Worth It All(37)

He pushed on, estimating thirty minutes to the top, then a fast rappel down. He thought of taking Casey climbing. Not here, but maybe at Evolution. She had an adventurous little spirit, and it would give her an activity in which she’d hopefully start seeing her prosthesis as an advantage. Maybe he’d wait until he’d made her a new one. He sighed, smiled, and gave in to the fact that he couldn’t stop thinking about either of them. There were way worse things to think about.

Tired and sore, he stopped by the store two hours later on his way home. He needed essentials: bread, milk, toilet paper, and a new cell charger. He was halfway to electronics when his phone rang.

“What’s up, tiny brother?”

It was Stephen. They’d always called him that instead of little brother just because it pissed him off. “Not much. What’s up with you?”

“Same. At Mom’s for Sunday lunch. Hang on, Matt’s here. We’ll step outside and I’ll put you on speaker.”

The background noise lowered by a few hundred decibels. “Hey, man,” Matt said. “Question. Did you have Mr. Nelson for biology in high school?”

“I don’t remember. Doesn’t sound familiar,” JT said. “Why?”

“Because Annie starts high school in a few weeks,” Stephen explained. “Matt’s running background checks on every teacher.”

“I am not. I’m just curious,” Matt grumbled.

“Right, well, Mitchell will be in kindergarten and I pray the school is prepared for this. Not since you ran the halls of Saint Sebastian has there been more energy waiting to explode.”

JT laughed. He liked picturing his brother getting run down by a preschooler. Kindergarten also made him think of Casey, and he wondered what kind of school she’d be going to. “I wasn’t that bad. And how would you know, anyway? You were at the high school.”

“Word gets around,” Stephen said.

“Lucky for you. Kindergarten is innocent,” Matt grumbled again. “The thought of Annie walking the halls with eighteen-year-old men makes me want to hit something.”

“That’s obvious.” Stephen was clearly amused.

They talked a bit more, catching up on all the kids first, then his siblings. JT listened and laughed at the growing sound of chaos as more family members poured outside and chimed in on their conversation. He missed his family. The anger and helplessness after losing his leg had driven him to put space between them, but the gap that remained was his own guilt. Knowing in his heart that he wasn’t the man his brothers were, and the disappointment in his entire family’s eyes if they knew the truth.

He found the charger he needed and picked up some batteries, then found himself on the toy aisle. Lots of action figures. Without thinking, he got to the end and turned up another aisle instead of heading to the checkout.

“What do five-year-old girls like?” he blurted.

“What?” his brothers asked in unison.

“If I was going to buy a present for a five-year-old girl, what would I get?”

“Why would you be doing that?” Matt asked.

Because it just hit him that he hadn’t gotten Casey anything for her birthday. He’d taken her to the fair, but getting her a gift hadn’t occurred to him. “Just answer the damn question. I’m looking at dolls and…shit. They either have scary-ass eyes or they’re dressed for a nightclub.”

“And are you trying to impress her or her mother?” Matt asked almost at the same time.

Both maybe.

JT picked up a package of plastic animals that said AGE 7 PLUS in bold at the top. “Just tell me what to get that won’t offend her or bore her to death.”

Matt laughed. “We have so much stuff in this house, how the hell do I know who’s playing with what? I do know those age suggestions on the package are useless. Try telling Caroline she’s not old enough for a Barbie.”

“I am not buying a Barbie. That’s just…no.”

“I hear ya. What about Legos?”

Okay, Legos were good. He rounded the corner to the next aisle and found there were a billion choices here too. Star Wars. Harry Potter. Princess. “I don’t know. That’s a lot of small pieces.”

“She’s five? Should be old enough not to eat plastic if you keep her fed,” Stephen said.

JT reached for a large box with a house on the front.

“Now putting them up her nose might be another thing.”

Shit. He put it back.

“Who’s this for again?” Stephen asked, more than a hint of suspicion in his voice.

“She’s…” How to say it? He and Paige weren’t dating. Weren’t sleeping together. “She wears a prosthetic leg and I offered to help her out, make some adjustments.”