“What point?”
He shrugs. “Here. Now. You and me. You… you’ve grown up.”
“Everyone does, Bear,” I say lightly.
“I know. It’s just that….” He shakes his head. “I just thought there’d be more time. I thought I’d have longer.”
I roll my eyes. “We only have the rest of our lives. You can’t get rid of me that easily. I’m not leaving forever. It’s just a week.”
A small smile curves his lips. “Yeah?”
“We’re brothers, right?”
“Sure, Kid. Brothers.”
“And brothers stick together. No matter what.”
“No matter what.”
“So then you’ve got nothing to worry about.”
“I always worry.”
I laugh. “That’s because you’re you. That’s what you do. And there’s nothing wrong with you, either.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” he says.
We’re quiet for a time. Just a thing brothers do, I guess. Finally, “Bear?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m doing the right thing. Right?”
“About?”
“Everything.”
He shrugs. “I think so. I hope so. We’ll find out, I guess. And even if it’s not, and even if it doesn’t go like we think it will, then you come back to me and I’ll put you back together and make sure all the little cracks hold together.”
I nod. “How do we think it’s going to go?”
“That’s the unknown, isn’t it? Life sucks like that sometimes.”
“I don’t know when you got so smart,” I tell him. Seriously. Remember Bear from back in the day? He’d never have been able to think like this.
He laughs. “Weird, right?”
“Way weird.” A pause. “I’ll be fine,” I say. “I think.”
“Of course you will.” He kicks off his shoes and lies down on the grass, staring up at the sky turning slow pink, rays of the sun streaked against the clouds.
I lie down beside him, shoulder to shoulder.
We watch the sky, Bear and me.
And I’m right where I need to be.
DOM’S THE last to leave. Everyone else is upstairs settling in for the night. Well, at least Bear and Otter are. I’m sure Corey’s waiting for me to come up and shove a red-hot poker up his ass and wallow in his death cries. I shall have my revenge this night.