Page 16 of Their Greatest Strength

“Oh! Well, I won’t keep you, then. Can I send you with the extra cookies?”

“Dad won’t want them?”

“He’s cut out sweets again. Says he’s losing his abs with all my baking recently.”

I bark a laugh. “He lost those years ago.”

“Don’t tell him that.”

“You have my word.’

“Is that a yes, then?” she asks hopefully.

“It’s always a yes.”

Her eyes light up as she moves quickly, the plate of cookies held to her chest. We step in from the patio, and she searches through the kitchen for a container.

“Call your father today, okay? He’s going to be pissed that he missed you this morning,” she says while dumping all the cookies into a Tupperware.

I lean a hip to the counter and shove down my guilt for the last few minutes I’m here. “One of these days, he’s going to have to retire for real and stop spending his afternoons at WIT.”

White Ice Training is a hockey training facility that one of my dad’s best friends owns. He’s still as busy as ever and will continue to be that way forever at this rate.

“I think we both know that won’t be for a while yet. He doesn’t know the meaning of relaxation.”

“Book a spa trip with his credit card and pack his bags. He won’t have a choice then.”

Mom pops on the lid of the container and hands it to me, her expression warm. “Maybe I’ll do that after Oliver and Avery’s wedding.”

“There’s less than three weeks to go now.”

“It’s finally time for you boys,” she murmurs before sniffling. “First, I watched my brother’s children fall in love and get married, and now I get to watch you and Oliver do the same.”

I take her into my arms as she cries, not having the heart to tell her that for now, the focus should stay on Oliver.

When she watches me get married for the first time, it’ll be nothing but a sham, and if she ever learned the truth, it would break her heart.

6

BLAKELY

I triple-checkthe sum in my bank account before putting my phone away and tightening my hold on the shoebox. The clearance tag on the shelf is bright yellow, but I stare at it one last time, making sure I grabbed the right shoes.

With Nate at football practice this afternoon and then work at the video game shop, I knew I wasn’t going to get a better chance than this one to sneak away and pick him up the shoes he’s been eyeing for months now. They’ve never gone on sale before, so when I saw the flyer in the mailbox with these exact cleats circled last week, I found a way to make the discounted price work.

Sure, I could use the money on something more important. There’s always a cost that I could prioritize over a pair of fancy cleats, and I have been doing that. For months, I’ve passed on new clothes or a book that caught my eye on the shelf at the grocery store. My makeup is expired, and I’ve cut my lotion bottle in half to get all the remaining product out. Nathan has been using the same football gear for the past two years, and with how fast he’s growing, I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it another without upgrading.

His passion for football will be what gets him out of our tinyapartment that I’m on the brink of losing. He’s made for the big leagues, and with his drive and passion for the sport, I know he’ll get there one day. My only job as his guardian is to give him everything he needs to succeed while loving him along the way. And after the events of last night, I’ve been thinking about that a lot more. I don’t want to have to steal things to make him happy. I’m going to do it the right way.

That’s why I’m here in this store today, prepared to use ninety percent of this week’s grocery money on a pair of shoes.

Keeping my stride confident, I move through the aisle of sports gear while pricing out the things I need to replace for Nathan. It’s busy in here today, and I’m one more bump from a stranger away from snapping at the one closest to me.

“No, he went that way. Why would he be at the tills?” a teenage girl snaps while shoving at another girl’s back. The name on the jersey she’s wearing looks familiar, but I can’t place it.

It’s a football jersey. I don’t own one myself, but I’ve washed too many of Nate’s not to recognize one when I see it.

The girl’s friend doesn’t appear to believe her. “Did you see him go that way, or are you just guessing?”

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