“Your mom sounds like she was an amazing person,” I told her gently. “I wish I could’ve met her.”
Anya smiled, but her eyes were a little sad.
Emmett pushed his plate away. “Wanna go in the treehouse?”
“I’ll clean up,” I said when Anya nodded.
The two scampered outside, and as I loaded the dishwasher and wiped down counters, I tried to untangle everything I was feeling.
My tendency under normal circumstances would be to hit the bag. To push my body to sweaty exhaustion until I could make sense of what was tumbling through my head. At the moment, it wasn’t an option, and it made me feel twitchy and uncomfortable.
Anya’s words about her mom had me feeling twitchy for an entirely different reason.
Memories of the one who raised us, they were murky, not all good. But not all bad either. Briefly, I thought of the bracelet in the metal box.
I set the plate of leftover pizza in the fridge, and when the door closed, I found myself staring at a photo of Molly and me at a Wolves game. Suddenly, I couldn’t call my sister fast enough, after weeks of not really knowing what to say.
Hopping up on the kitchen island, I brought up her name and started a FaceTime.
It was her last couple of days on a work trip, but when she got home, she’d be in the final stretch before the wedding. I held my breath when she connected the call.
She smiled, but it was restrained, her eyes a little wary.
I’d done that.
I started tearing up immediately. “I’m sorry,” I said in a wobbly voice.
“Oh, Iz,” she sighed. “I’m sorry too. I dumped it on you. I should have known better.”
“Did I ruin your wedding planning?”
She laughed. “No. That’s the beauty of having a wedding planner. She’s taking care of almost everything.”
I nodded. “Good.”
“You at home?”
Still, even though none of us lived here anymore, we called it home. I nodded again. “Watching Emmett for a couple of days because everyone has a life except me. How’s work?”
“Good.” She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. “Are you okay, Iz?”
I took a deep breath. “It shouldn’t have taken me this long to reach out to you.”
“You say that like I’m surprised it did,” she teased.
I exhaled a laugh. “I’m a little slow to process things sometimes. The twins stopped by the gym, but I think they could tell I wasn’t really ready to talk about it.”
“Well, if it helps, Logan wasn’t exactly jumping up and down for joy about it either,” she admitted. “But he said that as long as he still gets to walk me down the aisle, he doesn’t care who’s sitting in that church.”
“For as much as he and I are alike,” I said, “he’s way more levelheaded than I am.”
“True,” Molly agreed easily.
I glared at the screen, and my sister laughed.
“You know what knocked some sense into me today?”
“So hard to say.”
I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help but smile. “So much of what I remember about Brooke is just … muddled. When I actually try to remember what it was like when she was our mom, most of my memories are fuzzy.” I exhaled. “And I was listening to a seven-year-old girl talking about memories of her own mom, and I realized that so much of what scares me about Brooke showing up isn’t even based on what I remember of her.”
Molly’s brow furrowed as she listened, but she didn’t interrupt.
“I cannot predict, no matter how much I try to imagine it, what she might say or do. And there is nothing more terrifying to me,” I admitted quietly.
“Brooke is something you can’t control.”
Eventually, I nodded. “Maybe it doesn’t make sense, but even hearing you, or Claire, or Lia say that I don’t have to talk to her if I don’t want to made it even worse. Because what if she is awful?” I paused. “What if she’s awful to you? Or the twins? I will never forgive myself if I wasn’t right next to you for that.”
Molly smiled. “Even if she comes, and even if she’s not a perfect guest, we’d handle it.” She shrugged. “That’s what we do, you know?”
“I would shank her ass if she ruined your wedding day.”
She laughed. “I know.”
Emmett ran into the house, breathless and red-faced. “Iz? Umm, we have a problem.”
“What is it?”
“Hi, Emmett,” Molly called.
He ignored her, and a pit yawned wide and dark in my belly. “Anya and I were playing in the treehouse, and umm, she wanted to show me something, and …” He paused, his hands wringing nervously. “She kinda … climbed out on one of the branches, and now she can’t get down.”
“Oh, shit,” I breathed. “Molly, hang on.”
Her face bent in concern. “Can I call someone to come help?”
I threw the slider into the backyard open. “Everyone’s gone,” I hissed. “That’s why I’m here.”
“Who’s on the branch?” Molly asked.
I gave her a look. “Aiden’s daughter.”
“Oh, shit.”
I walked around the tree and saw her. Anya was on a branch even higher than the roof of the treehouse. She was gripping it tightly, her legs dangling on either side.
“Can you help me get down, Miss Isabel?” she asked, voice wobbly with nerves.
“Yeah, sweetie, I will be right there, okay? You are doing great sitting there like that,” I answered with way more fucking calm than I was feeling.
“What can I do?” I heard Molly ask.
I blinked, my hand rubbing my forehead as I thought. “Umm, I need to hang up, but … listen, if you don’t hear back from me in like, ten minutes, can you call Aiden at the gym?”
“Of course. Love you, Iz.”
Eyes trained on Anya, I replied, “Love you too.”
I hung up and handed the phone to Emmett. Studying Anya’s position, and the size of the branch, I spoke quietly to her as I moved directly beneath where she was. “Have you tried scooting backward, sweetie?”
She nodded frantically. “It made the branch wobble, and I got scared.”
“That’s okay. Being scared is totally normal, Anya.” I sucked in a deep breath. “Even if we’re afraid, we can still do brave things when it counts.”
Anya looked down at me, and I saw tears in her eyes. My heart absolutely turned inside out at the sight of those big eyes.
“If I climb up there, do you think you’d be able to try again?”
Anya swallowed, then nodded slowly.
Emmett looked nervous, and I crouched in front of him. “Okay, here’s the game plan. You hold the phone and keep your eyes on her while I climb up. I think I can reach her where she’s sitting.” I took a deep breath. “Just talk to her normally, okay?”
He nodded, face pale, cheeks red. “I can do that.”
I dropped a kiss on the top of his head and then whispered in his ear. “You remember how to make an emergency call, right? We won’t need it, but I need to know just in case.”