Page 53 of The Road Ahead

“So loud!” Teresa agreed.

I groaned again.

“Well, weweregoing to do some cleaning since we haven’t been back since the accident,” Cooper said airily. “But since you all expect us to be fucking like bunnies, I’m sure that can be arranged.”

“I’d ask younotto do that in this room,” a dry voice said from behind us.

I looked up to see an amused nurse standing in the doorway, and I wondered if it was possible to actually die of embarrassment.

“Don’t worry, Gloria,” Cooper assured her. “I wouldn’t do that to you.”

“I’d hope not,” she said. “Now, there’s way too many people in this room, so some of you are going to have to scoot. Only two visitors at once.”

“Aye aye, ma’am,” Cooper said, shooting her a salute. “Come on, Rio. We’ve got places to be.”

“Each other to do?” Emmett asked with an arched brow.

“Really?” I pleaded.

Cooper gave his dad a solemn shake of his head. “Sadly, no. While I will be teaching Rio how to handle long, phallic-shaped objects, it will be in a completely innocent capacity.”

“Unidick?” Teresa asked with a grin.

“I’m also teaching the kids, so alas, no unidicks today,” Cooper explained.

“Do I want to know what a unidick is?” Emmett asked.

“It’s horrifying, so probably not,” Gloria told him, then turned to Cooper. “But if you want to make an extra animal or two for the nurses’ station, we won’t say no.”

“Always happy to make extra for you,” Cooper agreed. “Okay, we’ll swing by and say goodbye on our way out. Catch you all then!”

I waved at my family as I followed Cooper out of the room, and when he slipped his hand into mine, I couldn’t help but smile at him.

“Ready to make some balloon animals?” Cooper asked me, swinging our joined hands between us as we walked.

“Totally,” I said. I mean, how hard could it be?

I looked down at the twisted mass in my hands. Sandy—a cute seven-year-old who was in for her fourth round of chemotherapy—frowned at my creation. “What’s it supposed to be?” she asked.

“Um. A penguin,” I told her, holding it up as if that would magically make it resemble more than a twisted mess of black and white balloons.

“Did it get eaten by a seal?” she asked. “They do that. Seals. Snap up penguins and crunch on their bones!”

“You seem way too happy about that,” I observed.

“Crunch, crunch, crunch!” she cried gleefully.

I watched her warily, but she just grinned and scurried off to join the other children. Cooper appeared next to me and sank into the chair Sandy had just vacated. “How did you—what the fuck did you do to that penguin?” he asked, aghast.

“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “I was sure I did it exactly like you showed me.”

Cooper reached over to the table and picked up two penguins he’d made earlier during his demonstration. Okay, so he’d made one as part of his demonstration for the kids, but he’d had to make another one for me so I could watch the process a second time. He held them up next to my sad, inflated atrocity. “If you’d done it exactly as I showed you, you’d have a penguin. That isn’t a penguin. We could possibly—generously—call it a pengweng.”

I shoved at his arm. “Alright, Benedict Cumberbatch. Very funny.” I sighed and tossed it onto the table. “Maybe I’m not cut out for balloon animals, after all.”

“Don’t be so quick to give up,” he said kindly. “We might have just started you off on something too advanced. There’ll be something simpler you’ll master.”

Inspiration struck, and I dug through the balloons until I found a small gray one. I brought it to my lips and gave it a couple of blows, then tied it off, holding it out on my palm. “Here you go.”

“What is it?” Cooper asked, looking down at the tiny round balloon.

“It’s a pebble. For your penguins.”

Cooper’s eyes went impossibly soft as he accepted my pebble, and he leaned in and kissed me. “It’s perfect,” he said. “Just like you.”

Pebbles, penguins, and Pathfinders Lake. When I’d packed up my ’86 and left Georgia and my old life behind, I’d never expected I’d end up here. I’d never thought my cousin would return my feelings. I never believed I could be so happy. But here I was, in love, thriving, with the world at my feet and an entire road of possibilities ahead of me.

I was home.