Chapter 23

Seated at her dinner table, now mostly empty of the remains of dinner, Henry exchanged an amused look with Brooke when she reached over him to grab his empty plate and bring it back to the kitchen.

Callie had been chattering animatedly now for a solid five minutes straight, at least. Her two younger brothers had left the table long before that, off to play Fortnite or Roblox or whatever it was they did on a Saturday night.

It wasn’t that Henry wasn’t interested in what his niece was saying — he was. She was kind of a geek. Callie’s mom’s idea of a fun day was a hike up a mountain trail and pitching a tent at the top, and her dad’s was a day of adult league basketball at the rec center followed by a night of watching football. So when Henry was around, she finally had somebody she could talk to about a Bradbury book she’d read or whether Deckard was a replicant.

That wasn’t what she was talking about now, though. Or at least he didn’t think so. She was a nerd, yes, but she was also 16. So the topic tonight seemed like it was a smattering of top teenage torments: teachers, frenemies, how unfair her mom was being by not letting her drive the SUV — high drama. That really wasn’t what was making his attention wander, either, though.

His eyes flicked down to the phone in his lap for what seemed like the hundredth time in the last minute.

He knew he was acting like a teenager himself, one who just found out his crush had a thing for him, too. And he knew it wouldn’t — and shouldn’t — last. The beginning of a relationship was always exciting.

Or at least, that was the common wisdom. Honestly, even though he was 36, he hadn’t really had more than a few real relationships in his life. He’d met Mallory when he was 19, and they’d married at 24. So as much as he felt like he shouldn’t react like this anymore, he knew it was actually a pretty new experience for him.

Cameron certainly hadn’t seemed put off, though. They’d been texting a lot since she left his house to stay with Gram. And in shitty sci-fi movies, they’d finally found somewhere where they overlapped, too — no matter how small a thing it was.

She seemed more talkative over text. Or maybe she was just more comfortable with him general, like she’d been the other night in bed. He’d never seen her so expressive, and it was like that carried over into her messages.

Except when his marriage came up, that is. Maybe she just didn’t really know how to respond. He didn’t have much experience dating as a 36-year-old, but as a 23-year-old, he definitely hadn’t had any point of reference for what it was like to be married yet, much less divorced.

So once he’d told her that he was at his sister’s house tonight to go over the settlement agreement, he didn’t really expect to hear from her for a while. And he hadn’t.

Maybe Callie should be giving me tips?

He smiled a little bit at the thought of asking his teenage niece for dating advice ... then frowned when he realized Cameron was way closer to Callie’s age than his. That got him to finally keep his eyes off his phone for an extended period. Just in time, apparently, too.

“—but Kelly was like ‘no, you don’t need a doctor for an abortion, I met this guy online who’ll do it for free as long as you let him take some pictures of you first!’”

Henry snapped his attention back to his smirking niece, wondering what the hell he’d missed.

“I knew you weren’t paying attention!” she said smugly, more pleased that she’d caught him rather than mad his mind had been wandering.

His niece’s eyes and straight, long hair were the same matching brown he and his sisters all sported, and she had Brooke’s same sharp features. From a distance, she would’ve looked just like his oldest sister when she was that age, if not for the glasses and baggy purple sweatshirt.

He gave her an embarrassed smile. “Guilty! You got me. But I think I got the gist. You’re pregnant with Kelly’s baby and your mom won’t let you drive yourself to your teacher’s house for an abortion.”

She nodded, not missing a beat. “Okay, so you were listening.”

Brooke came out of the kitchen again, eyeing the grinning pair suspiciously.

“I don’t think I even wanna know what you two are up to,” she said. Then she clapped Henry on the shoulder. “I gotta steal your partner in crime here for a bit, sorry,” she told her daughter. “You can have him back after you finish your homework.”

Callie gave her mom a 10-out-of-10 eyeroll. “I did it already. And it’s Saturday, God.”

