Page 263 of Steeling Her
Chapter Fifty-One
That’s For Another Car Ride
Nick
I’ve been letting Haley flick through the photos I took of the new house that I’m looking to buy. It’ll go nicely with the car that I recently bought too.
“Wow, this is incredible.” She stares and gasps at the screen as she flicks through the virtual tour I have on my phone. One by one, her mouth gets wider and wider with shock. “This is really fucking nice!” She sighs to herself. “Everything is so clean.” She almost shivers with delight. She loves a clean house and never fails to mention it. This house has been spotless since she and TJ moved in. Nothing is out of place, if something is, she would know and flip out.
“Like the place?” I chuckle back as I swing from side to side on the bar stool that’s matched with the center kitchen island.
“Okay, mine is cleaner, but yours is clean enough.” She tries to emphasize the difference between the two. I will never understand what she means by that.
“So, what will happen when you and TJ have kids? Kids are dirty, you know,” I ask but with a hint of a teasing tone to make things light for her. “They enjoy making a mess of any place.” I just couldn’t resist the urge today.
“Well, our kids will be trained in that department, so we won’t have to worry about that—”
“They will still be dirty, Haley. They’re kids, just look at Taylor. Danielle used to be such a neat freak, yet she runs riot in the house. You’ll have to compromise with them,” I joke but she stares at me. She knows I’m somewhat right, and she begins to frown the more she thinks about it. I can slowly see the panic setting in.
The thing with kids is, if you don’t let them figure things out for themselves by trying something new or running riot, how are they supposed to grow? They won’t. You can’t wrap them in a bubble all the time. You have to let them do their own thing. It’s what our parents did. If you don’t let them, you’re hindering them and restricting them, which won’t be good in the long run.
“If you have boys, they’re going to be all sweaty and dirty because I know TJ will have them throwing a football once they can walk. If it’s a girl, she might like to draw—”
“See, that’s where I’ll stop you there. There will be no paintings or drawings of any kind in this house. I’ll just take them over to their uncle Nick’s so they can do that and draw all over your walls.” She smirks once she realizes I have been trying to push her buttons in a playful kind of way. She bit, and I couldn’t help but smile to myself.
“Too easy.” I laugh and push myself up from the stool to grab a water.
She smacks me on the back of my head after realizing she lost the game. I bite my tongue to stop myself from laughing further but I couldn’t suppress the grin. I open the refrigerator and reach for the water sitting on the bottom shelf, near the cooler.
As I make my way back, we sit in silence as she goes through one more round of the photos to really absorb the layout of the house.
“It really is beautiful, Nick, I’m happy you found this one.” She lifts her eyes from the screen to peer up at me, then slides the phone back across to me. I gracefully pick it up and put it back into my pocket, tucking it in nicely.
I sip on my water and we watch one another.
If there is one thing I know about my sister, it’s that she cannot handle silence. She’s always been the type of person who likes to talk, so I know this is killing her inside, but I’ve been wanting to ask her a question; a particular question that’s been on my mind for a while now.
“What?” she asks and crosses her arms. Her eyes are trying to read me as best as they can.
“Nothing.” I sip on the ice-cold glacier water from the clear plastic bottle. I shake my head once I swallow it and place it down on the countertop. I press my lips together as I look around the kitchen awkwardly. The silence is deafening.
“Nick?” She tilts her head to the side so it’s resting on her hunched shoulder. With both elbows now resting on the countertop, she leans forward to get me to focus on her. “I know you want to ask something; I can see it all over your face. So, what is it?” she asks once more.
Should I ask or should I wait?That is the second big question on my mind right now. I know my sister can be a blabber mouth, so it’s taking me aback how reserved she’s being. I think back and forth.Yes or no?I wait a while before I actually give in. I lick my lips and sigh to myself. I run my two palms along my jeans to remove the sweat gathering on them. I’m nervous and she knows this too.
“How is she?” I finally ask. It comes out more like a whisper.
She drops her head and shoulders down from the weight of the question. She knows it’s because I haven’t heard or seen her recently, she knows it’s driving me crazy, and she knows that it’s kept my mind active.
She walks around the island to sit on the stool next to me. She rests her warm palm on my arm in a comforting way, one she’s never done before. She’s either bracing me for something bad or she’s just trying to distract me.
“Do you trust me?” she asks a loaded question. I raise my eyebrows in response and stare at her, wondering why the hell she’s asking me that.
“Yeah,” I finally answer but there is hesitation in my tone and she notices it immediately. We both choose to ignore it and continue.
“Then you’ll have to trust me when I say she just needs the time. Just give her that.” She squeezes my arm for added reassurance. For some strange reason, I know that what she told me will help my mind for the next while. I know that this is all the information I’m getting from her, but at least it’s something.
“Okay.” I nod in agreement. We leave it at that and move on to a different topic. “You coming to the game on Sunday?” I ask her.
