* * *
“You’re sure Daryn’s okay in there with him?” Tate fretted as Kim closed the front door behind them, leaving them standing on her tiny porch.
“She’s sound asleep. This busy weekend has worn her out. I’ll probably have to wake her to get her ready for bed. She’ll be fine for a couple of minutes.”
He nodded. “So, finding y
our brother here was a big surprise, huh?”
Though it wasn’t at all cool out, she crossed her arms tightly over her chest, reliving the shock of seeing Stuart on her doorstep. “You could say that again. And about that…as generous as it was of you to offer, you don’t have to give Stuart money for school. Julian and I will help him figure out some sort of plan.”
“I’m sure you will. That’s what brothers and sisters do, right?”
“Supposedly,” she agreed wryly.
“The thing is, Evan and I really have discussed setting up a scholarship fund in memory of our friend. I’ll have to tell you about him sometime, he was a great guy. Still miss him like crazy. Anyway, we were going to do it for this semester, and then we got busy and kept putting it off. I think he’ll be pleased that I’ve found a worthy first recipient among our group of friends.”
Before she could argue any further, he rested a hand on her shoulder. “As I told Stuart, it won’t be a lot, but maybe it’ll help out. If it keeps him from dropping out of college before he even begins, Evan and I will both consider it money well spent. Jason would have felt the same way.”
It would have felt both rude and ungrateful to continue to resist, especially when the gesture seemed to be a genuine tribute to Tate’s late friend. Still she couldn’t help feeling a little awkward about it.
“I’ll leave it all up to you and Evan and Stuart, then,” she said. “I’ll give Stuart your email address, and he can send you his transcript and whatever other paperwork you need, but other than that, I’ll stay out of it.” All of the lunch friends had shared email addresses and phone numbers in case they needed to make contact.
“That will work. So, do you have a place for him to sleep tonight?”
She shrugged. “He’ll have to make do with the couch.”
“I’m sure that will work for him. Most teen boys can sleep anywhere.”
Pushing a hand wearily through her hair, Kim sighed. “It’s been a crazy couple of days.”
“I know. But I think your decision to attend the reunion has accomplished some good things, don’t you? You had a chance to visit with your grandmother, and to reconnect with your brothers. Maybe Bob will step up and help your mother see that her behavior is hurting the family. Maybe once Stuart is out on his own, Bob and Betsy can focus on strengthening their relationship, which already seems pretty good, considering.”
“Until Bob gets as fed up with her as everyone else eventually does,” Kim muttered.
“Has it ever occurred to you that your mother has a lot of insecurities herself? She lost her father young, her mother was admittedly distant and critical, her early marriages didn’t work out. Maybe Betsy learned to push people away before they could hurt her. To create a world she wanted to live in because the real world was too difficult for her to handle.”
After taking a moment to consider his surprising analysis, Kim moistened her lips. “You’re being rather generous to her. But, if there is some truth in what you say, she has been very selfish about her choices in dealing with her problems and disappointments.”
“I guess you never know how people will choose to cope with adversity,” Tate said quietly.
She spoke more brusquely. “Anyway, thank you again for all you’ve done this weekend. I promise I won’t ask for anything more of you. Oh, and thanks for returning Daryn’s bottle, even though it wasn’t necessary for Lynette to ask you to. She could have just given it back to me tomorrow.”
Tate cleared his throat. “Yeah, that’s what she said when she found it in the fridge. I sort of volunteered to drop it by. Since it was on my way and all.”
“My house is a good five miles out of your way from Lynette’s apartment to yours,” she said with a shake of her head.
“Maybe I just wanted to see you one more time this evening.”
Something about his tone made a little ripple of panic run through her. “We talked about this, Tate. About last night being an aberration. About getting back to the way things were between us before we ever left for Springfield. We agreed that was best.”
He looked at the hand he had resting on her shoulder, and his fingers flexed a little. “I’m just not entirely sure it’s possible.”
The ripple of panic gushed into a flood. “Please don’t do this, Tate.”
He lifted his eyes back to hers. “I know you’ve got a lot to deal with right now, so I won’t push you. But I’m not sure I can pretend nothing has changed. I can act a role for other people, Kim, but not with you.”
She bit her lip before saying in little more than a whisper, “I don’t want to lose your friendship.”