Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 45063 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 225(@200wpm)___ 180(@250wpm)___ 150(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45063 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 225(@200wpm)___ 180(@250wpm)___ 150(@300wpm)
My chest tightens at the pain in Adam’s voice.
“This one was about the two of you,” Adam says.
“For both of us?” I ask.
Adam looks at me, nodding shortly. “I told her about the conversation we had. I told her, Harper, about your crush on Bryson.”
“You knew about that?” Harper gasps.
“I found your notebook,” Bryson replies. “Twice, actually. Once when you were maybe thirteen and then again shortly after. It was when I was helping you and Tiffany move into the apartment. I didn’t mean to see it. I never mentioned it because it’s your business.”
Harper looks at me, her eyes wide as though panic is threading through her.
“I want you both to watch this,” Adam says, then picks up the TV remote and presses play.
Eva brushes her hair down, then sighs with a soft smile on her lips. I remember the same gesture from countless times when we were kids—when she was summoning her courage for an unpleasant task ahead, knowing it had to be done. Always with a smile on her face.
Emotion touches me. Harper glances at me, sympathy in her eyes, no judgment or jealousy there now that she knows the truth about Eva and me.
“Adam,” Eva says. “I know you’re probably getting sick of my voice by now…”
She laughs ironically, and Adam shudders. Harper hugs him closer.
“But I want you to listen to me. You know it’s difficult for me to talk about my childhood, but I think I have to. In that orphanage, after my druggie parents decided raising me was a hassle, I had no friends, no family, nobody to look out for me.”
She smooths one hand over the other as if she’s struggling to contain the energy bubbling up inside her.
“I was stranded, alone. I never thought I’d have somebody to help me when… Well, there’s no use dwelling on the bad things.”
Adam pauses the video, his eyes shimmering, but then his face toughens just like when he set his own dislocated finger. “She never told me what those bad things were. It might not be right for me to ask, but I have to know. Bryson?”
It wouldn’t be right for me to keep this from him.
“When they moved me to Eva’s home, there was this slick, disgusting bastard who could fool the world into thinking he wasn’t a complete monster. He’d take too much interest in some of the girls. I was already big for my age, so I beat him up pretty badly once and he stopped.”
“Jesus.” Adam shakes his head. “Thank you.”
I shrug. “I wasn’t going to let him keep going, and definitely not with Eva. She was a good person.”
Adam clicks play again as Harper wipes a tear from her eye.
“Then Bryson arrived,” Eva goes on, “and he stopped the bad things. He stood by me. He made it so I could read and be at peace. He made it so I was the kind of person you’d want, Adam. Then I watched as he busted his butt working two jobs to put himself through medical school. I watched as he made something of himself.
“Throughout that, he’s never stopped being a good person. Grumpy, sure, and a little tough sometimes, but at heart, we know he’s a good man. So if he’s taken an interest in Harper, I know it comes from a good place. I know we can’t judge him as we might any other man who takes an interest in a younger woman.”
The word interest lingers in my mind like a joke, an impossibility. It goes so much deeper than the word could ever explain.
“I know it’s unusual, and you have to be careful. Who knows if what Harper feels is real or just a silly girlish crush? I get that, but I think it’s fair to give them a chance. I met you. I fell in love. I consider myself so lucky for that.”
Eva dabs at her cheeks, sitting up straighter as though refusing to give in to her tears.
Outside, rain begins to patter against the window.
Eva pauses, giving Harper time to look at me, her lips trembling. I meet her eyes. I silently tell her it’s going to be okay, even if I can’t know that.
“I think he deserves the same chance. If this illness takes me, don’t spend the rest of your life wondering what it would’ve been like if your best friend became your brother-in-law. There’s always light in the darkness. Good can come from this. Joy. Happiness. Ch-children.”
She stutters on the last word, reminding me of the problems she suffered, of the adoption process she and Adam had begun when the car accident happened.
“Nieces, nephews,” she goes on. “You’re a good big brother, the best. We both know Bryson isn’t a bad man. I love you, Adam. I always will, even when I’m gone. I’m watching you watch this video right now. I just know it. With a big, big smile on my face.”