“Thank you for helping,” Aunt Aggie said to Aaliyah. “Moving goes so much faster with four people, even if Jared keeps stopping for kisses and crap.”
Jared glared. “Aaliyah saved my life. I think she’s entitled to a few kisses.”
“She also let you go through with your harebrained scheme. I’d call that a push.”
Aunt Aggie didn’t cut anybody slack about anything. It was one of the things he loved and hated about her, depending on whether he was the one on the receiving end. But she liked Aaliyah, and Aaliyah liked the straightforward approach.
“Wait until his next harebrained idea. You get to try stopping him,” Aaliyah said.
His aunt laughed. “Challenge accepted.”
He smiled at their banter, but it quickly vanished. Mom was gone. They were only moving because they could no longer live with their father and Aunt Aggie didn’t have the room at her place for two kids. They’d tried it for a bit while her custody was temporary, pending confirmation, but now they were off to a new place. A new start.
Old pains were coming along for the ride. The torment of every moment he’d fought with Mom, the sharper pain of the good memories that made him miss her so much. Hiking with her at Bear Mountain State Park, the ice cream fight he and Emily had gotten into afterward that Mom didn’t even scold them for, even though they got her car all sticky.…
Mom’s funeral had been the worst, but they’d gotten through it. He’d even given a eulogy and managed to say everything he’d meant to say to her when she was alive. He wasn’t sure anyone could understand him toward the end, when the tears fell thick and ugly, but that didn’t stop him. He felt wrung out afterward, but better. Like maybe she’d even heard him. And forgiven. He still didn’t know what he believed, but he hoped there was a heaven and that she was in it. She deserved to be there. Mom had never wanted to hurt anyone, not even the man who’d hurt her.
“You okay?” Emily asked.
He’d stopped, apparently, in the middle of the hall, and she needed him to move out of her way.
“Yeah,” he said, stepping aside. “You?”
“Getting there,” she answered.
She looked good. Still pale, but not bloodless. The bandages had come off her wrists, but she still wore long sleeves to cover the scars. Maybe always would. Therapy was helping with the rest, though. For both of them. Jared still worried about becoming like Dad, but not so much anymore. When he’d had Andrew down, he could have kept pounding him. The way his father might have. The way Andrew had done to Mom, bashing out his anger, but he hadn’t. What had gotten him up and moving even after he’d been stabbed was the thought of something happening to others—to Emily and Aaliyah. People he loved. He was his father’s son, but he was also his mother’s. He was going to focus on that part of himself.
So yeah, getting there. It was the best they could do right now. Healing was a work in progress. Some days were better than others. Today …
“Pizza later?” he heard Aaliyah ask his aunt.
“Of course, it’s a moving tradition. Pizza and beer. Well, in your case, soda. My treat.”
Today was one of the good days.