Harry
“You get Winnie off to school okay?” Yara asked me.
I nodded. “Just about. It was kind of a rush.”
Yara had been so helpful with me since I had taken in my niece. We’d become fast friends in the time that we had worked together, and she would never know how grateful I was that she had stepped up to help me parent when I had least expected to become one.
“You picking her up after school today?” she asked, tucking a strand of her cropped brown hair behind her ear. She was wearing the same pair of sensible silver studs in her ears that she always wore, and they caught the light.
“Yeah, no meetings on a Monday, remember?” I said. I had put the rule in place when I realized that I was leaving other people to take care of Winnie for me most afternoons. I wanted there to be at least one day a week that I actually got to spend time with her properly, even if I knew she was going to twist my arm to get something everyone else wasn’t enough of a soft touch to hand over to her.
“Of course, of course, right.” She checked her schedule. “For you maybe, but we aren’t all so lucky.”
“Well, all you have to do is get born into a family that owns the company, and then you can make your own rules,” I said, teasing her lightly. She raised her eyebrows at me.
“Hey, you’re getting dangerously close to letting me hate on you right now,” she warned me. “I’ll catch you for coffee at eleven or so, okay?”
“Please make sure I’m out of here by two-thirty at the latest,” I said.
She nodded, offering me a little salute. “Anything you say, boss.”
And with that, she was off, leaving me to answer all the emails that had accumulated over the weekend. I had started taking that time away from work so I wasn’t hanging on my phone constantly and was actually doing something constructive with Winnie, but it meant that I had at least fifty to get back to by the time I arrived back at my desk.
It was good to keep my mind busy, though, because it was far too easy to get caught up in what was going on in there when I was at rest. It was even harder when I was around Winnie all the time. She was only nine years old, and yet, I felt like she had been through so very much that it sometimes hurt to think about all the pain that she had suffered.
I wondered how she coped sometimes. I struggled enough without my sister, Theresa, Winnie’s mother. About a year ago, she’d died in a car accident—quick, fatal, no room for argument. Everything in my life had flipped into flux in that instant. Nothing could stay the same, not when the person who had done so much to keep it that way was just gone. She had always been the person I’d looked to for support and advice when I felt like I couldn’t keep my shit together, and now I had to step up and take care of her daughter. It was what she had wanted. I had known that for a long time, sure, but the truth was I hadn’t actually imagined that I would ever have to come through and actually do it. I didn’t think I could be a father, not really. But it turned out that when you had no choice, it was amazing what you could achieve. The things that you could do. The places that you could take yourself.
I met Yara for our usual coffee, and we talked about what had happened over the weekend—Yara still went out and partied every now and then, and I listened to her stories of hitting the town with some nostalgia. I had used to be able to do that whenever I wanted. Parenting was fulfilling in a whole different way, of course, but that didn’t mean I didn’t find myself missing it once in a while.
When two-thirty came around, I shut off my computer and drove across town to pick Winnie up from school. She was just approaching the gate when I got there, and I pushed open the door and let her roll across the seat toward me.
“Seatbelt,” I reminded her, and she clipped herself in. She clasped her little bag to her chest and looked at me, eyebrows raised.
“Did you think about the ice cream?” she asked.
I laughed at her. She could be so stubborn when she wanted to be. And I just didn’t have it in me to say no.
“All right, just one scoop,” I replied, though I knew that she would basically be having two—one of hers and then a bunch of mine because I never had much appetite at this time in the afternoon. Besides, now that I had less time to hit the gym, I had to be more careful about what I ate so that I didn’t get that notorious dad body.
“Yay!” She clapped her hands together, and I reached over to give her a hug. I just couldn’t say no to her. I didn’t want to, not after everything that she had been through already. She deserved the best life that she could have, and I was always going to go out of my way to provide it to her.
We pulled away from the school, and rain started to patter on the window. I didn’t mind. I could handle a little gloominess because all the sunshine I needed was right there in the seat beside me.
