Page 8 of Drifting Hearts
Clayton looked up at me—even when he was standing he was shorter than I was, but from his current disadvantage, I towered over him.
“I’m getting a glass of water, and then I have a therapy appointment.” Clayton spoke to me like I was five.
“I meant why are you scooting around on a stool?”
Clayton rolled his eyes. “Have you ever tried to navigate a wheelchair with one hand? It’s not exactly easy. I realized that moving around on the computer chair was a lot more doable for me. It’s better than hopping and I can’t quite manage crutches.”
“Stop giving him the third degree,” Mom cut into the conversation and I tried not to flinch at her admonishment. “Did you want cookies for your appointment?”
“Yes, please. Do you have any oatmeal raisin left?”
“I sure do. Made a fresh batch this morning. Let me get you a plate.”
Standing aside, I watched my mom buzz around the kitchen gathering cookies and pouring cold water into a metal tumbler with a straw. “You scoot on ahead and I’ll follow you and get you settled,” she told Clayton. Shifting her gaze over to me, some of her sunny demeanor fell. “You don’t go anywhere.”
Clayton coughed to cover up his laugh and he made his way through the kitchen, using his good leg to push or pull himself forward. Gripping the doorway with his usable hand, he propelledhimself a little easier. Mom patiently followed him and they chatted away like they were old friends. I heard their quiet voices then the click of the office door shutting.
When Mom returned, she folded her arms in front of her and stared me down.
“He’s fine, Kieran. He’s very well-behaved. And I check the computer every night before I go to bed. The only thing he does is talk to his therapist.”
“Well, make sure you keep checking. He’ll wait until your guard is down.”
Mom’s face softened. “Kieran, my sweet boy, I wonder how I failed you. You’re so suspicious of everyone.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell her that someone had to be suspicious. If she and Shane wanted to save the world, that was great, but someone had to be the one to save them from themselves.
“Forgive me for being cautious about a man who stole from his best friend. It’s not out of line to be worried about something like that happening again.”
Mom shook her head sadly, but changed the subject. She had always been an expert in picking her battles. “Are you taking cookies with you today? I’ve also got some bread I baked with the girls.”
“I’m fine, Mom. I still have cookies from the last time I was here.”
Mom shot me a sly grin, like she’d known I would say that. “Yes, you probably do. You’ve been over so often lately, looking after your dear old mother. What a nice, loyal son I have. Maybe you’ll come over more often when you’re not doing it just to lurk and intimidate my guest.”
I only barely refrained from snorting in derision. “I don’t think he feels very intimidated by me.” And if he was intimidated, I was glad. That meant he might think twice before doing anything stupid.
“I heard from Brodie last night,” Mom said, changing the subject again. “I tried to convince him to come for a visit, but he’s madly in love with the view from his hotel balcony and he’s not ready to leave it yet.”
Brodie had always wanted to travel the world and every time we talked to him, he’d fallen madly in love with another piece of it. This week it was some lush green hills outside his hotel in Scotland. Last month it was this little coffee shop in Manchester that had the cutest little cat living in the window of it. He once professed his undying love for a very specific stretch of beach in Spain.
It was easy to fall in love with the grand things, he’d told me at one time. Anyone can go to the Sistine Chapel and fall in love with the art, or go to Athens and succumb to the beauty of the acropolis, he’d said. Brodie appreciated those things, but he found the beauty in the mundane too. He once had a week-long love affair with the food from a particular vendor in Turkey.
He was easy to miss.
I couldn’t help but wonder what he’d think of the whole Clayton situation. I wondered if, like Mom, Brodie would welcome Clayton into the fold. He was kinder than Shane or me put together. He easily made friends wherever he went. I didn’t think there was a single person on the planet who didn’t like Brodie.
“While you’re here, can you take this bag of trash out to the cans for me?”
“Of course. I was on my way out anyway.”
“Well, when you come over in a couple days to make sure he hasn’t emptied the house of everything of value, how about you leave some of your attitude at the door? He’s had a hard time, Kieran.”
I wanted to tell her that his suffering had been his own doing. It wasn’t anything but the consequences of his own actions that had himin his current state. But I held my tongue. I also knew what battles to choose, and this wasn’t one of them.
“I make no promises.”
Where Brodie might see the beauty in everything, I saw the reality. The cat he’d fallen in love with at the cafe had been abandoned to the streets and only by virtue of being a cat had it survived. And it did so by inviting itself to live in the front window of the cafe. The stretch of beach he’d fallen in love with in Spain had sand that was full of micro plastics, just like every other beach in the world now. The view from his balcony in Scotland was nice, I had to admit that much, even if it hadn’t stopped raining since his arrival.
