
“I have no idea.” He glanced at Chloe, who was preoccupied with her snack but clearly still listening. “If she’s who she says she is, I… I want to get to know her, I think. Is that crazy? I want nothing to do with him, but she’s just a kid.”
“Definitely not crazy.” Lars wanted to ask more about his dad, but he was worried about pushing for too much.
The man left the Barnes brothers and their mom just before Lars and Aaron became friends, and in all the years since, Aaron had only talked about him a handful of times—usually when drunk or mad at the world.
Chloe held up her banana toward Lars. Grinning, he leaned down to take a bite. “Thank you.”
“I done,” she said, still offering the half-eaten fruit. “I wanna play.”
Taking the banana, he nodded. “Just a little longer. It’s getting chilly, and I need to make dinner.”
She climbed down the steps and raced to her sisters. Both men watched her go, and Lars wondered if Aaron was thinking about his sister. She was only a couple years older than Allie.
Aaron’s phone buzzed, and he pulled it out. Swiping open the text, he released a breath. “My mom… She said it’s all true. Apparently, she…”
When he trailed off, Lars asked, “What?”
“She ran into him at the store and met Bri. She got his new number because she wanted to pass it on to us.” With a grunt, he dropped his phone to the deck and stood. “He’s here, Lars. He fucking lives here; he has for a while.”
Lars could practically feel the pain radiating from his friend. He stood too, wanting to help somehow.
“I don’t know what’s worse: that he hid a whole damn sister from us or that he’s lived here for over a year and never fucking reached out.
” Aaron’s bitter laugh was full of rage.
“That means he was around when the wedding happened—the wedding I couldn’t invite him to because I had no idea where to find him.
There’s no way he didn’t hear about it living in that town, and he still didn’t try… ”
Unable to hold back anymore, Lars grabbed his spiraling friend and wrapped him in a hug. He held him tightly, wishing he could take away his torment.
And this only made him more sure than before… If Mel got the job, he had no idea what he would do, but he was certain he couldn’t leave Aaron here alone.
Even if all this wasn’t going on, he didn’t think he would be able to leave him.