I look down at Travis to find that he has finally raised his eyes to mine. His lips crook to one side. A smile. He nods once, as if to say that he’s fine, that he’ll be all right. That we both will. And something in my heart sags in relief. As long as he’s okay, I can get through this.
Before anything else can be said, a woman shows up behind Sig. “Taking her down to process her,” the tiny black lady says in a clipped, no-nonsense way, nodding at me.
She stands back until Sig and Travis recede into the hall and then she takes me by the arm and guides me past them. I do the unwise, unthinkable thing and I look back, back to where my brother is standing with the man I love, back to where my brother is standing with the man who betrayed me. They will be going home together tonight, home to familiar comfort and freedom. I will be going to a cell.
My heart breaks a little bit more.
CHAPTER THIRTY- TWO- SIG
Travis and I are eating fried chicken at the tiny kitchen table when I hear a knock at the door. I glance at Travis before I get up and go answer it. He shrinks down into his chair and looks excitedly at me. I just shake my head. Teenaged boys and their fascination with older women.
I open the door to find my sister, back to her trim self, standing on the stoop. She gives me a broad smile.
“What the hell’s so funny?”
“Dad told me everything. You thought I wouldn’t laugh? Do you know me?”
“Evidently not,” I mutter as she passes me. I close the door and show her into the kitchen. “Sloane, this is Travis. Travis, this is my baby sister, Sloane.”
For a minute, I’m afraid Travis might swallow his tongue. He’s trying to hide his face by tucking his chin, but he’s also trying to ogle my sister. It makes for an interesting and extremely uncomfortable few seconds.
“Nice to meet you, Travis. How’d you get stuck with Barney here?” she asks, nodding at me.
Travis grins. “Shitty luck, I guess.”
“I’d say. Did he tell you I have a baby?”
“No.”
“Well, I do. I change her and feed her, clean her up. All the things I’ll do for your mom, if that’s okay. I mean, after living with Sig for most of my life, taking care of a baby… or anybody else for that matter, is easy as pie.”
I reach underneath the thick fall of my sister’s dark hair and pinch her ear, hard enough to make her yelp. “What was that you said? I couldn’t quite hear you.”
“See what I mean?” she quips.
Travis is still grinning. I feel like I’ve worked a miracle.
“You want to take her and introduce her to your mom, Travis? I don’t want the poor woman to think the crypt keeper has come to take her away.”
Sloane punches me on the arm. “Hey, watch your mouth! You’re older than I am.”
“I know, you just look worse.”
Sloane’s mouth falls open and she looks to Travis. “Are you just gonna let him talk to me like that?”
Travis shrugs. I think he’s a little uncertain of how to take our banter. “I don’t know. Want me to kick his ass?”
“I’d love to see that, actually, but maybe just in Grand Theft Auto for now.”
“Done.”
“That’s fine. Gang up on Sig. It’ll just make it sweeter when I win. Which I will.”
“Dream on,” Travis says, getting more into the spirit of things.
“We’ll see, lil man. We’ll see.” I glance back down at Travis’s plate. “Finish eating. I’ll help Sloane get the food ready.”
Travis sits down to pick at his chicken, all the while watching Sloane from the corner of his eye. She follows me to the counter where the bag of food rests.
“I got a chicken pot pie. I figured that shit’s nearly mush anyway. Might be easy to feed her.”
Sloane takes it out of the bag and pokes through the crust with a fork, checking the consistency of the goop inside. “Yeah, this will be good. Nutritious, too. Chicken, vegetables, some carbs.”
“And she keeps protein drinks in the fridge.” I get her one, along with a bottle of water.
Sloane nods. “Okay, show me toward the bathroom.” I do and she gathers a towel and washcloth, along with a basin full of hygiene stuff that looks like the one I’ve seen Tommi carry in there before.
Before we can get out, Travis appears in the doorway. “I’m done.”
Sloane smiles at him. The kid’s cheeks flush and I roll my eyes. God help me, Sloane will gloat for a year. “Then let’s go meet Mom.”
The rest of the evening goes surprisingly well. Sloane takes care of Tommi’s mom with no problems. Travis seems as relaxed as he’s likely to get, all things considered. But I’m okay with that. I know it would make Tommi happy. And what makes Tommi happy makes me happy. As much as I wanted to avoid getting into a place like this–my happiness tied up in someone else’s–here I am. Truthfully, it’s not as bad as I expected it to be.
Sloane sticks around much longer than I expected. She washes and dries a load of laundry, cleans up the kitchen and makes Travis a lunch for tomorrow.
“You mean I gotta go to school tomorrow?”
“Yeah. We don’t need to push anything right now. You get that, right? You see why you need to be a model citizen and student?”
I can tell he doesn’t like it, but he doesn’t argue. “Why don’t you brush your teeth and stuff while I walk Sloane out?”
He grunts something and pushes past me, obviously displeased. But at least he’s not fighting me at every turn.
I help Sloane with the last of the dishes and then go back to check on Travis. He’s lying, fully clothed, diagonal across his bed, crashed.
I pull the door up so that we don’t wake him and I walk Sloane out.
She stops on the stoop. “So, this girl…”
I turn to face my sister. “What about her?”
“You love her.” She’s not grinning or teasing me. She’s not gloating or goading me. She’s genuine and serious. And maybe even a little worried.