Raina“Hey, Reed, over here!” I called to my brother, and it felt like half the coffee shop turned around to give me a hard look. I didn’t much care. I was just glad to see my twin brother, even if I knew it was only going to be for a half-hour before we both took off to work.“Hey!” he called back, carefully navigating around the seats with his cup of coffee in hand. He slipped into the seat opposite me and let out a long sigh.“How can this day be hard already?” he asked me, though I knew it was a rhetorical question.“What happened?” I asked, checking my watch. It was only eight in the morning, but I knew my brother could have already gotten himself wrapped up in something serious. A lot of the clients he was representing were overseas, which meant that serious shit could go down overnight and he wouldn’t know anything about it until he woke up and checked his messages in the morning.“It seems like Marco wants his hearing moved up a few weeks,” he explained. “Something about a fam
RainaI wouldn’t have gotten into this line of work if I had wanted to have time to myself. When Rita and I had invested in this clinic, getting it cleaned up and turned into the practice that it was today, I had managed to convince myself that this would be a chance for me to set my own hours and take a little more time away from work. But in truth, with so much more on the line, it just made it harder for me to take a break and relax.I was constantly running around, trying to make sure that everything was running smoothly and that we were going to make enough cash to get through the next few weeks, and that all our clients were receiving the best care that they possibly could as long as they were with us. It was hard, yes, but it was what I had always wanted. It was work on my own terms, and that work came along with a huge stack of responsibility, too.I spent most of my day covered in cat scratches and dog hair, not to mention the occasional angry peck-mark left by a bird who was
Harry I went to pull the car out of the driveway. For once, it looked like we were actually going to make it to school on time. “Are you sure you have everything?” I asked Winnie again, certain that I was about to be caught up in my tracks and realize that we had forgotten something fundamental. “Harry, look out!” she shrieked at the top of her lungs. My eyes darted to the side mirror, and I saw something just behind the back wheel of the car—a little bundle of brown fluff, practically quivering in my line of vision. “What is that?” I muttered as I climbed out of the car to go check it out. I had no idea what had managed to get so close to the car this early in the day. We lived in a gated property, so whatever it was must have slithered in between a gap in the fence. Winnie was quick to follow me. I considered telling her to stay where she was, but I knew that wasn’t going to fly. She was too curious, just the way her mother had been. “Oh my gosh, it’s a dog!” she exclaimed as s
RainaAs soon as he walked out, I picked up the phone and dialed up the kennels to let them know that I would be stopping by later on.“Just so you know, I have an older dog that I’m going to be bringing in,” I told the answering machine. “This is Raina, by the way. Raina Walters. I’ll see you later today if everything goes well.”I hung up and went over to tend to the old, tired little dog that that guy had brought in just a few minutes before.“Hey, boy,” I said softly, petting the rough fur on his head. “Don’t know how you managed to end up here, but you’re in good hands now, okay?”The dog snuffled, as though acknowledging what I was saying to him and thanking me for my effort.“You shouldn’t be thanking me,” I told him gently. “You should thank that guy who brought you in here. And if you could get him to call me, too, that would be great.”I shook my head at myself. I needed to get my shit together. I was asking a dog for help with dating? Yeah, it was hardly my proudest moment.
RainaI watched the dog for one more moment before I turned and headed out the door. I was a little sad, leaving him behind like that—well, I was always a little sad when I had to leave a dog behind, but even for me, I was sadder than usual. Maybe because I knew that that dog was the only connection I had to one of the only men in years who had actually turned my head, and now that I had handed him over, there was no reason for him to get in touch with me again.I decided to treat myself to some Greek takeout on the way home. There was a beautiful restaurant not far from me that made an amazing vegetarian gyro, and I was obsessed with them. I inhaled the deliciously savory scent as I tucked it into my bag and carried it down the last couple of blocks to my house. The fact that I had walked most of the way home meant that I had totally earned this, right?Right.I tried not to get too hung up on my body. I was tall, and I had the body to match my height. I wasn’t tiny and lean and litt
HarryI knew that I should have been replying to all my emails at that moment, but in truth, I was more caught up in making sure that I had everything covered for Winnie for the next few months.I had no idea how my sister had managed to take care of her by herself for so long. Sure, I had seen the struggle when she had first had her, but I’d had no idea just how much it was going to take out of me on a day-to-day basis.Jesus Christ, the stress of it all. The running around trying to make sure that everything fell into place, that all the bits and pieces came together at just the right moment and just the right time to be sure that everything worked out. She did band and played soccer after school, and that meant I had to make sure there was always someone there who could pick her up and take her home—whether it was Yara, me, or one of the sitters I practically had on twenty-four hour call right now.My sister had worked her ass off to get Winnie this far in life, and it was the leas
HarryI hesitated. I didn’t want to just come out and agree so quickly because that would be tantamount to agreeing that what she had done was a good idea. But she had a point. I had been off the market for such a long time, and it wasn’t doing me any good to be cooped up in the house alone all the time. I would have to get back out there eventually, one way or another. Maybe this was a blessing. I was never going to do it myself, so perhaps Yara putting in the effort was how I could get back into it.I had dated before what had happened, of course. Quite a bit actually. But I had never found anyone who had actually made me want to settle down. Most of the women I met had this edge to them, like there was something on their mind other than just spending time with me. I soon came to figure out that it had nothing to do with me and everything to do with the family name that I was attached to.They took one look at that, and dollar signs started pulsing in their eyes. They couldn’t see a
RainaI rubbed a smear of blood off my wrist and sighed. Ugh.This had been a whole lot harder than I had thought it would be. Work had been pretty mellow right up until the last half hour. Then someone had brought in their dog, who’d been hit by a car and broken his leg.I’d had to set the fracture and get this poor thing all calmed down and dosed up so that he wasn’t freaking out too badly. I was covered in blood, and all I wanted in the world was to go home, have a hot shower, and clean myself up.But instead, of course, I had to go and get myself ready for my darn date. I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t found some way to wriggle out of this since Reed had announced that he had set it up in the first place. I had credited myself with more in the way of guts than that, but I figured this was the only way that I was going to get my brother off my back so I could get back to work again.“You’ve deleted the dating profile thing, haven’t you?” I asked over our coffees the day after he’d