Page 44 of Someone to Remember
She glares at me again, this time with tears in her eyes. “It is that bad!”
When I slide close enough to put my arm around her, she goes stiff.
“What’s really going on here, love?”
“I told you. The fridge is gross. It needed to be cleaned. I can’t imagine having your sister over and her looking for something in there.”
“She wouldn’t care.”
“Yes, she would. She’d never eat here again.”
“Wynter… Talk to me.”
“Nothing to say.”
“When do you have nothing to say?”
“Right now, I have nothing to say.”
“Is it because of what happened to Taylor?”
“I hardly know her.”
“You know her, and you knew Will, too. It’s devastating. I keep thinking about their kids and the new baby, who’ll have a parent missing his whole life, like Xavier and Willow.”
“It’s not fucking fair. She already lost one husband, and the kids have now losttwofathers.”
“You’re right. It’s not fair.”
All at once, she seems to lose the head of steam that was powering her through the fridge cleaning.
“Let me help you put this back together. It’s clean enough to do surgery in there.”
That gets a small snort of laughter from her.
I get up, help her up and work with her to return the shelves and drawers to their places and replace the items that’re going back in. A huge pile of containers sits on the counter by the sink. “I’ll deal with that in the morning.”
“Yes, you will, because it’s all your crap.”
“I’ll take care of it, and I’ll try to do better in the future. Can we go back to bed now? Our kids will be up in about two and a half hours.”
“I guess.”
She lets me lead her up the stairs, where I tuck her in and then get in next to her, rolling onto my side to cuddle up to her.
“You want to talk about it?”
“Not really.”
“It’s upsetting when we hear of things happening to other people that force us to revisit our own traumas.”
“I said I don’t want to talk about it.”
“I know. I’m just saying… it’s normal to be upset.”
“Thank you for letting me know that.”
By now, I know that Wynter gets mean when she’s scared or anxious. I try not to let it bother me because I understand why she gets that way. I don’t mind her taking it out on me. That’s what I’m here for.
