Page 43 of Stained Hearts
I knelt down beside him. “Can you tell me what’s wrong?”
He worried his lower lip. “Would you help me get outside, please? I’ll need the chair too.”
“If that’s really what you want.” I reached out and took his hand. “But I don’t think it is. Can I tell you what I think is going on?”
“I’d rather just—”
“You’re embarrassed because you had to ask me for help. After telling me you wanted to be seen as an adult, you needed me to get you into the bathroom. Am I right?”
A nearly imperceptible nod.
“I get why you’re upset. It’s hard to let people see you when you’re vulnerable. You spend your whole life trying to be strong, to show the world you can care for yourself, and in a flash, you realize that sometimes you have to ask for help, and it chafes.” I reached out and put my hand atop his. “I’ll help you get ready to go home, but you need to know that I like it when people need me. It makes me feel good to help out, and I absolutely don’t mind. Whether it’s to use the bathroom or just to snuggle against me on the couch. I won’t ever see you as weak, and I don’t want you to see yourself that way either.”
His sad expression slipped into anger as he jerked his hand away. “How can you be so goddamn calm about this? Fuck, this is one step away from asking you to change my shitty diapers.”
“If you wore diapers and needed me to change them, I would.” I stroked his cheek. “Sweetheart, if the roles were reversed, would you want me to feel bad because I needed to depend on you? Would you hold it against me or think I was weak or broken?”
“No.” Again, his voice was too soft. “But….”
“But what? Talk to me.”
The doorbell rang. I stood and picked Aiden up, just like I had last night, but now he stiffened. I hated that he saw himself as broken. I put him down on the bed.
“I’m going to go answer the door. Be right back.”
Once I got downstairs, I took a deep, calming breath, then pulled the door open. Olivia stood there, glaring at me.
“Nice to see you too.” I stepped back and made a sweeping gesture with my arm. “Come on in.”
She came into the house, closing the door behind her. “Tell me what happened.”
I’d expected her to be angry, maybe yell, but though I could see she was upset, I got the impression it wasn’t with me.
“He needed me to help him get to the bathroom.”
“Oh.” The anger bled away. “Can we have some coffee? I think the three of us need to have a talk.”
“Coffee sounds good.”
I got up and headed for the kitchen with Olivia following me. She grinned when she saw me take the grounds from the refrigerator and measure them out.
“No pods for you, huh?”
“Nope. They’re messy and bad for the environment.” I filled the pot with water, then poured it into the reservoir. Once it was bubbling away, I turned and leaned against the counter, my arms crossed over my chest. “What’s going on?”
She shook her head. “This has to be all of us. I’m not going to talk about Aiden without him being here.”
I admired her for that. “Okay, let me go get him.”
Before I did, though, I went to the car and brought in his chair so he’d have a little mobility and not have to feel bad when I carried him. I parked it at the bottom of the stairs, then went up to get Aiden.
He sat staring out the window. “She’s here?”
“Yeah. She wants to talk to us.”
He gave a weary sigh. “I just want to go home.”
“After Olivia has her say, you’re welcome to go if you want. For now, come on.”
