Chapter 28
TWENTY-EIGHT
AARON
“Unc Aaron.”
Aaron woke up with a toddler sprawled across his chest, poking him in the cheek, and his best friend lying against his side with an arm draped over Aaron’s stomach.
Other than feeling a bit claustrophobic, this moment was nearly perfect.
Never in a million years did he think he’d wake up to this exact sight, and he couldn’t deny just how badly he wanted it to be a recurring situation.
Chloe stretched, smacking him in the face with her little cast. She whimpered, and he reached out to run a hand along her back.
“Does it hurt?” he whispered.
She nodded.
“Let’s get you some medicine.” She was like a furnace on him too, so she needed something anyway. He glanced at Lars, wondering how to get up. Slowly, he started shifting to pull away, but Lars tightened his hold on him.
Groaning, Lars pushed himself up. “I’ll get it.”
Aaron let out a soft chuckle. He sat upright, putting his back to the headboard and sitting Chloe on his lap. In truth, he was glad Lars was going to get it. Guilt still filled Aaron. He didn’t trust himself. Lifting Chloe to stand, he hugged her to his chest. “I’m sorry you hurt your arm.”
She rested her head on his shoulder in response, and he practically melted. He adored this girl so much.
Lars returned with Maddie and the Motrin. He put Maddie on the bed before giving Chloe her medicine. Maddie crawled over to sit by them. The second Chloe swallowed the Motrin, she looked at Aaron again and said, “Waffles?
With a soft laugh, he nodded. “Yep, I promised.” Swinging his legs over, Aaron stood from the bed, lifting Chloe as well.
He held open his free arm but then thought better of it.
He was paranoid now of doing something that could hurt them, and carrying them both down a flight of stairs seemed unnecessarily risky. Glancing at Lars, he said, “Can you—”
“Of course.” He picked up Maddie, but stopped Aaron before he could leave the room. Holding his gaze, he said in a soft tone, “You can’t live with this fear and guilt. You need to trust yourself with them, Aaron.”
When he turned and headed toward the hallway, Aaron followed.
Holding on to Chloe carefully, he made his way down to the kitchen, where they started making waffles together.
He wished Allie was here; Lars had driven her to school before taking the day off to be home with them.
Like he knew without being told that Aaron had been terrified to be alone with the other two.
Aaron had actually planned on asking their grandma if she wanted to come hang out with them while he worked.
Not that he would work, but he’d felt like he needed the excuse to bother her and have another adult here.
“Music,” Chloe said from beside Lars as he started pouring batter into the waffle maker.
Aaron ran up to grab his phone and Lars’s, but as he returned, an incoming call interrupted his search for music the girls would like. His jaw clenched as he saw his dad’s name. He hit ignore and then pressed play on one of his playlists, setting Lars’s phone next to it.
Lifting Maddie, Aaron danced around the room with her and Chloe. But the phone rang again, interrupting the music.
“Seriously?” He groaned and went to ignore it.
As it went off a third time, Lars asked, “Who is it?”
“My dad.”
He reached for the phone once more, but Lars said, “That’s three times in a row, Aaron. It might be an emergency.”
“I don’t care,” he hissed in a lower voice.
Lars faced him. “What if it’s your sister?”
Aaron stilled, his pulse quickening. He hadn’t thought about that. With a sigh, he snatched the phone. Lars grabbed his own to take over music duty as Aaron stepped out of the room to answer. “Hello?”
“Why the hell haven’t you been answering?”
Aaron glanced at the phone in confusion. That wasn’t his dad’s voice; it was his brother’s. Aiden’s name appeared at the top of the screen. Aaron hadn’t even realized it wasn’t his dad after all.
“Aaron!”
“Sorry, what? How’d you know I wasn’t—”
“Because I’m with Dad,” Aiden said quickly. “Bri is missing. Is she with you?”
His heart pounded harder in his chest. “No,” he whispered. “How long has she been missing?”
“I don’t know. He called me about an hour ago, telling me she was just gone when he woke up.
