Page 96 of Burn Bright
“So there was a plan?” I ask them.
Audrey bursts out, “Mother said we should employ the kindergarten rule that none of us can seem to follow.If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all. That also, she said, includes anything remotely egregious or bitchy or vulgar.”
“Audrey Virginia, tattling on Mom,” Tom whispers.
Her cheeks roast. “I-I did not.”
“She did not,” Jane backs her up. “She was just being…thorough.” She nods confidently to Audrey, who nods just as resolutely back. Mom has a rare heartfelt smile that appears mostly for my sisters.
“Thoroughly annoying,” Charlie mutters.
Audrey gasps. I have no clue why she looks for his praise. She wants Charlie to tell her she’s the best sister, the best listener, the best secret-keeper, the besteverything.When, in reality, he spends most of his time teasing the shit out of her.
Our dad has a burgeoning, powerful grin on our mom. “Were you not the first to break your own kindergarten rule?”
“Your memory is going,” she retorts. “It’s about time.”
“A time you will mourn.”
She purses her lips but doesn’t deny. His arm slides along her lower back, and before they catch me watching again, I tell everyone, “Say whatever you need to say.”
Eliot steps forward, clearing his throat as he announces, “To the greatest named bird in the history of the avian species?—”
“Let’s be real here,” Mom interjects, “to get a rise out of your father you named this poor little fragile animal after a dull, uninteresting person. Specifically his boarding school fling ofone month.”
“Dad’s reaction could have been better,” Tom whispers.
“There’s still ample time,” Eliot tells our father. “An eye twitch of anger? A prickle of irritation?”
Dad is grinning into a laugh. “I can’t be irritated at something that will never bother me, but you’re welcome to keep trying. As always, the effort is amusing.”
“Don’t encourage them,” Mom says. “Theycurseda defenseless tiny beaked creature.”
Jane stifles a laugh.
It makes me smile.
“Curses don’t exist, darling,” Dad says.
“Oh please, you’re cursed with an ego that could choke out Godzilla.”
We all laugh.
“Gifted,” he corrects.
“Did you gift it to yourself too?”
“That is the definition of ego, Rose.”
She raises her hand at his face. “And that is enough.”
His grin never dims on her.
“Mom and Dad are going to make out,” Tom whispers into a cough.
“Tom,” we all say together. He literally can’t help himself, and I end up laughing—swiftly, their laughter follows mine. Soul-filling, vibrantly loud noise cascades through the trees around us. It feels good until it doesn’t.
I still feel like I can’t live with my brothers long-term. Tom nearly losing his voice because of me—it’s just a reminder I can’t be around them. Even if I want to be, even if I lovethis.My plan has to move forward.
