“My phone number. The address of the Green Monstrosity.”
She frowns. “Why would I need this?”
“In case you ever need help.”
“Help from what?”
This life. “Anything. Or just to talk. Whatever you want. Bear and me are here. Anytime.”
“You’ve never been here before.”
“I don’t think we knew how.”
She ignores this. “What’s the Green Monstrosity?”
“Our house.”
“Why is it called that?”
I pull out my own phone and flip through the pictures. There’s one of Bear and Otter standing in front of the house, their arms around each other’s waists. I show it to her.
Her nose wrinkles. “Your house looks like someone got sick and threw up on it.”
I laugh. “Isn’t it great?”
“And it’s at the ocean?”
“Close enough.”
“I’ve never seen the ocean,” she says.
“Maybe you can come see it one day,” I say, though we both seem to know that won’t happen for a long time. If at all.
Izzie holds the phone closer to her face. “Is that Bear?” she asks.
“Yeah. And Otter. He’s kind of like my dad. They both are, I guess.”
She touches Bear’s face. “They love each other, huh?”
“Very much.” And I miss them terribly. It’s only been days, but it feels like years.
“And they love you?”
“Yeah,” I say. “They do.”
Her finger slips and the phone scrolls to the next photo. “Who’s that?” she asks.
“That’s Dom,” I say. “Dominic.”
“Dude,” she breathes. “He could squash you with one hand!”
“Dude,” I agree. “Totally.”
“And he loves you too?”
I turn away as my eyes burn. “Yeah. He says so.” And while I don’t know what I’m going to do with it, I’ll figure it out. No more wasting time. I hope.
She hands me back my phone. “Seems like things are pretty good.”