TWENTY FIVE
The house was nice. Clean, but not completely tidy. In good repair, though not fussy and pretentious. It was the home of a family, Aaron thought, and he had been so ready to find fault with it somehow, to hate the place where his sister was staying, so that he could swoop her away without any regrets.
But there was really no fault to find. When Aaron looked around, what he saw was a place where a kid could really grow, could come into themselves. And when he knocked on the door, the couple that opened it were smiling and friendly, the woman not so much plump as comfortably rounded, short and with red apple cheeks and corners around her eyes and mouth that spoke to her cheery disposition.
This woman smiled a lot. That much was clear, and the man, when he offered his hand, had a firm, but not crushing, handshake. Confident. Decisive.
Damned if these people couldn’t have come right out of the sixties, Aaron grumbled to himself, even as he shook hands and the introductions were made.
“It’s good to meet you,” the man, who had introduced himself as Pete, gave Aaron a smile and a nod.
“It really is,” Jane, his wife, spoke up next, and they both stepped back so that Aaron could come in. “Leah doesn’t stop talking about you. You must be pretty special to her.”
“Come on, Jane,” a voice came, a voice that made Aaron’s heart clench in his chest, and shamefully, not only was there joy there, but there was fear, too. Fear, because he hadn’t heard Leah sound that happy, not in a long time and maybe not ever.
What sort of person was Aaron that he could be afraid of that sort of thing? Of course it was good if she was happy. But now, he had to come and take her away from what seemed like the perfect goddamned home. He really hoped these people had a meth lab or something in their basement, some reason for Aaron to hate them.
“I’ll bring you guys some drinks and snacks,” Jane offered. “While you guys get reacquainted, the living room is yours.”
“Don’t worry,” Pete said, with a conspiratorial wink. “We’ll keep the other two out of your hair. Though I should warn you, after you two chat, they’re probably going to want an autograph from you.”
Aaron wanted to snort softly. His autograph was going to be pretty damn worthless pretty soon, but he didn’t really want to get into that, so he just nodded and went to sit in the living room, right on the edge of the comfortable armchair while Leah draped herself over the couch.
For a moment or two, they just looked at each other, a little awkward. It was the first time that they had seen each other, face to face, in six months, and Aaron found himself unsure about what he should do, or say.
“So, it’s a nice place,” Aaron finally broke the silence, and he wasn’t especially smooth about it, but he was trying. “It’s probably going to make you a little bit sad to leave.”
Whatever he had expected, it wasn’t for the look of guilt to pass over her face. He didn’t expect to see her fingers lace themselves tightly together, or to see the tension that was clear in her eyes.
“Aaron …” Leah took a deep breath and then squared her shoulders, and that was all the time that Aaron had to prepare himself for whatever it was that came next. It wasn’t enough, and her next words hit him like she had swung a two by four right into his gut. “I want to stay.”
For a moment, it was like some huge machine had sucked all of the air out of the room, and Aaron couldn’t breathe. He just looked at his sister, and silently begged her to take those words back, because things were confusing enough for him.
“You want to stay,” he finally managed, and Leah nodded, her vivid little face deeply determined. This was no joke. No prank. This was his sister pulling away from him.
“Look, I know you think that I don’t notice things, but I do,” Leah told him. “I noticed a long time ago that there’s this guy that makes you feel things. You didn’t have to tell me. It was pretty clear. And I noticed that whenever you talked about leaving show business, you got pretty quiet. Even more quiet than usual.”
Aaron was utterly astonished. He had tried so hard to hide those sorts of things from his sister, who had had enough to deal with in her life already. He tried a couple of times to speak, and finally, he succeeded.
“Leah, it’s not like I don’t want you around,” Aaron promised her. He wasn’t going to try to lie to her. He wasn’t going to dishonor her that way, especially since she had figured all of this stuff out on her own. She was clearly more perceptive than he’d given her credit for.
“I used to hate your job. Did you know that? It took you away from me,” Leah told him, and she reached for the plate of cookies that Jane had brought them and nibbled thoughtfully on them. Chocolate chip cookies, of course, and two glasses of milk, because that’s the sort of woman that Jane was.
“Leah …” Aaron started. All of the guilt that he’d ever had about deserting his sister came flooding back, but Leah shook her head and interrupted him before he could even find the words to apologize.
“Here’s the thing. That shrink you sent me to? She made me realize that I don’t want you as a dad. You’re not my dad. You’re my brother, and I like you better that way. So if I come live with you, I think we’d fight all the time anyway.”
She waited, just in case Aaron wanted to say anything, but Aaron wouldn’t have dreamed of interrupting her. Not when the things that she was saying rung so thoroughly of truth. They were things that he had thought before, though he had always shoved them away.
“Besides, I think you’d be mad at me. You like being up on stage, and I can’t take you away from that. Besides, your man, what’s his name …”
“Brad,” Aaron replied, and he saw the sly look on her face and knew that he’d been tricked. He had just admitted that there was a man, and he glared at her, but couldn’t help but respect her skills in getting that out of him.
“Your manager? Right. Okay. Brad.” Leah paused and then continued. “Brad. It’s not over with him, really, is it? I can tell you’re sad, but I bet you were the one who left him.”
Aaron sighed, then reached for a cookie himself.
“Leah, it’s not your job to worry about me.” Aaron’s fingers toyed around the edge of the baked treat, peeling off little bits and dropping them into his mouth. It was a way to deal with the nerves. “And you don’t have to stay here just because of my career or my love life.”
