Page 16 of Stand

Lauren seemed to give up on getting an answer from him. “Fine. The attempted kidnapping should be enough. I’ll get the forms in tonight and let you know how it goes in the morning.”

“Thanks, Lauren. Sorry about the late call.”

“It’s not that late. I’m still in the office.”

“Well, thanks anyway. Talk to you tomorrow.”

He hung up and climbed the stairs to the main floor of the townhouse. Matt was standing at the refrigerator, drinking milk out of the carton. How could he give the kid a hard time? They all had their comforting habits. He’d find Alyssa buried under her bedcovers, a book and a flashlight in her hand, trying like crazy to close out the world. He would go to his tiny workshop in the back of the garage and mess around with his blocks of wood. Matt drank milk.

The defeated slump of his son’s shoulders tugged at his heart. “Hey, bud,” he said softly.

Matt jumped anyway, holding the carton of milk as if he were surprised to see it in his hand. “It’s okay,” Ty said. He walked over to the boy and put his arm around the bony shoulders.

Matt hung his head. “I’m sorry, Dad. I shouldn’t have gone with her.”

This was not a decision Matt should have had to make, to feel that going with his mother might be a mistake but not going with her would be worse. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“It was just…” Matt clutched the milk carton to his chest. “She would have gotten Alyssa anyway.”

“I know, Matt.” Ty shook his shoulder. “You’re a good brother. You protected her.”

Matt and Alyssa had caught on to Julia’s tricks no matter how hard Ty had tried to protect them. Now Matt had to save his sister because Ty had failed to.

When she’d finally gotten in touch after the first time she’d left, Julia had said she just needed a break. Her absence had been a blessing to Ty, but he couldn’t have explained that to his heartbroken children. Hell, he’d been heartbroken, too. He’d loved her for years; she’d given him the attention he’d desperately craved. So he’d fought and fought against the reality of Julia’s selfishness, of her betrayal, until he couldn’t any longer.

Matt was almost as tall as he was now. He just needed to fill out a little and he’d be the image of his dad. Matt had acted out for years, when Julia was with them and afterward, and was still your basic grumpy teenager. But making friends with Jake, who knew the issues involved with an unstable parent, and the circle of kids he knew at school seemed to have steadied him.

God damn Julia into seven levels of hell for intruding on one more safe place.

“You wanna order pizza?” he asked Matt.

Matt’s laugh shook Ty’s arm off his shoulder. “Is the Pope Catholic?”

“Okay, go ahead. I’ll go see Alyssa.”

She was where he’d expected, curtains pulled across the summer evening, the room a cave, a haven. Ty wished with all his being that he could make her feel truly safe, that she didn’t have to cocoon herself every few weeks, every time Julia did something new.

He sat down next to the lump under the covers and stroked the top of it. “Hi, peanut.”

He knew that would get a response. The covers slid off with alacrity. “Dad! I haven’t been a peanut for like six years!”

He was happy to see regular exasperation on her face; that was why he’d said it. “Sorry,” he said seriously, reaching out to stroke her hair off her face.

Ty could imagine the scene at the airport, though he hadn’t asked the kids for any details. The story about ice cream quickly proving itself a lie as they headed for the highway. The increasingly violent orders not to call Ty, to put Matt’s phone away. The guilt trips about preferring their dad when she was about to take them to Disney and they’d have the time of their lives andgive me the goddamn phone, Matthew.

No passport needed at check-in, no baggage except their backpacks, which could have contained a long weekend’s worth of clothes. Julia talking nonstop about the place they would stay. Alyssa too afraid to mention that she was graduating middle school the next day, that she was pretty sure she’d be winning an award or two at the ceremony. Matt miserable, feeling he should have known how to change the situation but unable to find the words, knowing at the same time that whatever he said would be overridden.

Julia would have freaked out in the middle of the departure lounge when security found them—public displays of emotion had never been a problem for her. She’d yell at them, at the kids, at everyone around for staring, at the airplane for not arriving sooner so they could have gotten away.

How could Ty stop that memory from damaging them for the rest of their lives?

Alyssa leaned into him. She wasn’t the little peanut he’d carried on his shoulders anymore; she was becoming a young woman. If he could just get the kids to college without any more trauma… The restraining order was a last resort, a confirmation that their mom wasn’t to be trusted. He wished it could be different. That she could have been different.

“I like Sam,” Alyssa said unexpectedly.

“Who?” he said. He knew damn well who. The word had come from Alyssa’s mouth and gone straight into his chest, throbbing there in a mass of memories and humiliation and… long legs beneath cutoffs.

“Sam. Come on, Dad—the one who just drove us all home? She’s nice.”

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