Page 100 of Finding Us

We all laugh.

“I would have to agree with that,” Garret says. I look over and see Lilly now sound asleep on his shoulder.

“Should he take her upstairs?” I ask Pearce, pointing at Lilly. “She could sleep on our bed.”

“No, she doesn’t need a nap. She falls asleep on him like that all the time.”

She does? Why haven’t I ever noticed this?

“I have a very comfortable shoulder,” Garret says.

But I think it’s more than that. I think Lilly feels content and relaxed when she’s with her brother. Garret practically raised her. He made her feel loved and cared for. Katherine isn’t loving at all. I’ve never even seen her hug Lilly. And Garret said Katherine never plays with Lilly or reads her stories. And Pearce is always at work so he doesn’t do that stuff either, or at least he didn’t used to. When Garret lived at home, he was the one who took care of Lilly. That’s why Lilly misses him so much.

“So what was Lilly saying about swimming?” Garret asks his dad.

“She’s taking lessons now. She started last week. The instructor comes over to the house.”

“I already taught her how to swim.”

“Yes, but—” Pearce checks to make sure Lilly’s still asleep. “You’re not there now and she wants to get better at it and I can’t teach her anything about swimming. She keeps saying she wants to be on a swim team someday, just like you. She looks up to you, Garret. She wants you to be proud of her.”

“Yeah, I know.” He glances down at her.

The front door swings open and Harper walks in. “Hi! I didn’t know you guys were here yet. My parents are over at my place if you want to come over. The food’s almost ready. We’ll eat as soon as Frank and Ryan get here.”

“Okay,” I say. “We’ll be right over.”

Harper spots Lilly sleeping on Garret’s shoulder. She goes over to her. “Aww, she’s tired from last night, huh?”

Garret moves and Lilly wakes up a little. She rubs her eyes and notices Harper standing there.

Lilly smiles. “Harper, look!” She holds her tiny hands up, showing off her nail polish. “They’re still pink!”

Harper smiles back at her. “I know. It stays on a really long time. You want to come with me and get some pink lemonade?”

The mention of something pink gets Lilly all excited. “Okay.”

Garret sets her down and she walks over to her dad. “Can I go with Harper?”

“Yes, honey, go ahead,” he says.

“Lemonade sounds good.” Grace gets up. “I think I’ll have some, too, if that’s okay.”

“Sure. Follow us.” Harper stops and waits for Grace and the three of them go outside.

“Dad, you’ve gotta do something about Lilly,” Garret says.

“I know. I’ve talked to someone about it. A child psychologist. And as I suspected, she said that Lilly needs to get out more and be around other children. She’s too isolated. The psychologist wanted to meet with Lilly for a couple sessions but Katherine wouldn’t allow it. But she’s at least agreed to let Lilly have some supervised play dates. And just last week we enrolled her in a private school for the fall.”

“Did you tell her yet?” Garret asks.

“No, but we will soon. She knows about the play dates. I can tell she’s nervous about it. She’s used to being around adults so it will take some adjustment being around other children. This will be a big change for her. Combine that with the changes between her mother and me and you can see why she’s struggling right now. That’s probably why she’s so attached to you, Garret.”

“Yeah, I’ve never seen her act like that before.”

“It was hard on her when you moved. It still is. She talks about you constantly, to the point that Katherine now scolds Lilly whenever she mentions you.”

“What the hell?” Garret almost yells it. “She can’t do that.”

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