Page 22 of We're One

Over the next hour we talk about the different rooms in my house while we drink and eat. She grows more animated for certain rooms, and we have fun together as she relaxes and even smiles a few times, forgetting she’s supposed to keep distant from me. The more she talks about my house, the more I can picture her in there with me. I notice which things she likes more. You never know what will happen down the road.

She’s wrapping up her presentation but I’m not ready for our time to end. I decide to share some stories with her, wanting her to know me more. I want to know her a hell of a lot more too, but I’m aware it’s going to take time to get her to trust me enough to share. She let the walls down nearly a week ago. It will happen again.

“Callan, Blaze, and I once turned the living room into a wrestling ring,” I tell her as I lean back. I’m on my second cup of coffee so I’m certainly feeling the buzz. I can’t help but grin at this memory. Gramps was quite impressed.

“How in the world did you do that?” she asks with her own smile as she dips a scone in her coffee then takes a bite.

“We were about twelve at the time and thought it would be fun to practice our world-class WWE moves on each other. We used the couch cushions from three rooms, got rope out of the barn, then set up chairs in a circle to tie it off. Gramps came into the room, and we had entrance music blaring as we each walked in. I picked Eye of the Tiger. Gramps was the ref for the matches.”

“Were there any injuries?” she asks with a chuckle.

I shake my head. “Nothing but a few scratches and bruises. I went down hard when I tried to stand on the ropes and the chairs flipped over, sending me sprawling. Blaze took that opportunity to launch himself on top of me, further taking my breath away.”

“So Blaze won?”

I vehemently shake my head. “The winner depends on who you ask. I think I won, but to this day Callan and Blaze both claim victory. Since no one recorded us, we’ll never know, and none of us will admit defeat.”

“Did Gramps say who won since he was the ref?”

“Nope, Gramps said he was staying out of that one. We got off of our WWE phase about six months later and got into football and baseball. There might’ve been a few black eyes and bruised ribs while we practiced. There might’ve even been some broken furniture in the house, but it was all done in fun.”

“It sounds like it was a chore raising you three,” Sia says with another smile. The more I speak of family, the more receptive she seems to become. This is good to know.

“We were angels... eighty percent of the time. That other twenty percent would try the patience of a saint as my mom used to say. But we did it all out of love, whether it was love for each other, or love for what we were passionate about, it was always done with affection.”

“I’m not so sure a wrestling match is done out of love.”

“It’s all out of love, love of the game. Sports are supposed to be rough.”

She nods. “I might agree with that. I was hopeless at all sports other than softball, which I was pretty passionate about. Nikki was the athlete of our duo. I had a few black eyes and split lips growing up, but I shook it off and got right back into the game. One of my favorite movie lines of all time is from A League of Their Own.”

I join her as she says the line. “Are you crying? Are you crying? There’s no crying in baseball!”

We both laugh. “Yes, that’s a classic for sure. We also did really sweet things. Before we lived with Gramps we spent a lot of weekends with him. One Mother’s Day weekend we decided to bake a cake for Mom.”

“Well, that was sweet.” I’m winning her over with my sweetness.

“Well... it was sweet, but we ended up with flour everywhere and a rock-hard cake that could be used to injure people. Our mom was amazing about it, though, telling us it was the best cake she’d ever had. She might’ve cracked a tooth or two, but she ate her entire piece all while wearing a smile.”

“Your mom sounds amazing.”

“She was incredible. Losing her hurt like hell,” I admit. My smile falters a bit. She looks at me with concern, but I shake my head. “That was a long time ago, and we were lucky because we got to stay with Gramps, and we were always close to him. We were a pain in the ass for him, dealing with our emotions, but he never gave up on us.”

“That’s wonderful, Zach. I’m sorry you lost your parents. I can’t imagine how hard that was for you.”

I love her empathy, but I won’t use the loss of my parents to gain sympathy. It feels too rough. I smile again, needing to lighten the mood. “My brothers and I also built an amazing tree house.”

I see her hesitate as if wanting to come back to my parents, but she seems to understand I need to change the subject. “How did it come out?”

“It didn’t go too well. One of the rails broke while I was leaning against it. I got a nasty sprain from that one. I think we each fell out at least twice before Gramps put his foot down and condemned the tree house. We were sad, but sort of happy he forced us to keep out of it because none of us were smart enough to say it was dangerous.” I chuckle remembering my relief that I didn’t have to go into that deathtrap again.

“How sad to be condemned though,” she says.

I grin. “Gramps had it rebuilt, and it was solid with good walls we couldn’t fall through. We spent many nights in that treehouse. I might’ve even got a kiss or two playing some spin the bottle,” I add with a wink.

She laughs. “I bet you were always a ladies’ man,” she says with jest, not jealousy. We’re already making progress.

“I might’ve been a charmer at twelve,” I admit. “A real ladies’ man.”

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