Page 35 of The Good Boy

“Good job, Rory.” I reach up to ruffle his hair and think better of it, at the last minute giving him a pat on the arm instead, and a fizzy lemon candy I have in my jeans pocket. I stop him before he races over to Miles.

“You wait here a sec, yeah?”

“Okay.” He nods and sits down on the grass in the middle of the path as he begins to unwrap the sweet. Taking a wide approach, I go sideways a few feet so that Miles can see me coming. He looks up, and for a second he appears exactly like he did on his first day at our school, vulnerable and wary. I perch on the very end of the bench, which, if I’m honest, is not built for a behind like mine, as he takes his earpods out.

“Hiya,” I say. “I’m so sorry about what Nan said. She means well, but her mouth gets going before her brain engages sometimes. She told me to apologize on her behalf, and she never says sorry. She is famous for it. And she said to tell you that you are... a great person, Miles, and that she is an absolute dick.”

“She did not say that.” Miles eyes me sideways.

“Okay, she didn’t say it in those exact words, but she did feel it,” I confess.

“It’s not so much what she said,” Miles says. “It’s more that I really miss Mum, Genie. And the way your Nan spoke it was...”

“Weirdly intrusive?”

“It sounded just like Mum.” Miles gazes out to the far horizon of the sea. “I thought I had gotten used to not having family around. Had to. Mum died when I was fifteen, Gran when I was twenty-four. Dad... don’t even know if he is alive or dead. I’ve always had you guys, and your families and Matilda, and I feel pretty lucky about that. But when your nan spoke to me the way she did... turns out I still really miss my mum.”

“Of course you do,” I say, edging closer to him. “You never stop missing the people you’ve lost. Missing them becomes a part of who you are. A good part, I think. A part that knows what it’s like to really care.”

“Yeah.” He smiles at me. “I guess you are right.”

“For what it’s worth, you’ve got me. And Nanna said...” I take a deep breath. “She said to tell you that you are loved. And you are, Miles. You are loved.”

“Am I?” He turns to look at me. I swallow.

“Yeah, me and Kel, we love you. Rory loves you. Matilda thinks of you as her preferred food dispenser. And... and what about all those rock nerds, they think you are the Harry Styles of geology. And rocks, rocks love you too.”

Miles laughs, throwing his head back and guffawing.

“The most stable relationship in my life,” he says. “You always know where you are with a rock.”

“That’s because they don’t have legs.” He laughs again and Iwonder if he really is the only person in the whole world who finds me as funny as I do.

“But also...” I pause for a moment. “You know what I think? I think your mum and Gran’s love is still going strong. I don’t think love stops just because people do.”

“That’s an uncharacteristically woo thing for you to say. Bordering on magical.” Miles’s smile is so impossibly gentle. I’d fight the whole world to protect it. “I like it, though.”

“Me too,” I say.

“Mum wants me to be brave, but there are some things that scare me shitless,” he confesses as his smile fades.

“Like what?” I ask gently. “You know you can say anything to me, right?”

Miles looks at me for a long moment.

“Not everything,” he says. I must admit it stings a bit, to have him put that wall up.

“That’s cool too,” I say, doing my best to shrug it off. “I’m not a talker either.”

Miles raises an eyebrow, and we both laugh.

“Not when it comes to, you know, real stuff. But it is about Claudia-from-work, right?”

“The thing about Claudia-from-work is—”

There’s a sort of strangulated cry from behind us, and we turn around to see Rory come racing our way, his mouth wide open and flapping his arms as if he’s about to take off.

“Gahhhhp,” he sort of says as he drops the half-eaten candy right out of his mouth at my feet, staring at me wide-eyed.

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