Page 18 of Forever to Fall
CHAPTER 6
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“You realize I’m a professionalnurse, right?” Mallory asked, cradling her youngest nephew in her arms. Her sister, Emily, glowered from the other side of the living room, a permanent crease knitted between her brows. “I can show my transcripts. I got an A in neonatal care, and I’m the head nurse on the evening rotation at the ER.” Holding the baby up in her arms she added, “And Tyson isn’t even a preemie. He’s getting so big; he’ll be able to chew steak soon.”
“You say that,” Emily countered, “but you’re not supporting his neck properly.” Mallory struggled to hold back an eyeroll as her sister strode over and scooped up Tyson. She looked over her son like he’d just come back from deep sea exploration, studying every hair on his tiny head. “A baby’s head is soft and not fully formed for months, you know.”
Of course, Mallory knew, as did anyone who ever interacted with a baby, but there was no point interrupting her sister when she was on a roll. Dutifully, she held her tongue and kept her eyes locked on her sister, careful to avoid even a hint of an eyeroll. Emily had been a mother for nearly a year, which naturally made her an expert on all things parenting and babies. Mallory half expected to see her sister pop up on a TED Talk before the end of the week on the importance of napping and balanced diets.
A few weeks ago, over family dinner, she lectured their eldest sister, Sophie, on all the ways she’d raised her children to be serial killers. “Do you have any idea what is in that yogurt?” she had asked, flabbergasted that her niece and nephew were allowed to eat dairy and breathe the same air as the cows that provided it. Sophie had made a few choice hand gestures to end that line of conversation. Mallory only wished she was the older sibling, then she would really tell Emily her thoughts on baby bone density and dairy products.
Glancing at her watch, Mallory willed Evan to show up sooner rather than later. He’d promised to swing by and see their young nephew, but also to save Mallory from another Emily lecture. Her sister caught her checking her watch for the third time in as many minutes and scoffed. “Do you have somewhere better to be?” She angled young Tyson so his pinched face could judge Mallory with all the gusto of an eight-month-old baby. “Look how upset he’s getting,” Emily said, her voice dripping with disdain. Tyson offered his aunt a gummy smile, his cheeks plumping with the effort.
Mallory pulled herself to her feet and plodded into the kitchen. While only two years apart, her sister had the uncanny ability to sermon at the drop of a hat. “Chill, Em. I’m just checking to see if Evan’s almost here.”
Tyson made a gurgling sound before closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep. Emily carefully nestled him in the crook of her arm before following Mallory to the fridge. “I’m guessing we won’t see him for a while. Isn’t Beckett back in town? They’re probably off wreaking havoc.”
Impressed with herself, Mallory didn’t even flinch when Beckett’s name was uttered. It was like she was completely in control of her emotions. She grabbed her phone and checked her text messages. “Ev said he’d be here for dinner. He knows you’re leaving town tonight.” Emily lived a couple of hours away in Indiana, but she came out to Buckeye Falls to visit Mallory and Evan whenever she could. Their oldest sister, Sophie, lived up in Cleveland and the foursome video-called weekly to catch up.
Emily eased Tyson into the pack and play that Mallory kept at her place. After ensuring her son was perfectly positioned for optimal sleep, she tiptoed back to the kitchen and joined Mallory while she diced some vegetables for a salad. “Has it been hard?” Emily asked, her voice low so as not to disturb the baby.
“Has what been hard?” Mallory sensed they were teetering on the edge of sisterly advice. It wasn’t that she and Emily weren’t close, but they were close in a different way than she and Evan. Emily was the middle daughter, and after taking orders from Sophie for her whole life, she was eager to share the fun with her only younger sister. Normally Mallory didn’t mind, but today she feared it would drain her.
Emily tossed a bag of greens into the salad bowl before shaking a bottle of dressing. Her shrewd gaze never left Mallory’s face, and her cheeks burned. “I’m going to go easy on you, because I know Evan will barge in here soon.”
“Oh, boy.” Mallory sighed, nearly chopping her thumb in her haste to finish dicing a cucumber. “Can we just pretend we had this talk and move onto something for fun? Like Dad’s upcoming colonoscopy?”
Emily wrinkled her nose. “Eww, gross, Mal. You’re about to put me off my appetite.”
Mallory hip-checked her out of the way, going in search of salad tongs and hopefully a new line of conversation. “So what is hubby up to while you’ve been here all day?”
“Pfft, working and enjoying a few hours in a quiet house? Now knock it off and let’s get down to business. How are you handling Beckett being back in town?”
Mallory had gone to a lot of trouble keeping her feelings for Beckett hidden. Sophie, bless her heart, had been oblivious to her sisters’ crushes growing up, mostly because she was older and had her own matters of the heart to attend to. Emily, on the other hand, lived for this type of drama. Mallory idly wondered if that was where her love of celebrity gossip came from.
On a particularly low day in high school, Mallory had come home in tears when Beckett had asked another girl to join him at the Christmas Jubilee. They’d been dancing around asking each other for weeks, until Beckett surprised her by mentioning bringing another girl. It was clear her infatuation at that point was one-sided, and she broke down. Emily had found her in a very cliched state—eating ice cream directly from the tub and sobbing through her millionth rewatch of Kierra Knightly’sPride and Prejudice.
Mallory stabbed the tongs into the bowl, causing the top layer of lettuce to wilt under the pressure. “And don’t mess up my salad. I need to make sure I get enough folic acid, or Tyson will grow up crossed-eyed and with a crooked spine.”
“Yeah, I’m not even going there with you. Yes, nutrition while breastfeeding is important, but if you miss three pieces of iceberg, you’re hardly malnourished.”
“Stop stalling,” Emily ordered, poking Mallory in the ribs with the blunt end of a butter knife. “Have you seen Beckett? Does he still look like Conan O’Brien’s little brother?”
Finally, Mallory let loose a dramatic eye roll. “Really? You’re still on that?”
Emily held up her hands and started counting down her reasons. “First, he’s tall. Second, he’s got red hair.”
“Do you have any idea how many tall red-headed men there are in the world? I’m guessing thousands, and they don’t all look like Conan.”
“Beckett’s funny. That’s another similarity.” Emily smirked, clearly pleased with herself.
“Ugh, I’m not even fighting with you about this.”
“Because you know I’m right...” Emily sing-songed as she carried the salad to the table. “Quit stalling and tell me how you feel. You two have the whole will-they-won’t-they thing like it’s an Olympic sport.”
