Page 80 of Secret Puck
I call him as I cut open the tape.
“Hey,” he answers on the second ring.
“Hey. Got your latest box.”
“And?”
As soon as I pull back the flaps, a deep chuckle escapes from my throat. “This one is all you, bro.”
“What? How can you tell?”
“It looks like you went down the aisles at Target and just threw random things in.” I pull out deodorant, body soap, condoms (major eye roll), toothpaste, pencils, a giant tub of my favorite protein, and an Xbox gift card. “Plus it’s all just shoved in here. Chloe’s boxes are packed a lot nicer than yours.”
“I knew I should have had her wrap it all up.”
I chuckle again. “Thank you. I appreciate it.”
Sitting in my desk chair, I lean back as he catches me up on the latest wedding details. Getting married takes an awful lot of planning, apparently.
“So, spill,” he says eventually when he’s done with the rundown on dinner entrees and cake tasting. “What’d you think of Kevin?”
“He was fine.” I shrug even though Nathan can’t see it. “Mom’s happy so that’s good, right?”
“Yeah, I guess so. It’s weird seeing her with someone else though. No matter how nice he is.”
I hum my agreement.
“Are you still calling her and checking in to see how she’s doing?”
“Nah. I mean, we chat every other week or so, but she doesn’t need me to do that anymore. She’s got Kevin, plus Uncle Doug is still checking on her.”
“Yeah, I guess. Chloe and I are going to fly up to have Thanksgiving with her. Bummed you can’t make it.”
“I’m sure you guys will make the most of it.” We’ve got a game on Saturday, so it’ll just be another Thursday around here, although the extra days off school are nice.
“I could never make her smile like you could. Remember that time we went to the water park in Wisconsin?”
I smile, knowing exactly where he’s going with the story.
“She got up on the top of that big slide and she wouldn’t budge. The line was backed up and people were yelling for her to hurry up. There were six-year-old kids going down that thing.”
“She hates heights,” I say.
“Yeah. I’m not even sure why she attempted it in the first place.”
“Because I was too scared to go on my own and you were whining about me tagging along with you and that guy you used to hang out with…”
“Lee,” he fills in.
I nod. “She came up there for me. I knew she was scared too but I didn’t care.”
“Dude, you were like nine.”
“I still knew it was a bad idea.”
“You sang to her, at the top of your lungs, the whole way back down the line.”
“I had to scream so she could hear me over all the people yelling at us.”
