Page 28 of Stand

He laughed again. “Dammit, Sam. I’m trying to feel sorry for myself here.”

“And so you should. But not because you have two great kids. So come on. Cat will want to feed you up and then tell you how to live your lives, and you don’t want to deprive her of the opportunity.”

She unfolded herself from the floor and took his hands to pull him up. Those calluses brushed against her sensitive fingers again, but she set her teeth and ignored them. Ty let her pull him to standing.

“One more thing,” he said, not letting go of her hands. “The police said we should take photographs of your face—your bruises. For the record.” Sam let go of one hand to touch the sensitive skin, made more so by his glance.

“This is so weird,” was all she could think to say.

“Tell me about it.” He looked as though he wanted to smile, but his face just wouldn’t do it. “My lawyer told me to do this ages ago but…” He let go of her other hand and scraped his hand through his hair. “I thought it was better not to. Shows what I knew.”

“Hey.” She wagged a finger at him. “We just talked about this. This is her fault. Not yours. Let’s get you something to eat.”

She led the way into the kitchen.

“Come here,” Cat ordered, taking charge of him so Sam could stay at a safe distance. “Sit down next to your boy and eat this.”

“I made it!” Megan pointed out.

“Don’t tell him that,” Sam said. “We want him to eat it.”

Megan poked her, and Sam flapped her hands at her. The chopped salad had plenty of chicken in it and the perfect amount of dressing, but Sam’s rule was, never miss an opportunity to bust on your sibling. It felt as comforting as scratching the top of Cairo’s head.

“It’s great,” Ty said, his mouth full. “Thanks.”

“Your smoothie okay, Matt?” Cat asked.

“Hey,” Paolo said, coming in from the family room. “Matt and Mateo. I just realized.”

“Dork,” his twin said. “Mom, can we have a smoothie too?”

“You just had—oh, never mind.” Cat picked up the plastic jug from the drying rack. “Alyssa? Or would you rather have ice cream? Or a float?”

Alyssa, on the other side of the table from her father and brother, had been watching Matt like a hawk, but now she said, “Can I have a float, Dad?”

Ty swallowed. “If it’s not too much trouble,” he said.

“If it’s not too much trouble,” Alyssa parroted, giving Cat a big-eyed, please-let-it-not-be-too-much-trouble stare.

“It’s not too much trouble. Boys, get out of here. You’re taking up too much space.”

“We wanted to see if Matt wanted to watch a movie,” Jake said. “He doesn’t have to talk to do that.”

Matt shrugged and winced.

Alyssa said, “Matt… Mateo. That’s funny.”

“I don’t know how we’ll tell them apart,” Megan said airily, looking at Matt’s blond head and then over to Mateo’s dark Italian looks.

Matt smirked, then winced again and put a hand up to his eye.

“No jokes!” Cat decreed. “What movie?” she asked her sons.

“Uh,Terminator?”

“Ooh, can I watch too?” Alyssa begged her father.

“No.” Ty put down his fork. “You know you can’t. And I don’t know if Matt should either. With all the…” He mimed tearing off the skin from one side of his face.

---