He assumed she went across the street to her friend’s house because she does that a lot so they can get on the bus together, but the school called.
She never showed up. I swung by your apartment and didn’t see her.
Vi’s at the shop and hasn’t seen her either. ”
Aaron didn’t know what to do, what to say, but he found himself wandering back into the kitchen. Lars gave him a questioning look that he didn’t know how to answer. How many things could go wrong in such a short span of time?
“I’ll be there in ten minutes,” he said, hanging up and grabbing his shoes. He sat to put them on, trying to think of anywhere she might’ve gone.
Lars set a plate with a waffle on the table for Chloe. As he cut it into pieces, he asked, “What’s going on?”
“You were right. It’s Bri. They can’t find her.”
Lars straightened, pausing his current task. “Oh my God. How can we help?”
“I’m going to go look for her.” Aaron stood after getting his shoes on. “Just… stay here with them. I’ll call if I find out more.”
When Lars nodded, Aaron headed toward the front door. But Lars grabbed him by the arm before he made it outside. Aaron turned around, and Lars pulled him into a hug. Against his ear, Lars said, “It’ll be okay. You’ll find her.”
Aaron wanted to believe him so badly. Lars glanced over his shoulder to make sure the girls hadn’t followed him, then he kissed Aaron. Taking the comfort, Aaron deepened the kiss for a second before leaning away and whispering, “Thank you.”
Aaron slammed his dad’s door shut behind him as he followed Aiden inside. They’d been searching for hours. Everyone they knew was helping out. Half the town was looking for this little girl. And Aaron was getting angrier and more anxious by the minute.
“How did you not notice her leaving the house?” he yelled as his dad sat on the couch, dropping his head into his hands.
“She normally wakes up and gets on the bus on her own without any problems.”
“She’s eight!” Aaron threw his arms out to the sides. “At the very least you should be there making sure she gets on the bus safely.”
His dad lifted his head. “I thought she was old enough to handle it. She’s mature for her—”
“That doesn’t mean she doesn’t need you. She’s still a little girl.”
“I’m trying, Aaron. I don’t know what I’m doing.”
Aaron opened his mouth, but his brother angled between them, putting a hand on Aaron’s shoulder to whisper, “Enough. Yelling at him won’t bring her back.”
He was right, but Aaron hated it. Aaron closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he looked at his dad again, he tried to stay calm. “Did anything happen last night? Did she mention wanting to go somewhere? Do something?”
“No. I mean, we got into an argument while she was doing her homework, but that’s normal.”
Aaron threw an exasperated look at his brother, but Aiden just shook his head and stepped back, as if telling him to go ahead. “That’s not ‘normal’. What was the argument?”
Their dad shrugged and leaned back with a sigh. “She needs to work harder and raise her grades. She has a C in math, and that’s not acceptable. So, I told her she was grounded until she got it up.”
“You grounded an eight year old for a C?” Aaron closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. He was about at his limit. “Is she not doing homework? Is she misbehaving in class? Does she not try at all?”
“She does her homework, as far as I’m aware, and her teacher assured me she’s a good student.” Aaron opened his eyes, ready to keep yelling, but before he could even come up with the right words, his dad added, “So there’s no excuse. She needs to be doing better.”
“Has it ever occurred to you that she might just be bad at math?”
“Math at this level is straightforward. If she’s bad at it, that just means she needs to work harder to understand it better.”
Aaron stared at him in disbelief. He slowly shook his head. “I can’t do this with you. I’m going to look around more.”
“Aaron…”
He ignored him and his brother. Without hesitation, he took off on foot. He walked around the block, then the next, then the one after that. On Main Street, he stopped in each shop to ask if anyone had seen her again. In the pizza shop, one of the workers finally had an answer that helped.
“She was in here a little while ago,” the woman said. “She played foosball for a bit, and when I asked why she wasn’t in school, she said she was visiting her brother and waiting here for him, but then, she left alone. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I called the police station.”
