“You did fine,” Grease said. “Kept your head together, came straight to us, even gave your husband shit when he called. You did just fine.”
“Were you listening in on our conversation?” I scowled.
“We all were,” Will mumbled around a bite of homemade macaroni and cheese.
“Awesome.” I shook my head.
“There’s no secrets with that group,” Callie laughed. “You think you’re keeping things quiet, but everyone knows about them anyway.”
My stomach lurched but I gave her what I hoped was an easy looking smile. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“That’s how they all knew you weren’t pregnant,” Molly said with a snicker, handing Rebel her macaroni sans cheese.
“We weren’t even—” I snapped my mouth shut before I finished my sentence. Grease and Callie didn’t need to know about my and Tommy’s sex life.
“That’s how they knew,” Molly told me out the side of her mouth.
“You guys need to get a life,” I announced, pointing around the table with my fork. “Seriously.”
“Eventually, it gets better,” Callie said from across the table. “They’ll still know everything, but they just won’t care as much.”
“That’s comforting,” I mumbled.
“Asa, can you please pass the broccoli?” Molly asked, lifting her hand in a ‘give me’ gesture.
My mouth dropped open and I stared as Grease passed her the bowl of broccoli.
“Hey,” I blurted, glancing between the two of them. “How come she gets to call you Asa?”
“Cause I like her,” Grease mumbled, stuffing a bite of food into his mouth.
* * *
“Hey, you have everything you need?” Callie asked a couple hours later from the doorway of Mick and Tommy’s old room.
I looked down and gave her a small smile from the top bunk of the old bed. I’d never been up there before. Mick always had the bottom bunk because Tommy had joked that if the bed broke, Mick would crush Tommy on the way down.
It was weird how things had changed. Years ago I wouldn’t have gone near Tommy’s bed, but when I’d gone in to sleep earlier that night, I hadn’t even considered sleeping on Mick’s bunk. I’d crawled up the broken ladder at the foot of the bed and immediately crawled beneath the covers.
“I’m good,” I told Callie. “If I can fall asleep, I’ll be perfect.”
“I know how that goes,” she replied, moving into the room. Then without a word, she disappeared from view and I felt the bunk bed sway a tiny bit as she settled into the bottom bunk. “I haven’t been in here in a long time,” she said quietly once she was settled. “I slept in here for a while after we lost Micky, but eventually Asa put his foot down and made me move back into our bed.”
“Sounds like your husband,” I mumbled, making her laugh.
“Well, he put up with a lot,” she said ruefully. “I’m sure it wasn’t easy taking care of someone with a huge surgical wound when she wouldn’t get out of the bottom bunk of a bunk bed.”
“Oh, shit,” I said. “I didn’t even think about that.”
“It was…” she sighed. “It was the worst moment of my life. Asa and I had been through a lot by then, but nothing had prepared us for that.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t come to visit,” I said.
“Oh, honey, don’t be sorry.” She paused. “I didn’t expect to see you and I’m not sure I would have even realized you were there. By the time I was home from the hospital I was so out of it, I don’t remember most of what happened afterward.”
“Still,” I murmured. “I should have stopped by.”
“Well, you would have found a mess, I’ll tell you that.” She shifted on the bed, making the entire thing creak. “I was sleeping most of the time, Will was hovering like he couldn’t figure out what to do with himself even though he was still healing, too, Tommy was angry and going off at the slightest thing, and Rose was silent unless she was up visiting Lily. I think Asa was the only one who was even functioning back then. I’m pretty sure he’s never even dealt with everything that’s happened.”
“He’s a do-er,” I said.
“Exactly. When things are horrible, he’s the one you’ll see making sure life keeps moving. It’s his way of processing things.”
“Or not processing them.”
“Or that,” she agreed.
We were quiet for a while and just as I wondered if she’d fallen asleep, she spoke again.
“Did you know Asa got arrested when I was pregnant with Will?” she asked.
“I don’t think I’ve heard that story,” I replied, rolling onto my stomach so I could prop my head on my hands.
“We weren’t living together then,” she said with a small laugh. “I was stupid and I’d been putting off moving to Oregon from Sacramento.”
“I don’t blame you,” I replied, making her snort.
“Anyway, he was headed down to see me and he got pulled over. He had some stuff on him he shouldn’t have, and that was that.”