Wade’s face changed.
“What?”
“You said it won’t feel like this.”
“It doesn’t.”
“Do you still miss them?”
“Every day.”
“So it didn’t stop.”
He thought.
Children demanded precision adults escaped through language.
“No.”
“The missing doesn’t stop.”
“But the hurting changes.”
“How?”
Wade looked toward Diesel sleeping at the foot of the bed.
“At first grief is the whole room.”
“You can’t see anything else.”
“Then someday it’s furniture.”
“Still there.”
“Sometimes you walk into it in the dark.”
“Sometimes you sit beside it.”
“But there’s space for other things too.”
Lily looked at him.
“Who told you that?”
“Nobody.”
“You made it up?”
“Just now.”
She considered.
“It’s okay.”
High praise.
She lay down.
“Stay until I sleep.”
Wade’s instinct said yes.
Fear said no.
Not because he did not want to.
Because he did.
Wanting to stay felt dangerous.
He looked toward the doorway.
Aaron’s letter lived folded inside his wallet.
You confuse being damaged with being dangerous.
Wade sat beside the bed.
“I’ll stay.”
School became the next war.
Lily’s hospital recovery kept her home for two weeks.
A tutor visited.
Wade discovered fourth-grade fractions had become more complicated since 1982.
“They changed math.”
The tutor laughed.
“No.”
“They did.”
Lily corrected him twice.
He stopped helping.
Then medical follow-up.
Aaron had handled everything.
Cardiology binder.
Medication schedule.
Insurance.
Wade stared at the paperwork.
Three colors of tabs.
Aaron had labeled everything.
CURRENT.
SCHOOL.
SURGERY.
INSURANCE.
Wade found a sticky note inside.
BEAR WILL HATE THIS BINDER.
Wade sat at the kitchen table and laughed until laughter turned into crying.
Lily found him.
She saw the note.
“Dad knew.”
“Your dad was annoying.”
“Yep.”
She sat beside him.
They cried together.
The guardianship hearing was scheduled six weeks after Aaron’s death.
That was when Rachel Hart arrived.
Aaron’s older sister.
Wade had met her twice.
Neither meeting was pleasant.
Rachel lived in Florida.
Forty-eight.
Married.
Two grown sons.
She had been estranged from Aaron for six years after a family conflict involving their mother’s estate.
Aaron never explained details fully.
Only:
Rachel turns everything into a contest she has to win.
Rachel arrived at Wade’s garage wearing expensive sunglasses and anger.
She looked at the motorcycles.
The Steel Saints patches.
The men near the bays.
Her mouth tightened.
Wade walked toward her.
“Rachel.”
“You’re Bear.”
“Yes.”
She removed the sunglasses.
“You look exactly like the kind of man Aaron would choose just to punish me.”
Wade stared.
“Good start.”
“I’m taking Lily.”
His entire body went still.
Rachel continued.
“She belongs with family.”
Wade felt something unexpected.
Fear.