Halah was quiet for a moment, but then her eyes met mine over the fire. “Good. I like her.”
It had never occurred to me that one of my family members might not like Kalli; there was absolutely nothing to dislike about her as far as I was concerned. So I wasn’t expecting the wave of relief that washed over me when my baby sister gave her approval.
“What about you? Why haven’t you been home in so long? Ma and Pops worry about you.”
She shrugged. “It’s a different life out there, Ri. Your boat docks in the most amazing places and when you get some time off you have to choose between going home or, I don’t know, spending a week in Italy. I’m never going to be young and carefree again. I was just trying to take advantage of the perks of the job.”
“What do you mean you’re never going to be young or carefree again? Halah, you’re just twenty-five. You’ve got plenty of time to figure life out.”
“I’ve got thirty more weeks to figure life out.”
Her tone was despondent and she was suddenly morose. “What happens in thirty weeks?”
“Never mind, Riot. It’s not important.”
“Of course it’s important. You brought it up, now explain it.”
“Really, big brother, it’s nothing.” She gave me the weakest smile I’d ever seen grace her face, but I could tell she really didn’t want to talk about it.
“Okay, well, I’m here if you ever need to talk. When do you have to be back to work?”
“I have a lot of vacation time saved up, so I’m not sure yet.”
“Kal and I are going to go down to the pier tomorrow before we head back to LA. Want to come with us?”
Finally, a genuine smile crossed her face when she said, “That sounds like fun.”
“I’m gonna head inside and make sure Ma isn’t embarrassing me.”
“I can guarantee Ma is embarrassing you,” she said with a laugh.
“Well, I’m heading in to do damage control then. You coming?”
“Nah, I’m gonna sit out here and stare at the fire for a while still.”
“Okay, sis.” I stood up and walked toward the door, but turned before I went in. “Halah?”
“Yeah?”
“I can tell you’re going through something, but I just want you to know that you can count on me. If you ever need anything….” I trailed off because I wasn’t sure how to put into words how much my little sister’s welfare meant to me. I wanted her to be happy, and if I could help in any way, I wanted her to let me.
“You’re a good big brother,” she said softly. “If I need anything, I’ll let you know.”
I nodded. There wasn’t much else to do. I couldn’t hold her down like I had when we were kids and force her to tell me by threatening to spit on her. We were adults. She had to deal with her own issues and I had to hope she’d let me in if there was something I could do to help. Being an adult really sucked sometimes. I gave her one last smile and then opened the door to head back into the house.
I found Ma and Kalli sitting at the kitchen table, a giant photo album open between them. Ma was pointing out pictures of me when I was younger, and I could visualize the picture by just her description.
“And this is when Riot won first place in his youth bowling tournament.” I groaned. I’d been nine years old, I was wearing tube socks, and I had braces. It was, quite nearly, the worst photo she could have showed her.
Kalli saw me walk in and her eyes turned to me. They were sparkling with amusement.
“You were a bowler?” She could hardly make it through the question without choking on laughter.
“I was nine. Bowling is cool when you’re nine.”
Smart as always, she didn’t say anything in response, just smiled wider and returned her gaze to the album.
“This is when he came in third for the county spelling bee.”
“I see you were still a fan of the tube socks during the spelling bee years.” The giddiness in Kalli’s voice was almost cute enough that I didn’t care she was making fun of me.
“Perhaps we should look at some photos of you when you were nine years old and see how fashion forward you were.”
Kalli didn’t raise her eyes from the photo album when she muttered, “My mom worked two jobs when I was nine and I let myself in the house after school with a key that hung around my neck. There are probably only a few pictures of me when I was nine.”
“Babe,” I said, mentally punching myself in the face for shoving my foot in my mouth.
“You must have been really brave to stay alone every day after school by yourself,” Ma said, coming to my rescue.
Kalli just shrugged. “I did get really good at cooking in the years between my dad leaving and my mom remarrying. I tried to make my mom dinner every night so she wouldn’t have to when she came home.”
“Well, I’m sure Riot could benefit from some cooking lessons. Getting him to cook anything when he was younger was like pulling teeth. I think he burned things on purpose so I’d stop asking.”