Page 79 of Electric Blue Love
“You got any more?” I asked, nodding to the paper.
He shrugged, and I took that as an invitation. I grabbed the sketchbook and flipped to the front. Each page was her and there was something almost reverent about the way he’d captured our mom in the various stages of her life. I stopped at one, staring a long moment, before I set it back down in front of him.
“She’s even more beautiful now,” I said as we both looked on to the picture he’d drawn of mom. An older version of the same woman he’d been drawing – wrinkles around her eyes and mouth in this one, but the same heart-shaped face and big eyes that made you want to stare at her just a little longer.
“How’s work?” I’d avoided asking over the last few weeks because I was afraid even the mention of Court’s name would splinter my heart, but after today I felt like there wasn’t anything my baby brother could say that would make the day worse.
“Good.”
I rolled my eyes again because one-word responses were typical of my brothers, but damn did they always have to make me work for every scrap of information?
“What do you do all day? Fetch coffee? Run errands?”
It was his turn to roll his eyes at me. “Court’s not that kind of boss. He doesn’t make us do stuff like that.”
The first slip of his name and I had survived.
“That’s good,” I said.
“He hooked me up with the marketing team, told them I was thinking about a career in art, so they’re letting me work with them a few hours each week to help design their new website,” he said and then added. “Pretty cool.”
Pretty cool was the teenage boy equivalent of “OMG, that’s amazing!” and I felt like an ass for not having asked about his job sooner.
“That’s awesome,” I told him with a small punch to his upper arm which earned me a small grin. “Congratulations.”
He picked the sketch pad back up and I leaned back in the chair content to just sit some more with the quiet sound of his drawing lulling me back to reality – back to what was important, my family.
“I think he misses you or something,” he said, not looking up.
I stilled.
“He doesn’t ask about you, but he’s always asking me howthingsare going, and I don’t think he means work. Did you two, like, have a falling out or something?”
“No, we just –” I started and then sighed.
I didn’t want to lie to my brother, but I wasn’t about to tell him what had gone down. I wasn’t even sure how I was going to tell my mom that Dr. Sterling was going to transfer her care. I knew Leo wasn’t a child anymore, he’d grown up in the same house I did – with all the same issues that forced us to see things a little differently than our peers. We still got mad at our parents, sure, but we didn’t scream “I hate you!” and threaten to run away like our peers had – we’d held on tightly to the good.
But, sick mothers and poor families weren’t in the same realm as abandonment and the big sister in me didn’t want to put any more negative in his head.
“It’s complicated,” I finally finished.
“Why do old people always say that when they don’t want to say. Why not just say, I don’t want to say?”
“I’m old now?” I asked in mock horror.
He grinned, one side of his mouth pulling up.
“Fine. I don’t want to say.”
“Want me to quit?”
“What? No, of course not.”
He shrugged a lanky shoulder. “I don’t want to work for someone who treated you badly.”
Pride and a strong sense of protectiveness swarmed me. “It’s not like that. I’m really excited that you have this opportunity.”
Leo nodded and stood. “Cool. I’m gonna go meet up with Donnie. He gets off in a bit. See ya later.”
