Page 161 of Make Me Trust Again
I extend Teddy’s leash to Kyle.“What do you want to do now?”
“Isn’t Mom coming to pick me up?”
I shake my head.“She has book club, so you’re stuck with me.”
“Really?”Kyle’s mouth falls open.“We can do anything?”
“Anything you want.”
“What is going on here?”
I turn around at the sound of the soft voice to find Rose standing in the doorway, her arms crossed over her chest as she stares at us, one brow quirked. Teddy barks happily and gets up to greet her.
“Mom!” Kyle yells. “You’re back home!”
“And here I thought I entered the wrong house,”Rose chastises gently, but Kyle just shoots her a sheepish grin.
“We built a fort!”He jumps to his feet and grabs her hand, pulling her toward the middle of the room. “Look, how fun is this?”
Rose sits down next to me, Teddy joining us as Kyle sits back down in his spot in the bean bag. I found it in Matthew’s room when I was clearing it out recently, but didn’t get around to throwing it away.
“We had pizza for dinner here at the table, and we watched cartoons.”Kyle’s little chest poofs out.“A boys’ night.”
Rose’s face softens at his words, and she ruffles his hair.“As long as you clean up after your boys’ night. How was school?”
“It was amazing!”His grin grows wider, and he’s practically vibrating with all the pent-up energy as he signs. I try to follow the movement of his hands so I can figure out what exactly he’s telling her, but considering my ASL isn’t nearly as advanced as theirs, I only catch a sign here or there.
I poke him gently in his side.It’s not nice to talk about somebody when they can’t understand you.
But you know sign language.
Just a little bit.
Rose’s head turns in my direction, eyes wide as she just stares at me, a stupefied expression on her face.
What?
“You’re signing?” Her words are barely louder than a whisper.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
ROSE
“Hardly.”
There’s no hardly about it.
Chase is signing.
My heart is beating wildly inside my chest as I just stare at him, unable to wrap my mind around the fact that Chase is sitting here next to me.
Signing.
“I told you, Mom. Chase was signing in school today. He made some mistakes, but I could still understand him.”
I shift my attention from Kyle to Chase, who just shrugs noncommittally as if it’s not a big deal. “Kyle invited me, the least I could do was try and learn a few signs so he can also understand me.”
“I promised him I’ll teach him more,”Kyle chimes in, clearly excited by the prospect.“But it was so cool, Mom. Everybody loved Teddy and Shadow.”