Aaron quickly thanked her and ran outside. He glanced up and down the street for any sign of her. She’d been waiting for him here. His phone rang, and he answered it without hesitation this time. “Hello?”
“Aaron? It’s Link,” a deep voice said. “I had to run home to grab something and…”
“And?” A thought occurred to Aaron. Link lived across the hall from them, and he was a cop, so he knew the situation.
“She’s here. She was sitting outside your door.”
Aaron was already running toward his apartment. He’d known what Link was going to say before the words were even out. Aiden had checked there, but that was hours ago.
It only took a few minutes to reach his apartment building. He raced inside, up the stairs to the second floor, and nearly fell to his knees at the sight of Bri standing with Link. In three long strides, he was in front of her, picking her up and holding her close.
She wrapped her arms around him. “I’m sorry. Lincoln said you all were scared and looking for me… Please don’t be mad.”
“I’m not,” he said, realizing he meant it. “I’m just glad you’re safe.” He glanced at Link. “Thank you.”
The man nodded, pulling out his phone. “I’ll call everyone off.”
Aaron thanked him again and lowered her to the floor.
Guiding her inside, he sat on the couch beside her and pulled out his own phone to quickly send a text to his brother and friends, letting them know she was safe and that he would bring her home shortly.
Messages of relief began pouring in, but he just dropped the phone onto the side table.
“Where were you, Bri? What happened?” He turned on the couch toward her.
With a sigh, she twisted her hands together in her lap. “I… ran away this morning instead of going to school.”
He nodded, waiting for more.
“Dad was just… He kept yelling last night, telling me I need to do better in school, but I try really hard, Aaron.” She lowered her gaze, but not before he saw the misery in her eyes. “He yells when I’m not good enough, but he doesn’t pay attention any other time.”
Aaron’s heart broke for this girl. Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, he said, “I’m sorry.
” He wished he knew how to help more. “But that doesn’t mean you can just run away.
Where were you all morning? You could have…
Something bad could’ve happened, and no one knew whether you were taken or lost.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I remembered how I got here last time and decided to come find you, but no one was here, so I walked around for a while, went to the pizza place…”
He closed his eyes, trying to remain calm. The last thing he wanted to do was lose his temper like his dad, especially right now. “Bri, you can’t just leave like that. It’s a safe town, but that doesn’t mean you can wander around without telling anyone.”
“I wanted to come here,” she said, finally looking back up. “I heard you talking to Dad. I know he left you when you were little, and you’re still mad at him, so I thought you’d understand.”
“I do.” He took a deep breath. “But I need you to promise not to do this again.”
She lowered her head once more. “You don’t want me here. No one wants me. Mom left. Dad doesn’t pay attention. He only keeps me because there’s no one else.”
Aaron’s heart ached for her. The back of his eyes burned as he reached for her, dragging her onto his lap, enveloping her in his arms. He didn’t care how old she was; right now, she needed someone to hold her, love her.
He wondered if she’d ever had that. “I want you. So does Aiden and Charlie.” Gritting his teeth, he forced out the words, “And believe it or not, Dad does too. He loves you; he’s just bad at showing it.
Trust me, if he didn’t want you in his life, he would’ve left. ”
After a moment, she said in a soft tone, “He loves you too.”
Aaron squeezed her a little tighter, resting his head against hers.
“I know.” He wasn’t sure if he believed that, but for her sake, he agreed.
“How about this, the next time you want to get out of there for a while, you call me. I’ll come get you as quickly as I can.
And I’ll visit more. We can hang out; I can help you with your homework and stuff. Whatever you need.”
She lifted her head to meet his gaze with wide, hopeful eyes. “Really.”
“You can even come to Summerville with me and play with Allie, Chloe, and Maddie. They’re younger than you, but I think you’d get along well with Allie.” An idea occurred to him. “Is Dad taking you trick-or-treating tomorrow?”
Bri shook her head. “I’m going with my friend, I think.”
“Well, what if you come with us instead?”