Page 5 of The Last Time

“Hi, Brielle. Where’s Aunt Layla?”

“Auntie Layla potty,” she says to me.

She’s really coming along with her words. It’s made it a lot easier to be able to have a small conversation with her where she can tell me what she wants. It speeds up the process rather than trying to guess why she’s throwing a tantrum.

“Come here, cupcake,” Eric calls to Brielle.

I put her down so she can trot over to him while I add some spices to my chili. Cooking was never something I was very good at, but ever since my wife passed away two years ago, I’ve made a point to learn.

I don’t want my daughter to grow up eating bachelor food. I want her to thrive in this world.

Layla joins Eric at the table along with my other brother Liam.

Layla sighs. “Brie, you’re cute, but you’re exhausting.”

“You can’t keep up with a three-year-old?” Liam says with a smirk.

“Oh, please, like you could do better,” Layla quips back at him.

Brie looks back and forth between my siblings, curiosity etched on her face. I know she has no idea what they’re saying, but the look on her face says she’s trying to figure it out, trying to decipher their words.

“Hey, Ash,” Layla shouts my way. “I ran into my friend Charlotte at the café. Do you remember her? Her family would spend the summers here. In the vacant house on Bluff Drive?”

“I remember,” I say with fake interest, a skill I’ve mastered in the last two years, so nobody bothers me with questions.

“Well, her father passed away and left the house to her. She’s going to spend the summer here to work on the house and get it fixed up. She needs a contractor. I gave her your cell.”

“Got it. Thanks,” I reply.

Ma and Pa walk through the door, and Brie giggles with glee.

“Nana…Papa,” she squeals as she wiggles out of Eric’s arms to run to them.

I hear them fuss over her from the front door. If it weren’t for my parents, I don’t know what I would have done when Lauren passed away. They have helped raise Brie with me. I just hope it’s all enough love for her since she won’t have her own mother’s love growing up.

When the anger starts to feel like it’s going to consume me, I just think about Brie and the childhood she deserves. That helps tame the demons inside of me so I don’t take it out on my innocent little girl.

“Hi, sweetie,” Ma says as she kisses me on the cheek. “It smells wonderful in here.”

She puts down her famous apple crisp on the counter, turns the oven on to warm it, and then puts her dish inside.

“Thanks, Ma.”

I’ve gotten used to hosting the family over on Sundays. It used to be at my parents’ place, but when Brie was younger, it was easier to put her in her crib for bed and not have to deal with transferring her at the end of the night.

My place might be a little small, but Eric is being dramatic. We all fit fine in here. This was the only house that I could find on the market in the winter, so I took it.

I needed to get out of my old home. It was suffocating. Every room was filled with memories of her, and I needed to forget. It was the only chance I had of surviving, of letting the truth swallow me whole.

“You guys made it just in time. Chili is ready,” I shout. “Everybody grab a bowl.”

“You aren’t serving us?” Eric asks from the table.

“I’m not your frickin’ servant. Get your lazy butt out of my chair, that’s probably also too small for you, and come get your dinner.”

After everyone has their food, we all take our seats around my table. Brie insists she sits on Liam’s lap, but he doesn’t seem to mind as he begins to eat over her head.

“This chili is hot, man,” I say to him. “Try not to drop it on my daughter’s head.”

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