Page 7 of Revived
Mac laughs loudly in the background, proving my suspicions that they’re all listening in. “It would have been cool before he wentsplaton the concrete. He was so accident prone… You both were.”
“Accident prone? No, I think our older brothers were just dicks who thought it would be funny to talk us into dangerous shit.” I answer in disbelief. Accident prone my ass.
“Well… Yes…Butyou could have said no, or you know, just not have gotten hurt.” He’s laughing so hard I’m sure tears are forming in his eyes.
Mac is the closest in age to Flynn and me at twenty-nine. He heads up anything tech with my brothers’ businesses with the help of his wife, Lee. I actually still talk to Mac frequently, although that’s not something that my other brothers are privy to. Annie was his sister-in-law. So while I had to hold Flynn together, he was holding hiswife together. We’ve bonded over that and worked through how to grieve while also helping them through theirs together.
“Fuck off, Macaroni. I answered the phone to talk to Mama Bear, not you. Clara, he’s okay. The game is almost over, and I promise I’ll wait for him and check him out myself. I’m no Declan, but I do know enough to diagnose a concussion.”
“Okay, you’ll text me right after?” She frets.
“I promise.” I reassure her.
Before she can answer, I hear the sound of the phone changing hands and being pulled off of speakerphone. The shuffle of feet tells me he’s moving out of whatever room they’re in before his voice rings down the line.
“So, you don’t want us to come watch Flynn play?” Rowan asks in way of greeting.
I huff out an annoyed sigh, “That’s not it, and you know it. Come watch Flynn play. Stay for multiple games for all I care.”
“You just don’t want us in Temple Valley.” He finishes for me. What sounds like defeat is evident in his voice.
“No, I don’t. I won’t interfere with what Flynn wants. This trip would be about him, and I won’t avoid coming to DC to see you guys. But no, I don’t want to be caught on camera, and I don’t want you guys in Temple Valley. This ismytown – mine, Flynn’s, and the rest of the luckys. You guys already ran us out of Corey Heights. So if it’s all the same, I’d rather not be run out of a town that I actually love.”
I’m being harsh, and I’m sure I’m hurting him in the process, but it doesn’t click for them that their presence alone brings trouble to wherever they are. We chose not to be a part of that life, and even though they try to respect that, every time we’re together it brings it right back to our front door. The memories and heartache of the years of bullshit we’ve had to go through come rushing back.
“A compromise then?” Rowan fights to make his voice sound as normal as possible, but I can hear the undertone of hurt. We’re his kids by his logic, and we don’t want him to come visit us.
“A compromise?”
“We’ll come to D.C. We’ll stay in D.C. Hell, we won’t step a toe outside of the city limits, but in exchange you have to come to at least one game with us. We’ll get a suite, and you can stay out of sight when inevitably we’re broadcasted, but we’ll all be together. Hell, you may just find that you actually do miss us.”
“That’s not fair. You know I miss you guys. Youknowit’s not that–”
“Not important right now. Do we have a deal?” Rowan cuts in.
“Yeah, we have a deal.” I concede on a defeated sigh.
“Good. We’ll send over the dates in the group chat. I love you, Sullivan.”
“I love you too, Rowan.”
Rowan hangs up before I have a chance to. I ignore the eyes burning into the side of my head from my friends as I focus on the last forty seconds of this game. The Declaration is up by two, but I still watch with the intensity that I would if it was a tied playoff game. Anything to not have to look at my friends while tears burn the back of my eyelids right now.
I do miss my brothers. I want so badly to have a close relationship with them again, but we can’t. We live entirely different lives, and what’s best for my and Flynn’s peace of mind is to keep them multiple state lines away. So I’ll continue to have a close relationship with their spouses via text and calls and pretend like that’s enough.
***
“Hey, Lieu. Got a minute?” Sadie asks while knocking on the open door of my office to announce her arrival.
Sadie Wilson started at Firehouse thirty-two when I did and worked her ass off to transfer from truck to rescue. She’s one of, if not the best, firefighters that I’ve ever met. Her attention to detail is next to none, and her smaller stature means that she’s able to get in places we can’t reach when needed. Some men scoff at me having a woman in my crew, but I implore those same men to find me a single person with more drive, heart, and grit than the woman standing in front of me.
“Yeah, come on in. What’cha got?” I lean back in my desk chair and give her my full attention. She pushes off the doorframe and wanders inside to sit in the chair on the opposite side of the desk.
“So, I really hate to be this person…” She twines her fingers together. A nervous tick that she has. Not that I need to notice such things anymore, but some things are just ingrained in your psyche.
“Spit it out, Wilson.” She’s acting strange, and the change in her normally relaxed demeanor throws me for a loop.
“You know the new guy on truck? Sampson? He transferred over from forty-six?”
