Page 74 of Small-Town Secrets
"I don't need it," he said, but didn't let go of the stuffed doll either.
"Okay. Whatever you want." I made myself focus on the box in front of me again while Chris didn't move for a while.
"We don't have any more pictures," he said into the dusty air of the attic and it took me a moment to figure out what he was talking about.
"You mean like the pictures in the family room?"
"There's a picture of you as a baby."
"That's actually my brother. Your uncle."
"Oh." Chris tilted his head as if considering this carefully. "I asked Daddy. There's no pictures of me or Tyler as a baby. I think that makes him sad. He looked sad."
"I'm sure that makes him sad." It made me a little sad too. Sad and angry. What kind of asshole was Howard that he kept something like that from Laurence?
If Laurence had even asked...
I got the feeling he avoided talking to his ex wherever possible, and I couldn't blame him.
"Are you done with that box?" I asked only to change the topic. "Then you could try that one." I pointed at another one. "Take anything you want or that you think Tyler might want."
"Really?"
"Yes, it's better you play with the stuff than it gathering dust up here." Honestly, I should have thought of this much earlier. Thank God my parents had kept so many things. Some had gone to Maddie, but that girl received so many gifts from both sets of grandparents that she never needed much.
By the time we'd gone through four boxes, Chris had scavenged a basketball that only needed to be pumped, several toy cars including a fire truck, a large amount of Legos and a couple of marbles that seemed to fascinate him for some reason. He couldn't even carry all his treasures.
And then, finally, I found the red Gameboy I'd spent so many hours on as a young boy until my parents decided to adopt our first dog. "Got it," I announced, showing the device to my son. "It should only need batteries. You can take the ones we put into your old one."
Chris looked at the Gameboy with something like awe in his gaze. "And it doesn't randomly shut off?"
"It shouldn't."
"Awesome. Maybe I can actually finish my game!" I'd never seen him so excited about anything and I felt my ego inflate a little bit, knowing that I was responsible for his joy. It was a damn good feeling.
Leaving his other treasures behind, Chris grabbed the Gameboy from me and hurried down the ladder to try it out. I made a note to come back with a bag later and followed him into the living room a little more slowly.
"Is it working?"
"Yes!" Chris never even looked up for the screen.
"Great." I grinned. "I gotta get ready for work now." I was probably running late already. "We can get the other things down tomorrow."
"Okay." Again without looking up. I didn't bother reprimanding him for it. Let the boy be happy. Instead, I called for Tyler, since he'd wanted to accompany me.
"We're over here!" I heard Laurence from the direction of the front door.
When I got there, he was waiting for me with Tyler already dressed in his boots and coat. "You were taking a while," he said. Even my dog, sitting next to Laurence, was shooting me an accusatory glance.
"We're waiting forever!" Tyler added.
"Sorry." I slipped into my shoes and shrugged on my jacket, then grabbed the car keys from a hook by the door. "Thanks for getting him ready," I said to Laurence.
"You would have been late for sure, otherwise."
"You're right, but we found a lot of cool stuff."
"Yeah? Good." Laurence gave me a quick kiss and clapped my ass. "Now get out."
