Page 201 of The Dixon Rule

“Me too. She’s such a nerd.”

It’s the first genuine laugh we’ve shared in days.

“I’ll check if Diana or one of my friends can hang out with her on the weekends when I have games.”

“That sounds good. Thank you.”

“Of course.”

She gives me another hug. “We should go back out there.”

“Do we really have to?”

Mom bites her lip. “Five more minutes?”

Without a word, we settle across from each other in Dad’s armchairs. The coffee table, still laden with his books, sits between us. In here, we can almost pretend he’s not gone. That he’s simply out checking on one of his properties, that he’ll be back soon, and we’ll all eat dinner together. We sit there until eventually a knock interrupts the fantasy and forces us to return to grim reality.

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

DIANA

The chasm between us

DECEMBER

SHANE IS STRUGGLING. RIGHTFULLY SO, OF COURSE. HE JUST LOST A parent, and I’m doing everything I can to try to help him. Which at this point basically means playing Mom to Maryanne while Shane plays Dad.

It’s not a bad job. She’s one of the greatest kids ever. But she’s also Maryanne. You can’t plant a kid like her in front of a TV all day, not with a brain like hers; she needs the mental stimulation. So I’ve been trying to do fun activities with her whenever I can. Shane is too, but he still has hockey practice every day, and I have cheer practice every day. Since Maryanne can’t stay home alone, we’ve been switching off on little-sister duties.

“I’ll grab her from the gym before your practice,” he says on Thursday morning, the week before winter semester ends. “What time? Four?”

“Yeah. Class lets out at three thirty, so we’ll be there by four.” Maryanne is sitting in on my physiology lecture. I have zero concerns about this senior kinesiology class going over that kid’s head.

I walk forward and wrap my arms around him. After a beat, he hugs me back, dropping his chin on my shoulder.

“This is brutal,” he says.

“I know.”

My heart aches for him. I see the grief in his eyes every time they lock with mine. The only time it’s not there is when we have sex. We’ve been doing quite a lot of that every night in my apartment while Maryanne sleeps in his. I think it helps him, the release. And it helps me because, well, Shane sex is the best sex I’ve ever had in my life.

“Should we grab dinner at the diner when you get home?” he asks.

I shake my head. “I’m meeting with Detective Wendt.”

“Oh shit. That’s today?” Regret ripples through his eyes. “I would go with you, but I don’t think my mom would like it if I brought the kid to a police station.”

“No, it’s fine. We’re just going over a few things in my statement. My lawyer will be there.”

“What about your dad?”

“He can’t make it, but like I said, it’s really not that big of a deal.”

I’m downplaying it. This meeting might not be a big deal, but the situation itself is. The prosecutor is going forward with the case against Percy since it’s his second assault charge. I’m not even supposed to be involved anymore, but his lawyer has reached out to mine several times this past month. Percy’s pissed about what I’ve set into motion. But even if I wanted to drop the charges, the cops aren’t going to. And apparently Percy’s being too stubborn and refuses to plead out.

“It’s so annoying,” I tell Shane. “He could just cut a deal and get probation. All he has to do is admit guilt and we don’t have to waste time in court.”

“I honestly thought he’d take a plea. But I guess a narcissist like him can’t admit he did anything wrong. In his warped mind, you deserved it for what you did to him—breaking up with him, being with somebody new.”

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