Alex and Phoebe Ross, and their boys, show up. Their son, Liam, is in the same grade as Ava and Harper. The three of them have always been thick as thieves since their elementary and high school years and stayed in touch through the last three years of college. Good kid. I like him.Even though I don’t want to.
Standing around the bonfire, looking at Jade and Ryan, Alex and Phoebe, it doesn’t seem like decades have passed, but they have.
Tessa and Collin … My chest tightens again, physical pain, becausefuck, they of all people have done it right, and he’s … gone.
“I can’t believe you’re burning all this stuff.” Jade laughs, drawing my attention back to the dumpster fire that is my life.
“We took pictures, huh, Dad?” Ava nudges me.
“Sure did. Besides, it’s all up in here.” I tap my head and give her a wink.
“To the glory days!” Ryan lifts his beer, and we all toast to the goodole days.
“Oh, the glory days! I have an idea.” Ava claps as she turns on her boots and heads to the house.
When Ava is safely in the house, doing whatever it is that Ava’s doing, I walk up to Alex, hand him a beer, and then ask the burning question. “How’s Tessa doing?”
“She’s Tessa.” He takes a pull off his beer. “Anytime things are bad, she pulls strength from some hidden place and tries to make it easier for everyone else.”
“Her heart.” I take a drink and look at Alex, who is staring at me. I explain, “That’s the hidden place.”
Jade and Phoebe look at me the same damn way.
“I think, anyway.”
“Yeah, I think so, too.” Phoebe looks at Alex, who is still staring at me, now stone-faced.
“You okay?” I ask.
“No, not one bit. She can’t go through this shit. How long before it breaks into pieces, that all the king’s horses and all the king’s men just can’t put back together again?”
Nodding, I look down and kick snow until I catch Jade and Phoebe trying their damnedest not to laugh.
“It’s not fucking funny, Jade,” Alex snaps at her.
“Alex, I laughed, too.” Phoebe wraps her arm around his waist, and he tenses.
“You’re my wife; I can’t yell at you.”
“But you can yell at mine?” Ryan chuckles.
“Yeah, she was my cousin first,” he rationalizes.
I just keep looking down because I know, if I look up, I’ll laugh, too—shits contagious—and I can’t do that to Alex. He feels her pain, too, every bit of it since I can remember. He’s always respected her need to be strong, so much that he has and will put up with it all exactly the way she would want him to.
I feel his eyes bearing into me and look over at him.
“I wanna help. Whatever you need, Alex.I want to help.”
Alex lets out a sigh and walks away.
I start to walk toward him, but Phoebe stops me. “He just needs a minute.”
“No, he needs a punching bag, Phoebe, and I’m his man.” I pound a fist to my chest.
I walk up to him and stand silently by, waiting for him to go off on me.
When he doesn’t say anything, I do. “Alex, I was being very sincere when I said—”