Page 57 of Free to Live

“Please. Let’s come back to this planet for a minute.” Her sass makes me grin before I answer her seriously.

“I’m the only child of two amazing parents. I was brought up in a house that took no crap and doled out huge amounts of love. I wanted to be like my pop more than I wanted anything else in the world, so it didn’t matter how good my throwing arm was or if my grades were perfect.”

Her breath catches on the other end of the line, but she doesn’t interrupt me.

“I was—am—overprotective about those I love. I have a temper I try to control, but it’s a crapshoot. I was a decent date, an okay boyfriend, and then one night I met a woman who rocked my world. I thought we were going to live a dream together. But…in picking up the pieces, I made other people bleed along with me.” I whisper the last words. “I still don’t know how to live with myself.”

“So, what you’re saying is that you were a good son, you’re a good man, and you lost your mind when something horrible happened.”

“I guess so.” I shift uncomfortably.

“As much as I hate to say it, it’s nice to know you’re not perfect. God, you were beginning to worry me.”

And this time it’s me who bursts out laughing.

Holly spends the next few minutes asking about some of my antics with Brett when I was younger. I tell her about the two of us sneaking into the station to toilet paper the engines on Halloween before his father and mine caught us.

Thinking back, I was more than a handful. Now I’m more glad than ever I decided to get my mother the gift I did for Mother’s Day.

28

Holly

“Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve been to a movie?” Joe whispers as the lights go dim in the theater. “At least one that doesn’t involve princesses or the God of Red Fur?”

I grin in the dark. Joe’s and my friendship has blossomed in the last few weeks. We’ve gone to lunch together around Collyer a dozen times or more. We have a running text chat where he describes his pain of repeated Elmo sightings, so I immediately understand his reference. But I was both saddened and appalled to hear that he hadn’t gone to a movie in over three years.

I asked if he wanted to and he said sure, but he had Grace. He felt terrible about infringing on his parents’ personal time since they do so much to help. I told him to leave that to me. Ali was thrilled to help. When she found out Joe had Saturday off, she arranged for Grace to come over and play with Kalie so we could sneak off to the AMC 24 in Brookfield. Little did we know that because we left it so late, we’d be stuck with the worst movie in the world.

“Holy crap, this is so bad,” Joe mutters.

I giggle because it really is. “The first two were so much better.”

Even in the dark, I can feel his eyes on me. “You watched the first two?” he asks incredulously. Since we’re the only two in the movie theater, his unmodulated voice disturbs no one.

“Ummm, yeah,” I say as if watching a man who’s red with horns is an everyday occurrence. “We used to watch all kinds of crap on this dump of a TV we had in our trailer in South Carolina. Then we moved here. We didn’t have a lot of money between starting up the business and saving for school. So, we watched movies together. A lot.” My voice is nostalgic. “We haven’t done that in so long. I kind of miss it.”

“I didn’t realize you grew up poor,” Joe says quietly.

Whether it’s because we’re in a dark theater or because there’s something else to focus on, I give him the truth. “I think the dirt had more money than we did. But we had something better.”

“What’s that?”

“Each other. None of us would have survived without the other.”

“You said none of you are biologically related,” Joe asks. I hear him slurp on his drink.

“No. None of us are.”

“Does it make it easier or harder?”

I go to open my mouth to speak but close it quickly. “Do you know, in all the years we’ve been family, no one has ever asked me that? I don’t know of any other way, so I can’t say for certain. It just is, and it’s more beautiful than what any of us had before.”

He goes to ask me a question, but I hush him. “Wait, I read this is supposed to be the good part.” We both lean forward eagerly only to slump back in our seats. “God, this is worse thanThe Mummy3 where they replaced Rachel Weisz,” I say in disgust.

Joe bursts out laughing.

“It’s true! I mean, come on. The sparks between her and Brendan Fraser were off the charts. That movie just shouldn’t have been made.”