Her children made their way to the sink, vying to be the first to use the soap and get their hands under the water. “Don’t push!” Henry said as the two stood together on the footstool.
“I’m not!” Hailey replied, and Natalie watched as her daughter shifted her weight away from her brother, as though to prove her point. But her motion tilted the stool, and before Natalie could stop it, Henry lost his footing and fell to the floor. He landed on his side on the hard wood, and Natalie saw his head bounce when he hit. He was quiet a moment, likely stunned, trying to register what had just happened, and then began to wail. She rushed over, dropping the bag of chocolate chips she’d taken from the pantry onto the counter.
“Hailey!” she said in a sharp voice. “You have to be more careful!” She knelt down next to Henry and gathered him into her arms. “It’s okay, baby,” she murmured. She ran her hand over his entire head, checking for blood, but found only a bump above his right ear, about the size of a quarter. He cried on her chest, rubbing his wet face against her.
“I’m sorry!” Hailey said, and Natalie realized that her daughter was crying, too. “I didn’t mean to, Mommy! It was a accident!”
“It’s okay,” Natalie said, feeling panicked. She could feel her heartbeat hammering inside her skull. She stood up, still holding Henry, grabbed her cell phone from the counter, and quickly found the number for the nurse line at their pediatrician’s office. “Hey, Susan,” she said, when the nurse answered. Over Henry’s now-whimpering cries, she explained what had happened. “Do I need to bring him in?”
“Probably not,” Susan told her. “Just watch him, and make sure he doesn’t seem too drowsy or disoriented. If he does, or if he vomits, you can take him to the ER to have him checked for a concussion. Otherwise, it’s probably just an old-fashioned bump on the head. Put some ice on it, and give him a little children’s Tylenol if he’s hurting.”
Natalie thanked her and hung up, turning to see that Hailey had gone upstairs to her brother’s bedroom, coming back with his favorite blue fleece blanket. She held it out, and Natalie couldn’t help but think of Brooke and her lavender “soft side,” and the muscles in her throat thickened. Henry snatched the blanket from her, no longer crying but still snuggled tightly against Natalie.
“That was very nice of you,” Natalie told Hailey, whose bottom lip stuck out and was still trembling.
“It was a accident,” she said again, sniffling, and Natalie nodded.
“I know, baby,” she said. She sat down at the table with Henry in her lap and her daughter pressed up to her side. Natalie put her free arm around Hailey. “I’m sorry if I snapped at you. I was just scared when I saw your brother fall. You didn’t do it on purpose. You don’t need to feel bad.”
Hailey nodded, but in that same moment, Natalie thought about Brooke. She wondered if her sister would ever be able to get over seeing the background check—if she would believe that Natalie never meant to hurt her. But Natalie feared that the damage was done. Whether a window is shattered by accident or by a deliberate strike, its jagged pieces cut just as deep. The injured party still bleeds.
Brooke
Before Brooke left for her dinner shift at Sea to Shore, her cell phone buzzed. She glanced at the text message, having guessed correctly that it was from Natalie. Over the past month, since the day of their argument in Natalie’s kitchen, her sister had left messages and sent her multiple texts, begging Brooke to please call her. “I’m so sorry,” Natalie said in her last voicemail. “I can only hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me. Please. Can we just talk?”
Too little, too late, Brooke thought as she climbed into her car and began her short drive to work. She was doing well at her new job. Nick was happy with how quickly she’d caught on to the way the restaurant functioned, and her fellow employees seemed to like her.