Page 63 of Here In Your Arms

“What? Are you sure? You don’t seem like a kid who wants to have fun.”

I nod my head in agreement. “She definitely likes to be bored.”

“I do not! I want to play a game!”

“As long as you don’t start talking in Jigsaw’s voice,” Wes says under his breath.

I struggle not to laugh as Kyle leads Claire to their spare room. There’s some rustling around and discussion as they pick out a game. Wes and I head to the dining room and choose seats. Claire comes skipping into view holding a box in her arms like a treasure.

She holds it high over her head when she reaches the table and shouts, “CLUE!”

“All RIGHT!” Wes exclaims.

“You sound way too excited,” I say before laughing.

“Hey, this game is awesome. It never gets old.”

“Anyone want a drink?” Kyle asks.

We all do so as we get the game out, he runs to the kitchen to grab four glasses of water. Once the board it set up, we shuffle the cards and select the mystery one from each, sliding them into the secret envelope. Then the game begins. We play for a few rounds, Claire winning once, and Wes winning twice. I think they ended up in their own competition at one point, but there was plenty of laughter, so I didn’t worry about it. I just enjoyed watching them.

“Well, now that I’ve let you win, Wes, what’s for lunch?” Claire asks as she helps pack up the game.

“What? You let me win?”

“Obviously.”

Wes cracks up at Claire’s matter-of-fact tone and the rest of us join in, even Claire.

“How about we go find some food trucks? I think there’s some in the park,” Kyle suggests.

“Oh man, I love food trucks,” I chime in.

“Well? How’s it sound to you, little lady?”

Claire rolls her eyes. “I think I prefer peanut.”

“I meant about the food, sassy pants!”

“Sure, let’s see what all the fuss is about.”

Kyle chuckles and we all head for the door. Once we’re piled in Kyle’s car, he drives the five minutes to the nearby park that hosts food trucks regularly. We find a spot and walk over, Claire pestering Kyle and Wes about one thing or another, just to see what reactions she’ll get. My smile hasn’t left my face since we started playing Clue and my heart warms over how doting Kyle and Wes are to Claire. My hand is intertwined with Wes’ and once we reach the food trucks, we make a point to survey our options before choosing where we want our food from.

Wes and I get loaded up with food before finding an open picnic table, which surprises me. They’re usually all taken, but we managed to see one being vacated right as we wandered over to the seating area. None of us would have minded sitting on the grass, but this is definitely more convenient with drinks. Claire and Kyle join us after a minute and settle in on the opposite side of the table. We make a point to swap and share food as we go, laughing and chatting. I move to swipe something off Claire’s disposable food boat and notice she’s got her eyes fixed on something in the distance and her face is a little pale. I pull my hand back, feeling concerned.

“You okay, Claire?”

“He’s here,” she says quietly, flicking her eyes to me.

“Who, honey?”

“Him.”

That’s all she has to say for me to know exactly who she sees, and I’m thrown back into a memory.

Claire and I are painting nails at my apartment today. Nathan doesn’t like it when I paint nails at his condo, so I brought her here. I don’t want to upset him, so this seemed like the best solution. We have plans later, so I definitely want to stay on his good side. Otherwise, he might cancel and he’ll be grumpy all night. Grumpy Nathan isn’t fun. We’ve finished our nails and while we wait for them to dry, Claire puts on a Disney movie. She’s starting to grow out of a lot of her kid interests since she’ll be ten soon, but nobody outgrows the classics. The door to my apartment slams open when we’re about ten minutes into the movie.

“What the fuck is this?” Nathan asks, aggressively.

---