The After of Us (Judge Me Not #4)(49)

“You’re doing okay, Will. You’re great with Lily, and that’s really all that matters. Whatever you decide, I’m with you, okay?”

“Thanks, Chase. That means a lot. Really, it does.”

It’s true. My brother’s support means more than he could ever know.





Emma



On Sunday, I skip church. I do, however, slip into the school to get some work done.

I’m hoping to be left alone, but that doesn’t happen. Kay and Chase show up in my classroom around noon. All the kids are with them, including Lily. Funny that there’s no sign of Will.

Whatever. I’m tired of worrying about what’s up with him.

It takes me a few seconds to realize this is no social call. Kay’s holding a cloth up to Jack’s nose, which is bleeding.

Rushing over, I ask, “What happened?”

Sarah giggles. “I kick Jack in nose when he help me tie my shoe.”

My eyes meet Kay’s. “It was an accident,” she says.

“We think,” Chase interjects.

Kay shoots him a look. “Anyway, we need to take Jack to the hospital to make sure his nose isn’t broken. Can you watch the girls?”

“Sure,” I reply.

I’m dying to ask where Will is, seeing as one of the girls I’m about to keep an eye on is Lily. But before I have a chance to ask anything, Chase, Kay, and Jack are out the door.

Turning to Sarah and Lily, I say, “So, what would you little ladies like to do?”

They shrug simultaneously.

“Want to color?” I ask.

Lily is up for that, but Sarah has other ideas.

“I no want to color. That’s boring. Let’s go play outside,” she says.

“Well, let me see…” I look around the classroom, noting that most of my work is done. “I guess we could go outside for a while.”

“Can we swing on the swings?” Lily wants to know.

Crap. How in the hell does she know about the swings? Will must have told her there’s an old swing set down in the woods behind the school.

“Oh, I don’t know,” I say, wary.

“Yes, swing, swing! I wanna swing,” Sarah adds as she spins in a circle.

She sure is wound up today. That’s probably why Jack got hurt.

Lily joins in the spinning game, and when she encourages Sarah to spin faster and faster, I start to question who wound up whom. Lily seems to really be acting out, and I have to wonder if it has something to do with Will’s absence today.

“Okay, girls, enough.” I get them under control. Well, mostly. “Let’s go outside.”

My declaration is met with cheers, and more calls of, “We go swing on the swing set.”

“I don’t know about that,” I reply.

But after five more minutes of pleas to see the swings, the girls wear me down.

Leading them down to the swing set in the woods, we trudge over a steep embankment, making me glad I wore jeans and Chucks today and nothing fancy.

Once we reach the clearing, Lily immediately jumps up on one of the intact wooden seats. Sarah slowly climbs up on the other.

As I lean against a tree to keep an eye on the girls, I remind them, “Be careful. No swinging too high or too fast.”

Sarah is not a worry; she can’t muster enough momentum to go very high at all. But Lily is a different story. She’s a little taller and easily uses her feet to kick off the ground repeatedly. In no time at all, she is swinging way too high. So high, in fact, that the chains on her swing begin to make creaking and cracking sounds.

Stepping over to the swings, but being careful not to get hit by one, I urge Lily, “Hey, slow down some.”

“Nooooo,” she replies as she soars even higher.

Sarah slows to a complete stop and twists around so she can watch Lily fly through the air. “Illy, be careful,” she says.

Lily doesn’t heed either of our warnings. She keeps swinging—high, high, higher—leaving my heart lodged in my throat.

“Lily, seriously, you better slow down right now!”

Blonde hair flying, Lily giggles as she peers down at me. With dirt smudges on her lavender leggings and top, and soaring as she is, almost touching the leaves on the trees around her, she looks like some kind of little wood elf.

When she finally starts to slow, I smile. Crisis averted. Still, Will’s little girl is full of mischief, much like her father. One thing for sure, nothing is ever boring with those two.

Just then, when all appears to be under control, a slow wood-cracking sound fills the air.

Sarah looks up at Lily, who, though not nearly as high as before, is still in mid-flight. “Uh-oh,” Sarah murmurs.

Before I even realize what’s happening, Lily’s wooden swing seat breaks in two, sending Lily flying to the ground in a motionless heap.





Will



Sometime around noon, while on my way to Chicago, the weirdest feeling washes over me.

Here comes the turmoil that’s been absent from my life, my gut tells me.

This new sense of dread is not unlike the impending doom I felt before Cassie showed up with Lily. But this time it’s far more intense, a sharp stab of loss, not a dull nagging like before. I actually have to slow the car and pull over at a rest stop on the side of the interstate.