Page 54 of Scoring Eden

Brynn tries her hand at a reassuring smile and readjusts the toddler in her lap. Toys are scattered across her living room rug, and there’s some kind of dirty rag hanging from the arm of the sofa. “The suburbs are a better place to raise kids than the city.”

“Bullshit.” I scoff. “Our building has a fucking supermarket. What’s gonna happen when you run out of diapers in the middle of the night? Will you drive somewhere to pick them up? You’re a terrible driver, Brynn.”

Ivy giggles in her father’s arms. “Uncle Alex said fuck.”

Leo winces, looking down at her. “Please don’t say that word.”

“Why?” She frowns back up at him. “You say it all the time.”

“Jesus Christ.”

“Jesus Christ,” she parrots, and I swear I witness Leo have a coronary.

Ivy is the free-spirited seven-year-old they adopted last year, and no amount of patience and gentle parenting is enough to calm the fire in her soul. She’s a force that no one can reckon with, excluding my sister on occasion. She’ll take over the world by the time she turns eleven, mark my words.

“Let’s all just be a little more conscious of our word choices, okay, everyone?” My sister smooths her hand over the hair of her youngest daughter’s head.

Salem, who is approaching her second birthday, blows a raspberry and mumbles something that sounds a lot like funk.

“Little ears are listening.”

I hold my hands up in apology. “My bad. I’m just shocked, that’s all.”

“You know there are stores in the suburbs, right?” Leo asks.

Petulant though it may be, I cross my arms and pout like a teenager. “Shitty ones.”

“You can still come over all the time,” Brynn offers, plopping Salem onto the floor at her feet and distracting her with stacking cups.

Ivy scrambles off Leo’s lap and disappears into the kitchen, returning with a banana that she offers her sister. “Say-Say, want to share?”

My heart twists. How am I going to cope without seeing them every day? “They’re gonna forget their Uncle Alex, aren’t they?”

Leo snorts. “Oh, come on, dude. We’re moving across town, not overseas.”

It’s a thirty-minute drive in moderate traffic, so they may as well be.

I cross my arms and angle my body away from him. “I don’t want to talk to you. This is all your fault.”

“How is this my fault?” He gapes.

“Because it was probably your idea.”

“Alex,” my sister admonishes. “You’re being ridiculous now. We made the decision together because it’s what’s best for the family. We’ll have more space, the girls will have a yard to play in, and the crime rate is much lower. I get that you like us living so close, and we do too, but you’re an idiot if you don’t think it will be better for the girls if we moved out of the city.”

A lightbulb ignites.

“So what you’re saying is the suburbs are more…family friendly?”

“Oh, no.” Leo pinches the bridge of his nose, sinking lower in his seat.

Unlike her husband, Brynn is oblivious to my line of thought. “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.”

“Fantastic.” I slap my knee and stand. “Well, I better be going, then. Congratulations to you both on the house move. It’s a big day for everyone.” I look down at my nieces, who have managed to cover themselves in smushed banana. “Girlies, Uncle Alex has to go now.”

“What just happened?” Brynn whispers to Leo in my periphery.

“Your brother is a co-dependent asshole.”