Chasing Abby(67)

“They don’t deserve to have this ruined for them. I was being selfish. I’m sorry. I just… I don’t know how to be someone’s little sister.”
“I don’t know how to be a big sister. But maybe we can learn together?”
She nods as she draws in a sharp, stuttered breath. I wrap my arms around her waist and I’m suddenly very aware of the fact that my little sister is at least three inches taller than me. She coils her arms around my shoulders tightly and it hurts my heart every time I feel her chest jerk from her sobs.
Finally, she calms down and the sniffling dies down. I slowly release her and we both let out a deep sigh at the same time, then we laugh.
“Well, that was just plain beautiful,” Caleb says, pretending to wipe a tear from the corner of his eye.
“Oh, shut up.” I turn back to Jimi and I think this is the first time she’s flashed me a genuine smile since I arrived eight days ago. “Want to help me do something?”
She nods. “You name it.”
I let out another sigh and glance over my shoulder at Caleb before I continue. “I need to figure out how I’m going to break it to my parents that I’m not majoring in business this fall. I’m changing my major to music.”
“No sweat, but first we have to figure out how we’re going to break it to our parents that you and Caleb will be sharing a room for the rest of the summer.”

Chapter 28 - Chris


THERE IS NO BIRTHDAY gift I could give Claire that would ever compare to having all our children under the same roof, and getting along, for the first time in eighteen years. And we may have missed all of Abby’s birthdays, but I know that we will do anything not to miss another for the rest of our lives.
She’s back. Abby came back to us, just the way we always hoped she would.
In the first years of our marriage, Claire and I were very open with each other about how it felt to lose Abby. But as the years went by, and the topic was broached less often, it became more unsettling. For the last few years, as we anticipated her eighteenth birthday, it was almost taboo to bring up the subject of Abby.
I anticipated the sadness I’d feel over losing her again, if she decided not to meet us. And the anger I might feel toward Claire when all those feelings of loss were dredged up again. But I never expected to get Abby back only to have to push her away.
So, as I watch Claire as she watches Abby taking a nap with Ryder, I truly know how Claire feels. I don’t want my baby girl to ever go away. But, as painful as it is to admit, I have to accept that she was Brian and Lynette’s baby girl first.
“Why can’t she stay? Look at them.” She watches them with a mixture of longing and anger. “It’s not fair. It wasn’t fair then and it’s not fair now.”
“Babe, do I need to give you the same life-isn’t-fair speech I give the kids?”
“Please spare me.” She turns to me and wraps her arms around my waist as she buries her face in my neck. “Please don’t make her go.”
I hold her tightly and kiss the top of her head. “I can’t speak for you, but this has been the best seven weeks of my life. But I’ve been living in a fool’s paradise. This was always going to end. You know that as well as I do.”
“But I don’t feel right keeping this from Abby. She should know her parents are coming tomorrow.”
I thought my reaction to Abby and Caleb sharing a room was extreme. When I came home from Carolina Beach six weeks ago to find Jimi and Abby sitting next to each other on the sofa in the living room, watching videos on Abby’s phone, I almost cried tears of joy. It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life. But they shrugged off my excitement, as if it was no big deal, like it was inevitable that they would become the best of friends. But when they explained the new sleeping arrangements to me, I could feel my eye twitching.