Page 37 of Remade

I was too nervous to chuckle, but I wouldn’t mind being a fly on that wall. They seemed to banter a lot in that family. A lot of good-natured ribbing. I liked that. I’d wanted it for as long as I could remember.

It also had the tendency to make me bitter at times. I mean, my mom had been my world, but even back then, nobody had cared much about family. I’d had my grandparents. That was it. At age seven, I’d started calling my uncle Drunkle Billy, and he’d rarely been welcome at dinners. Aunt Laura hadn’t been a permanent fixture in my life until Mom got sick… I had no cousins.

My mom didn’t live in my head anymore. I’d forgotten her voice, which made me feel guilty. But it was just so damn hard to reconcile her reasoning for not telling me about my dad. I mean, she’d been sick for months before she’d passed. Instead of helping me secure an apartment I could only afford for a few months, she should’ve helped me reach out to the Quinns. But no, she’d just left me to find the information on my own.

I’d been a coward for too long. I didn’t wanna be like her.

I couldn’t unlove my own mom or erase all the great times we’d shared; I was just going down a completely different path now, and she was gone.

“Here we go.”

I looked up and followed Ryan’s gaze, and my stomach dropped at the sight of the two cabs that had pulled in at theplaza. I recognized Ethan first, ’cause I’d seen him the most on Insta. The Quinn dudes were all tall, like six-three or so, and they stood out. In this case, Ethan and Darius. That had to be Gray next to him; they were holding hands until Darius helped what I assumed was his mother out of the other car.

“Christ, Ma’s already cryin’,” Ryan said. “Brace yourself, kid.”

I exhaled shakily and swallowed hard.

That had to be Willow. She was glued to Ethan’s side, and she was wearing headphones.

Darius glanced up at the building, and it looked like he made a face.

“I don’t know what to do with my hands,” I said anxiously. Did they go in my pockets? Just hanging limply at my sides? Did I fold my arms over my chest?

“You won’t have to worry about that for long. Come on.” Ryan gave my shoulder a squeeze and nodded toward the entrance. “I should’ve brought tissues,” he muttered.

“For your mom?”

“No, for me.”

Oh.

Family reunions and videos of service members coming home to their pets, right?

My stomach tightened beyond what I wanted to handle. We were walking closer to the revolving door, and so were the Quinns on the other side. Only, they couldn’t see us yet. You could only see out.

Breathe.

I tried.

The younger generation took care of what little luggage they had and let the older couple walk first. Mary and James. James had an arm around Mary, and she was definitely emotional. She kept dabbing a tissue under her eyes.

They looked to be in their late seventies.

“I don’t wanna bawl my eyes out in the lobby,” I said, clearing my throat.

I didn’t even recognize the guy behind the front desk. It wasn’t Gina or the other two ladies who occasionally sat there.

“You should’ve thought of that before I asked you to meet me here,” Ryan replied.

I shot him a look, but he had his easy smirk fixed on the entrance.

“Maybe you won’t be my favorite uncle for much longer,” I said.

He snorted. “Please. I have zero competition.”

It depended on the quality of Darius’s dad jokes.

I refocused on the others as the revolving door whirred to life, and I sucked in a breath when I locked eyes with Mary Quinn.

---