Page 66 of Townshipped
I nod and walk toward the back door. She’s right. I need to preoccupy myself until the shock wears off. Then I can think about what’s next. We’ll be making a trip to Michigan within a week for the funeral.
I’ll bring Ty and Paisley home with me—and then I’ll spend however long it takes helping them rebuild from what they’ve lost. I have a lot of things to arrange ahead of their arrival.
Pulling my coat off the hook, I look back toward the kitchen, then I open the door and step out into the cool evening air. Dark gray billowy clouds tell of a storm approaching off in the distance. It’s got nothing on what’s brewing inside me.
23
AIDEN
My family caravans up to Michigan the night before Van’s funeral. Despite arriving an hour before sunset, the welcome sign on our hotel is already backlit with a huge figure of a Spartan trimmed in neon. The wordsSpart Innglow beside him.
The light flickers on and off causing the ancient Greek man to look like he’s doing a strange mechanical dance. The MSU mascot looks like he’s seen better days, as does this motel.
Em and I take one of the parking spots next to my parents and congregate with my family in the lobby for check-in. Ashley and Sawyer bounce from chair to couch to chair while Dad talks to the clerk behind the desk.
Glancing around, I say in a voice intended only for Em, “Looks like this place may live up to its name. The definition of spartan is frugality, or avoidance of luxury. I think they hit the mark nicely.”
Em gives me a courtesy chuckle. She’s on the equivalent ofNational Lampoon’s Vacationwith my officially embarrassing family—most of whom she barely knows. Not to mention that she’s been swept off with this motley crew to another state for a funeral.
On a good day my family tends to speak our minds to one another, bicker without malice, and blurt out embarrassing details without much filter. Put us in a stressful situation and all our craziness comes out to play.
Lexi walks toward us from the desk. “You’re with me,” she tells Em. “We’re putting Aiden and Trevor together in a room.”
“My brother and I haven’t roomed together since before I left for college,” I tell Lexi.
“Just like old times,” Trevor says, walking up behind Lexi and grabbing the baby car seat from her hand.
Dane’s having a powwow with his kids on the couches that must date circa 1967. The angled wood legs look like they could snap if Sawyer gives the sofa one more solid bounce.
As soon as both children nod in agreement to whatever Dane just said to them, he stands. Ashley bounds over to where Lexi, Trevor, Em, and I are standing.
“You can’t jump on the beds no matter how fun it looks,” she says with her hands on her hips and a very commanding expression. “These aren’t our beds. We have to respect them for the next sleepers. And if Daddy has to pay the hotel man for a new bed, we can’t go to King’s Island this summer.”
Every one of us gives her a serious nod of agreement. As soon as Ashley’s out of earshot, Trevor says, “If I think the beds can hold up, I’m bouncing.”
“I’ll tell Ashley on you,” I say in mock threat.
The women exchange a conspiratorial glance. I can’t decipher whether it means they have their own in-room trampoline-park event planned or whether they think we men haven’t ever aged past junior high, or both.
They wouldn’t be completely wrong. You know the saying,Boys will be boys. Well, men will be boys too. It’s a fact of life.
After Dad hands out room keys, we walk toward the cars to retrieve our suitcases. I hand Em hers while Trevor and Lexi have a farewell moment that would cause any unsuspecting bystander to think he was going off to war, not merely sleeping in a room two doors down the hall for one night.
Em sighs.
“Are you okay? I know this is highly awkward and my family can be a lot to swallow in one gulp.”
“I’m fine. Your family is great.”
“Did you hit your head?”
She giggles.
“I’m sorry!” I say, realizing shedidhit her head. “Man, that was in poor form.”
“It’s fine, Aiden. Really. And I’ll be okay with Lexi. I’ll see you in the morning.”
We look at one another. Em rocks on her heels the slightest. I pocket my free hand and grip the handle of my suitcase with the other.
