He turned and looked at his little brother. "Yeah?"
"Don't let her hurt you again."
"I don't plan on it. I wasn't enough for her. There's no reason to dredge up the past. We've both moved on."
He gave a tight smile and hoped like hell his brother couldn't see through the lie. It appeared Amber had moved on, but he'd fallen back into the pit of anger, hurt, and confusion he'd thought he'd climbed out of years ago.
Chapter 3
"Mom! Johnny got a VR game for his birthday! It was awesome!" Gage tore into the house, the door slamming shut behind him, and dropped his backpack at the door.
She looked up from the clothes she was folding and glanced into the kitchen. "That's amazing. Where's Aunt Dawn?"
"She's going to the store." Gage flopped down on the sofa. "We played all night long and had pizza, like at midnight. But Johnny's dad said it was okay. He played with us. It was me, Johnny, Nick and Simon, and Johnny's dad. Finn couldn't come 'cause he's grounded."
Amber stopped folding the basket of clean laundry and gave her son her full attention. "Grounded? Why?"
"He got into a fight at school."
Finn was a good kid; fighting didn't really fit with what she knew about him. "A fight? With who?"
"Some sixth grader. Finn was sticking up for another kid, but he hit the sixth grader, and that's what got him in trouble."
Ah... that did fit Finn. He was a protector, always watching out for his friends. "I can see how Finn would stick up for someone. Taking care of those who can't stand up for themselves is important, but violence is always a last resort."
"I know. Finn should have told the playground teacher, but the sixth grader was wrong for pushing a fourth grader down. I would've punched that guy, too." Gage picked up the remote and turned on the television.
"I sure hope not. We've talked about this before. Why was the sixth grader on the playground the same time the fourth and fifth graders were?"
He shrugged and flipped the channels. "I would've wanted to hit him. He was picking on someone littler than him."
"But why were they together?" The grades didn't have recess together or in the same area for that matter.
"It was before school, after the busses dropped us all off."
"Well, that makes sense. Did you thank Johnny's mom and dad?"
"Yep." He muted the TV and sat up on the couch. "Did you catch the bad guys?"
"We sure did." She smiled and winked at him.
"Nick and Simon said being a cop is badass."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "Language."
"I didn't say it. They did."
"You repeated it."
"Well, yeah, but to tell you." He brushed his hair away from his eyes and released that mischievous smile.
"Riiight." She gave him a nod and waggled her eyebrows a couple times.
His laughter bubbled through the room. "Johnny's dad is taking him fishing at the harbor next weekend. Can I go?"
Johnny's dad was great about including Gage in activities, and today, instead of being grateful, she felt guilty. Guilty about keeping Brody and Gage apart. She folded the jeans in her hands before she answered, "Were you asked?"
"Well, yeah." He rolled his eyes at her.
"Then yes you can go, unless something comes up."
"You always say that. What's going to come up?"
She started to sing, "The sun will come up.”
"Mom, that's so embarrassing." He unmuted the television, to block her tone-deaf notes.
"It's my job to embarrass you. We've been through this before."
He snorted and flipped the channels. "Yeah, but why do you have to be so good at it?"
"I practice."
"Lucky me."
"Yes, sir. Here, these are yours. Put them away at the next commercial." She stacked his clean clothes next to him.
"Okay." He dropped down onto his side and curved his legs around the clean clothes. She smiled and stood to put away her clothes and place Dawn's in her room. Gage's eyelids were already heavy with sleep. She'd learned through the years, sleepovers for young boys rarely included sleep.
With the laundry sorted, she walked into the living room and leaned against the wall. Gage's mouth was open and small snores rhythmically punctuated the low sound track from the television. He looked so young. She carefully extracted his clean clothes from behind his legs and carried them to his room. He was a wonderful young man, and Dawn was right. It was time she bit the bullet and told Brody about Gage. She slipped her hand into her