Page 28 of True Honey
“It’s been like three hours…”
“He went into the storage room of hisownaccord.” She stressed and I heard her loud and clear. Lorraine had died in that room and that fact Cael was willing to go into it after knowing a kid for ten minutes in an effort to make him feel comfortable. “Cael sees himself in that kid and if you let it go too far…”
“I promise to protect him but this is bigger than just the Nest…”
Ella scooted forward, forcing me to look at her, “If you believe this is the right way to protect Harbor from your Dad, then we have your back but I want you to be sure of it before you tangle so many strings because Silas,” she swallowed tightly, pausing as the back door clicked open and more players flooded noisily into the house, “you’re tying impossible knots.”
I waited for a moment after she climbed off the couch, kissing my cheek before she went to wrangling hands to help her finish with decorating. I watched the chaos of the team shuffling around the kitchen, laughing and teasing, knowing deep down what I had to do to protect them, to preserve everything that we had built as a family.
“That’s cheating,” Cael said as he pushed his arm through Dean’s legs to touch the blue circle with his left hand.
“How do you cheat at twister?” Josh asked, perched on the arm of the couch at a distance from the pretzel'd mess in the center of the living room.
“I don’t know but I’m convinced Arlo has found a way,” Cael whined, nearly losing his balance as Arlo wiggled his foot near Cael’s.
I laughed as Ella spun the arrow again and out of the corner of my eye Drew’s red hair appeared in the archway of the living room. I excused myself, going the long way around the hall and waving her down into the dining room.
“There’s food here and drinks in the fridge,” I said, as she approached with August on her tail. He looked to where I pointed and wandered away as Drew stepped into the dining room. “Did you get all settled?”
“There are a few things I need help lifting?” She said, “but other than that, yeah… thank you again for setting everything up for us so nicely. You really didn’t have to do that.”
“It’s no big deal,” I said, shaking my head. “Not to be pushy,” I said, looking over her shoulder to August still exploring the fridge.
“But you need me to hold up my end of the deal?” She smiled gently, but it didn’t reach her eyes.
“Yeah,” I said, handing her a clean plate from the pile on the table. “There's dinner next Sunday, with my family… I’d like to introduce you.”
She looked over her shoulder at her son and then back at me nervously, “I don’t think I should leave him alone right now.”
“I promise he’ll be okay and if our agreement allowed for it, I would insist you bring him but I’m playing by your rules and unfortunately the timeline doesn’t really afford any time for any of us to get comfortable with this situation,” I explained as she spooned some pasta onto her plate.
“Do you think Auggie will be okay?” Drew asked with a small wince.
“He’ll be fine,” I said, “look,” I nodded toward the kitchen where Ella and Cael had taken up conversation with August. They were laughing about something Cael had said and suddenly I was very glad that I had forced him to change his shirt before the party. “He’s making friends already,” I said.
“It would be nice if he made friends his age,” Drew said, a smile creeping on her face that wasn’t there before.
“Was that a joke?” I asked, leaning on the wall as she spooned pasta onto her plate.
She tossed a scowl over her shoulder at me and I couldn’t help but enjoy the way it made all her features look less mousey. “I can ask them to be around on Saturday if it makes you more comfortable?”
“I wouldn’t want to put them out…” Drew said.
“Hardly, Cael could honestly use a babysitter,” I laughed and pushed off the wall. “Only problem we have is that you can’t go to dinner in jeans.”
Drew paused, looking down at her outfit and back up at me, “I’m a part time waitress, Silas. All I own are thrifted jeans,” she said with an exhausted tone to her voice that she was desperately trying to hide beneath politeness.
“Well, you’ve got an obnoxiously rich fake fiancé now, so we’ll need to upgrade your wardrobe for dinner,” I said, lowering my voice and just trying not to hurt her feelings by tucking in the joke. “Mom will never believe it’s real unless we prove you’re way out of my league.”
“Obnoxiously rich?” Drew almost laughed and I could taste the victory of chipping away a piece of her guarded exterior.
“Ridiculously,” I whispered.
COURTNEY
There was a small knock on the apartment door just after I got back from dropping August off at school. I wasn’t scheduled at the stadium until tomorrow and was taking the day to get organized in our new space. I was dumping laundry into the washing machine and paused, not sure of what I was hearing but it came again.
I set the basket on the floor and wandered through the quiet apartment.
