AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Canyon eyed her. “Damon is just ripping Noah because he was proud that he took Dad to a doctor’s appointment and then took pizza to the house.”
Kayla grunted. “He also got Trent’s arm broken.” She pointed her wrapped hand at me and nodded to another punching bag nearby. “Want to hold the bag for me?”
Ignoring the verbal jabs from my siblings, I got behind the bag and held it steady while Kayla pounded it. I was the odd man out here, but they were letting me in the rotation.
“I still don’t know how exactly Trent’s arm was broken.” I squinted at Damon. “Did you ever get to the bottom of that?”
Damon stopped punching for a second, giving me an irritated look. “They are both still holding to the story that Trent fell by himself.”
“That’s a lie,” Kayla said. “Jason pushed him. He’s been pushing him all year.”
Damon fully turned to her. “What are you talking about?”
“I’ve caught Jason pushing him or doing something mean several times. They both stop and Trent acts like it’s no big deal. I had a talk with Jason a couple weeks ago at Mom and Dad’s.”
Damon threw his hands up. “That would’ve been nice information to have.”
Kayla grunted. “Don’t act like this is my fault, bro. I’ve been helping watch them; don’t be mad at me.”
“Have you guys seen this?” Damon asked McCrae and Canyon. “Is Jason bullying Trent?”
“Yeah,” McCrae said. “Well, I don’t think I’d call it bullying, but he’s been bossing him around a lot.”
Canyon shrugged. “I don’t know, dude. I don’t watch them much.”
For a few minutes, Kayla and Damon busied themselves with the punching bags. None of us said anything.
“Switch,” McCrae said suddenly.
Everyone shifted, rotating in the next person. We did this for the next hour. They were all into it. I was tapped out, but I wasn’t about to give up.
At the end, Damon grunted at me. “You look tired, bro. Maybe you should recertify, just to keep up with us. We are all going to recertify on Saturday.”
This was news to me. “All of you guys do it?”
They all nodded.
Kayla took a sip of water. “Even your little sister, who almost died of cancer.”
It was a bad joke, but all of us laughed.
I held my hands up. “Okay. I’ll recertify.”
As we walked out together, Canyon put his arm around my shoulders. “Drinks tomorrow night at Jim’s. Then poker after.”
“Okay,” I said, moving to my Jeep.
Kayla pointed at me. “And before you deal with the Whipples, my competitor, you should talk to me about it.” She grinned. “Though I am happy you’re staying, at least for the summer.”
Everyone said goodbye and then got into their vehicles. As I started driving off, I couldn’t help but feel lighter. Something inside my chest was warm, and I had to pull over for a second to suck in a deep breath. Was this what a family connection felt like? It felt good.
Thursday night, I showed up at Jim’s Place and McCrae waved me back to the semi-private room. All of my siblings were there, minus Dylan; they’d invited a few other people to join us, who were introduced to me as fellow police officers, a dispatcher, some friends of Canyon’s from search and rescue, and two women Kayla worked with.
Strangely, it didn’t feel awkward. We played a couple rounds of poker, and I felt myself loosen up.
I turned to Damon. “How is Trent?”
“He’s fine. In fact,” he said, standing, “I’d better go pick them up from Mom and Dad’s.” He looked around the table at our siblings. “Have any of you checked in with them today?”
