Page 56 of Nine-Tenths

"No?"

"Okay," Gemma says. "You'resureyou took them."

"Yes." It's the one thing I never forget. I hate where my mind goes when I'm not balanced.If you can't make your own serotonin, store-bought is fine.

"So cute dragon," Gemma says again. "Just enjoy being in love and take it one day at a time, okay? And call Dr. Chen."

"Okay."

"Can I put the rest of the fam on now?"

"Yeah."

She turns on the speakerphone and Mum is right there saying hello. I wonder how much of Gemma's side she heard.

I grimace, but force my tone to stay light. "What's up with you losers?"

Mumtsksat the affectionate insult, and launches into a run down of the dinner she’s making, the changes in the garden, what the neighbors' kids are up to, how Gemma's broken up with that nice young man—"He turned out to be a red pill weirdo, Mum!"—and how Stuart's new client wants him to divert part of a nearby wetland through their property to become a pretty babbling brook.

"Don't do that, Stu!" I interrupt.

"No?"

"Obviously!"

"Obviously," he repeats, mocking.

"Not obvious to me," Mum says.

"Have you evencheckedwhere the watershed runs? Where local fish stocks spawn? What the average water table depth is every year? Never mind destroying a whole micro ecosystem, if you move water closer to a historic property with no modern foundation, it’ll flood every snowmelt. No way, man, tell themto walk their asses to the riverside if they want to enjoy nature. Don't fuck around with the current saturation levels."

"Language!"

"Sorry, Mum."

"If I don't," Stu goes on. "They'll just get someone else—"

"Take it to the city, then. Or actually, you know what, get one of the guys out from Nipissing University to assess the property, talk to the owners. There's gotta be a professor up there specializing in environmental protections. Uuuuh, and the Heritage Board… I forget what it's called… I think Ruthanne from high school's on it? Point is, come up with something that makes everyone happy."

"Listen to you, using your degree and stuff," Gemma says, pride radiating from her voice. It still makes me preen, even though her mother-henning bugs the shit outta me.

"Dad would have been proud," Stuart says softly, and that's enough to make me drop the pan I'm scrubbing back into the greasy water and take a few huge gulps of air.

Dad never got to see me graduate, so it hits hard when Stuart says shit like that. We were in lockdown and construction had been deemed an essential service, and we had all beenso careful.Fuck the Covidiots, anyway. If that asshole electrician had worn a mask, then Dad would never have—it doesn't matter.

Dad did.

So did the asshole electrician.

And that's all there is to that.

"Don’t let them do it without making themthinkabout it, okay?" I ask, working to keep my shit together. Stuart's a jerk.

"Yeah,mo leanbh," he warbles in imitation of Mum.

Seriously, Stuart's ajerk.

A noise from the doorway catches my attention, and yeah, of course Dav is there, setting down his tote bag and watching me get slammed with one of those deep moments of long-held grief.He makes a gesture between us, holds out his arms,you want a hug?I really, really do want a hug. Because the first thing that sings through my blood is:He came back!Followed by:Of course he came back, you idiot. He's 'besotted.'

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