Page 72 of Finding the Pieces

“It’s like with my mom. I feel just as out of control. It’s fucking terrifying. But I can’t carry it on my shoulders all the time. I tried, and it nearly broke me. If you try to carry this for Ellie, man, you’re going to break too. This game…it’s thoughtful, but it might not be the final solution. She has to choose to work through the shit on her own.”

“Yeah, and what the fuck am I supposed to do? Nothing?”

“No. You do what you always do. You listen, you support her, you lift her up, you challenge her, and you hold her when she falls.”

I hear a commotion, and Hopper is up in a flash, zooming past Luca, who claps at the sight and walks—okay, more like waddles—after him, unable to keep up, but damn, it’s cute how hard he’s trying.

An elated Hopper returns after a minute with Bec in tow, scratching his head and smiling at Aiden, who meets her and kisses her before hugging her, mumbling something in her ear. The carefree smile on her face makes me feel like I’m intruding—and also a little jealous. Things used to feel that easy for Ellie and me too.

I grab Luca and bring him back to the blanket we set up on the floor with the toys I brought over to keep him entertained.

“Hey, Dom,” Bec says, voice drenched with sympathy.

I lean back, resting my elbow on the couch cushion from my spot on the floor next to Luca.

“She called you?” I ask.

“Her mom did. Ellie didn’t want to talk. She said she just wanted to rest. Carolyn checked on her a little while ago. Said it looked like she had fallen asleep.”

Good. I’ve never believed in the “never go to bed angry” advice that people love to hand out. Sometimes, we all need to go to fucking bed. Everything feels impossible when you’re exhausted, and she hasn’t slept well since she went into the third trimester of her pregnancy.

I scrub my palm down my face and over my short beard. “I could use some best friend magic here, Bec.”

She sits on the floor across from me and Luca. He immediately crawls into her lap and starts babbling. Probably begging her to take him away from his annoying parents and somewhere fun for a change.

Luca sits in Bec’s lap with a board book, and she looks absently at the pages as he slowly turns them one by one.

“What if the girls and I made a last-minute change with our puzzle pieces?” she asks, her eyes lighting up, excitement unmistakable in her voice.

“No, I’m done with the games. Ellie needs real help, and it was dumb to think—”

“Hey, it wasn’t dumb. You really think I’d let you put my best friend through something like this when she’s struggling if I didn’t think it’d help? You should have heard her talk about all that she’s been doing lately during our last few book clubs. I don’t think you realize how special this has made her feel. The way she talks about each piece afterward, I think they’re reminding her that it’s okay for her to find those buried parts of herself.

“You two are great parents, but that shit is fucking hard, and I’m just an observer. I don’t see everything that you two have going on. I don’t know what happened today, or what needs to happen next. None of us do. But we’re here for you both.”

Fuck, don’t cry.

“I was kind of hoping you’d just have the silver bullet in your back pocket. The magic ticket I need to fix it all,” I say.

Bec makes a show of digging around her pockets, a look of exaggerated frustration every time she comes up empty. “Nope, fresh out of magical fixes, I’m afraid.”

Luca giggles at the sight of Bec’s theatrics, that deep belly laugh. Hopper, confused by the game, starts sniffing Bec’s pockets, purse, and hair, trying to find whatever it is Bec’s looking for. Luca screams before his fit of giggles intensifies. He looks around expectantly, and a minute later, Bec, Aiden, and I are all looking into empty pockets and huffing around with cartoon-level reactions to finding nothing there. Luca hiccups from his laughing fit and wraps his arms around Bec’s neck. She smiles and holds him close.

Disgruntled at the empty pockets, Hopper trudges back to his dog bed and huffs out a sigh after making a few circles to get in just the right spot, his eyes stay locked on Bec, I assume in case she starts her imaginary search again.

“The girls and I were throwing around a few ideas for our puzzle pieces, but I think we might need to go a different direction.”

“What do you mean?”

“Let me call the girls. Give us two days. I think we can make something work.”

Aiden and I exchange a look. It’s a relief to see confusion written on his face as clear as I’m sure it’s written on mine.

“I’d trust her if I were you,” Aiden says with a shrug.

“You ladies are in charge. Tell me how I can help.”

Chapter thirty-seven

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