Page 42 of The Doctor's Truth

My heart is too full. My boy is too sweet to me.

“Thank you, buddy,” I tell him.

“That’s your mushy-stuff limit for today, Mum, okay?” he informs me.

I give him an a-okay. “Got it, bud. Boundaries.”

He gives me a wary look before going back to the Christmas tree.

But I don’t want to give him boundaries. I want to hold him and never, ever let him go.

Pearl slips behind me, and I feel her hand on my shoulder. She’s wearing her terry cloth robe, and she smells like peaches and the coffee in her mug. “He’ll be okay, darling,” she tells me, in a voice low enough that only we can hear.

I reach up and squeeze her hand. “I know. Everything is going to be okay.”

And for the first time in years, when I say those words, I actually believe them.

II

New Year’s: Winter, 2018

22

Group Text

GROUP TEXT: The Muskrats

Kenzi: Okay, boys. Family friendly activities to do in a Hannsett winter?

Donovan: The aquarium

Jason: Aquarium.

Kenzi: Okay. So not the aquarium?

Jason: We’ll take you! Field trip!

23

Donovan

Hannsett Aquarium isn’t incredibly popular in the winter, but it’s still one of our few local diamonds.

The aquarium doubles as a learning center for budding marine biologists, so it has a lot of interesting, hands-on displays about the local flora and fauna. As soon as we get our tickets and head in, Otto makes a beeline to the touch tank.

I follow him. “Pretty cool, huh?” I ask.

“They’re like aliens,” Otto says, his voice reverent. He shoves his whole arm in the tank, not seeming to notice when the water climbs his sleeve.

“Yeah, I guess they are pretty strange.”

“Touch the stingray!” he says. “It’s so weird!”

I snap off my cuff so I can reach into the pool. The water is lukewarm, and I graze my fingertips over the stingray’s back. Its skin is smooth but rough to the touch, like leather.

“Hey!” Otto says excitedly. “We match!”

“What do you mean?”

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