Page 95 of Townshipped
Shannon says, “Oh yeah. I had to memorize that in my junior year of high school.”
Laura nods. “We all did.”
“The point is we all stand at regular crossroads and make daily choices,” Lexi says. “Irrevocable decisions to move this way or that. And the sum of those becomes our life.”
“The bottom line is you’re not as alone as you might feel,” Laura says.
Light from the fire flickers making her face appear even softer. “You’re surrounded by people floundering to get this thing right. Probably that’s all of us to one extent or another.”
A weight I didn’t know I had been carrying lifts. I sip my cocoa. I miss Gabriela. After tonight I don’t feel like she’s my only hope at friendship.
The girls drop me off at the farm well after Paisley and Ty are tucked into bed. My heart feels full in a way it hasn’t the whole time I’ve been here.
When I carefully open the front door, Aiden’s sitting up with one lamp on in the living room, reading.
“Hey,” he says, lifting his head from his book.
He looks tired, but comfortable.
Granger rises from his cozy spot at Aiden’s feet and trots over to greet me. I wish Aiden would follow behind, but he remains in the chair.
“Good night out?”
“Yeah.” I smile.
“Girls treat you right?”
“They really did,” I say, not elaborating.
The smile that fills his gorgeous face at those three short words makes my belly flip.
“Did the kids go to bed alright?”
“More or less,” he says with a look that says it was more, definitely more.
Give him time, I tell myself, remembering Laura’s wisdom.You’re just going to have to wait this out. The way he’s looking at me right now, I know I’ll wait for him as long as he needs me to.
33
AIDEN
The door to my office eases open and I barely see Ty peeking through the crack. When I don’t say anything, he pushes it a little further.
“Uncle Aiden, you pwomised to pway with me dis day,” he whines.
He doesn’t walk past the doorway into my office, but stands there rocking back and forth on his toes to heels, toes to heels, like he’s considering the outcome if he were to cross an invisible boundary to come over to me.
I’m about to stand up and answer him when Em intervenes.
“Sorry!” she says, coming right behind Ty to scoop him up.
Em gathers Ty in her arms and gives him a playful jiggle as she props him onto her hip.
Em leans her face close to Ty’s, and in a soft voice, she says, “I told you, Uncle Aiden is busy. He’ll play later. Let’s go see if we can teach Granger to play ball.”
“Okay,” Ty says, looking at Em with a smile that spreads across his face.
Em pulls my office door shut behind her and the small click of the latch sounds more like the clanging of a jail cell to me.
