Page 84 of Second Chance

“He’s still alive.”

It takes another three minutes of Paul expounding on the dangers of living outside of Williamsburg, but Tony manages to extricate himself from the call.

It’s dark out already. Every light in the apartment is on. The kitchen is spotless. The living room is quiet, as though everyone has tired themselves out by acting busy, and all that’s left is the anxiety drawing them together.

For a brief moment, Tony considers telling everyone the good news: Daniel’s alive, or he was an hour and a half ago. They have a place to go. They have a goal.

Immediately, he reconsiders.

He doesn’t want his family knowing he’s going to Germantown alone, and he’s definitely not calling the police if Daniel doesn’t want him to. He justifies it to himself on the pretense that the police are informed about Daniel’s disappearance and Lily’s likely involvement, and so far, it’s achieved jack shit in finding Daniel. But no one else was here last year; they wouldn’t understand. Tony’s not even sure Blake and Lisa would take it well. Colette will get it. Colette, he would take with him, but Emilio has joined her discussion with Meredith, and he…

He’s the one link to Germantown Tony can think of.

Suddenly, the chills Tony got when Emilio told him he would have plenty of time for grief later return tenfold. Tony spent all day being sure Emilio didn’t do it after seeing how honestly wrecked he is. But he doesn’t know Emilio. For all Tony knows, he could be the world’s best actor. If Tony tells everyone Daniel is alive, Emilio will know Daniel got a message out, and that could put him in danger if Emilio did it.

Instead of an announcement, Tony starts with a yawn. “So.” He keeps his mouth open pretending he’s too tired to stop yawning while he talks. “I’m getting pretty beat. How do y’all want to do this?”

“We’ll head back to Kingston,” Pa says. “Let you get some rest.”

“We’ll be here again in the morning,” Ma threatens.

“I can come into the shop.” For a moment, Tony feels guilty. He has absolutely no intention of going to work tomorrow. He knows his parents care too much to let him do it. He’s offering so they can turn him down, and he’s so thankful they will.

“Absolutely not. Let Kyle earn his keep.” Ma’s expression bodes no dissent.

Tony holds his hands up in surrender.

“You good to stay here if I take my car?” Gianna asks Blake.

Right. She brought him over this afternoon.

“I’ll catch a ride with Lisa tomorrow morning. But you gotta let me say goodbye to the princess.” Blake gestures to Lia, sleeping in her stroller, briefly angelic.

While he coos over her, Gianna pulls Tony into a brief, tight hug.

“Right, then,” she says. “I’m headed home too. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He blames it on the mess that has been this day, but tears spark briefly behind his eyes. Despite everything they’ve said to each other recently, he still has this.

“Yeah,” he says roughly. “Glad you came.”

She ruffles his hair. “’Course.”

It takes another twenty minutes for them all to get their shoes on, for Blake to give Gianna a hug goodbye (and since when have they been so close?), and for Lia to be picked up from her nap so Ma and Pa can fight over who will carry the stroller. (Pa’s back is acting up, but he still doesn’t like it when his wife carries things.) In the end, Emilio carries it downstairs for them. Pa will be so grumpy tomorrow when he has to open the shop after getting less than his full eight hours of sleep.

Guilt twinges in Tony’s gut. He should probably have told them the truth.

After, it’s just the six of them, standing around the too-well-lit living room.

“So,” Tony starts, wondering if he can get everyone to leave but Colette.

“It’s cool if we crash here, right?” Blake yawns.

“Um.” Is there a polite way to point out that Daniel’s sister has first dibs on the couch? Or that Blake and Lisa both have their own apartments twenty minutes away? Tony doesn’t really care; he gave up on being polite to the two of them long ago. But he’d rather get to know Meredith a little before she finds out what he’s usually like.

“Actually, I was thinking…” Colette says. “Maybe Meredith would be more comfortable on my guest bed.” It sounds as if it’s an idea Colette came up with in the last five minutes, but Tony tracks her and Meredith sharing a glance and guesses they were talking about this before.

“If you’d rather, sure,” he says. “We’ve got enough bedding and space for two people on the couch. So, if these two”—Tony jerks his thumb toward Blake and Lisa—“are staying, it’ll probably be better. You can always have the bed though. I can drive back to Kingston.” He adds the last as an afterthought, agesture to the fact that he doesn’t live here. It feels strange after he’s spent all day playing host, telling people where to find the silverware and the cups.

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