“You can just call me, ‘Mom,’” Brooke said, a little bit of an edge to her voice that quickly dissipated. “But fine. You can have Uncle Andrew back when he finishes his homework, then.”

Henry waggled his eyebrows at Callie and stood up, following his sister to her study.

It was a cozy space, cabinets stacked with years of teetering piles of papers and files kept as neat as could be in a room that was bursting at the seams. A massive wooden desk took up the entirety of one of the walls, filled with spillover clutter in front of family photos lining the back of it.

Brooke closed the door behind her brother and gestured for him to take a seat on the old couch.

“I hope you’re sticking around after this, by the way. Callie would probably never speak to me again if you left right after dinner,” she said as she took a seat in the swivel chair in front of the desk, scooting closer to Henry. Then she paused for a second. “For a day at least. Of course, she’s a teenager, so, 50/50 odds she’ll just do that anyway.”

“Callie?” he said, settling into the couch. “She doesn’t seem like that.”

Brooke gave her little brother a pitiable look meant to remind him he’d never had any kids.

“Someday, Andrew, you too shall have a teenage daughter. And then,” her face shifted to relishing the future she was conjuring up in her mind, “ohhhh and then, my dear brother, you’ll see. I will delight in coming over to your house, watching movies with her, bringing her crap she doesn’t need — and then leaving so she can scream at you for ruining her life when you ask her if she absolutely needs super expensive new headphones, because, what’s wrong with her old ones? Can’t she just wait for her birthday?”

Henry gave her a blank look. “I mean ... why are you trying to ruin your daughter’s life, Brooke, she brings up a good point.”

They laughed and Brooke rolled her eyes. Then she was ready to get down to business.

“Okay,” she said, “before any respectable young lady is gonna knock you up, we gotta get you divorced first. So. Whatdya got for me little brother.”

Henry had asked for this meeting, one they hadn’t had in the three years since he filed for divorce. He’d never truly been ready for it before. He wasn’t totally sure he was now, either — but he wanted to find out.

Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out the folded-up settlement agreement he’d left untouched on his kitchen table for too long. He unfolded it and handed it over to Brooke, the last page signed and dated.

Brooke looked pleasantly surprised ... but also gave him a glance that made him think he’d done something adorably dumb without knowing it.

“That’s awesome,” she said, smiling in a way that made him think a “but” was coming. “But ... you know you gotta sign these in front of a notary, right?” She started to laugh.

He ... did not know that. But in hindsight... “Oh ... well, okay, but still, I’m ready to do that then!” he said, determined to stay upbeat.

The beaming look she gave him said she was still happy about the sentiment. “That’s good. Really, Andrew, that’s awesome. I mean, okay, I have to speak as your attorney for a second — we’re not outta the woods ‘til her signature is on this, so I gotta check again with her counsel to make sure she’ll still sign it.” She mimed taking off one hat and putting on another. “But as your sister now — Andrew, that’s great. I’m proud of you.”

She patted his knee and he felt himself blush a little. Brooke always heaped praise on him for the things he should’ve just done in the first place ... but that didn’t mean it didn’t still make him feel good.

“So ... I’m not trying to look a gift horse in the mouth, but...” she looked at him curiously, hesitating to ask, “was there something that changed your mind? Not that there needs to be!”

When he came here, Henry still hadn’t been sure he was actually going to tell Brooke what had happened. But with an invitation like that, he felt like he had to — so he took a deep breath, deciding to just do it before he could change his mind.

“She ... came to see me,” he said.

All the light and playfulness drained out of Brooke’s face in a flash, her lips snapping into a straight line.

But he wasn’t done. He wanted to tell her everything, to get it all out so he didn’t have to feel ashamed about it anymore.

“And ... we, umm, slept together,” he finished, not able to make eye contact.

Henry could tell his sister was trying to hold in her rage. But the first words out of her mouth weren’t furious. Instead, she put her hand on his, trying to muster up as much tenderness in the touch as she could.

“Are you okay?” she said, her voice softer than he thought it would be.