I made a tall glass of iced tea and sat the glass in front of her on the coffee table. “I won’t tell anyone. Besides, what they do to you isn’t fair. I’d say you’re allowed to talk shit every once in a while. What are you going to do?”
With her schedule of a twenty-four-hour shift every third day, Ember normally watched her sisters on her day off, and one of her parents would watch the twins after school on the days that she worked. It hadn’t been easy for her to convince them to do that. I remember the blowup. They had wanted her to work, but they hadn’t wanted her work to take away from her watching her sisters either. I had been able to hear it all because my apartment was right next to hers. In fact, we shared a bedroom wall. I had heard them yelling at her for hours that night.
With both of her parents gone, it would mean she had no one to watch them on her over-nights.
“What about my parents?” I offered as the thought popped into my head.
My mother was a retired grade-school teacher, and my father owned a home improvement store. We’d been trying to convince him to let someone else take over, but he was determined to work until he had one foot in the grave. These days, my mother spent a lot of her time working with education-based charities or tending her award-winning flower garden.
Ember drained the glass of tea and then shook her head. “No, don’t worry about it. I’ll figure something out. I can find the money for a babysitter or daycare somewhere. Do they even have those overnight?”
“I’m serious. Mom isn’t working. She has a lot of free time. I’m sure if I asked, she wouldn’t mind. In fact, this might be perfect.” Before she could object, I said, “At least let me ask her before you say no.”
Her eyes were no longer red from tears, but there were dark blue smudges underneath them. Strands of flame-colored hair fluttered around her neck and shoulders where it had come out of her messy bun. The shapeless, almost tactical, pants and faded, dark-blue shirt emblazoned with her station number did nothing to showcase the bombshell figure underneath.
But I’d never found her so sexy.
“. . . but I don’t want to make it a permanent situation,” she was saying. I forced myself to tune back into the conversation. “You can ask them, but don’t make them feel obligated. In the meantime, I’ll try to make more permanent arrangements.”
“I’ll call them after I finish practice, but I promise they won’t mind. They like you better than they like me, remember?”
This made her laugh. “Shut up. Your parents love you. It’s almost hard to watch. Every time you come home, it’s like you haven’t been home in years. King Tripp,” she teased, then glanced at her phone and cursed. “It’s so late. I shouldn’t have kept you here for so long. You need to sleep. Thank you for helping me, but now you need to get going.” Ember got to her feet and pulled me to mine, shoving me to the door.
“Are you sure you’re going to be okay? I can call Coach Taylor tomorrow and tell him I’m sick or something. Probably the flu from one of the brats.”
Ember laughed. “I’ll make sure to tell them you said that.”
My heart eased at seeing the smile, however brief, flirt across her lips. “I’ll stop by after practice tomorrow to check on you guys.”
“You don’t have to do that. We’re fine. My parents have gone on benders before. It was a lot of things at once, and, apparently, I need to take a nap before I break down and cry on anybody else.”
I reached up and tugged on a loose lock of her hair, causing her to smack my hand away. “You can cry on me anytime,” I said.
I thought about her when I went to sleep in my room that shared a wall with hers. Which wasn’t new. I thought about her all the time.
It wasn’t really a secret, either.
Which somehow made it even worse.
Chapter Five
Ember
“When is Mommy coming home?” Molly asked.
How was it that children could be so innocent and so intuitive at the same time?
I decided the best course of action was honesty. The girls knew what our parents were like, and I felt that they didn’t need another adult in their lives who lied to them. Of course, I didn’t know if telling them the truth was the proper course of action, but I was doing my best.
“I don’t know, sugar bean. She…had some plans, and they must have taken longer than she anticipated. But don’t worry, we’ll do something fun today to pass the time.”
Explaining it to them when she didn’t come back tomorrow or the day after or the day after that would be a little more difficult.
Tillie shared a look with her sister. “What about Daddy? He didn’t come home last night either.”
They were too smart for their own good. I knew it, and yet sometimes I took how much they absorbed for granted. Kneeling down, I cupped both of their cheeks.
“Babies, this is one time I won’t have all of the answers for you. Sometimes grownups make mistakes. Sometimes they disappoint you and do the wrong thing. Mommy and Daddy aren’t making very good choices right now, but I don’t want you to worry. No matter what happens, I’ll always be here for you. You know that, right?”
Their eyes watered, and I pulled them close, my heart aching for them.
“Do they not love us anymore?” Molly asked, her voice wobbly. Tillie sniffled in my ear on the other side.
My heart broke into tiny little pieces. No child should ever have a reason to ask such a question. I held them tighter. “Of course they still love you. Who wouldn’t?”
“Then why would they leave us?” Tillie asked. “Were we being bad?”
I would have gladly ripped my parents to shreds as I listened to the twins’ questions and allayed their fears. It had never bothered me how inattentive and downright negligent our parents were when I was growing up. I hadn’t known any different.
“This isn’t about you,” I said firmly. “You haven’t done anything wrong. I don’t want to hear you say that again. You two are perfect. I don’t ever want to hear you thinking it’s your fault again.”
Next time I saw either of my parents, they were going to get an earful. I’d never truly stood up to them before. They somehow always managed to convince me things would change, and nearly a dozen years later, they were the same as they had been when I was the twins’ age. It wasn’t fair to any of us.
Molly pulled back and clutched her sister’s hand. “We’re sorry the lady had to call you in from work. We tried to be brave, but it was so dark, and we kept hearing creepy noises, and we got scared.”
“You don’t have to apologize for calling me, sweetheart. You did the absolute right thing. It’s not safe for you two to be home alone. You don’t worry about work; that’s my job. Now, let’s get you two dressed for the day, get some breakfast, and maybe we’ll go down to the park?”
Their eyes brightened. “Will you push us on the swings?” Molly asked.
“Of course, sweetheart. Now, do you two want pancakes or scrambled eggs?”
The time at the park helped us all unwind and take some space from the stress. I’d texted and called both of my parents about a dozen times but without any answer aside from the one hangup from my mom. It was a fruitless endeavor, but, for the first time, I wasn’t sure what to do.