Page 11 of Love Bound

Laurel glances toward the kitchen. "I know. Or a temper tantrum, or crying, or he'll just go mute." She sets her mug down and takes a hair tie from her wrist, stretching it to hold her mass of dark curls.

I was the only blonde until Cory was born, all bright surfer toe-head, and Travis doesn’t count. Of the girls, I'm the only one who turned out like my mom. I look like I was just recently plucked off a hill in Wales, while the rest of them are dark brooding Italians. Everyone would smile at the Russo sisters and then I'd appear and the smiles would fade a little. And they never knew what to do with Travis. I always got a little thrill when someone would meet him for the first time and he was introduced as a Russo.

"If I can help you, let me know," I say, even though she likes to handle things herself, which means she doesn’t handle them well.

She always seems to get the short end of the stick. Laurel never finished school, never even tried for college, and knows she needs to just apply for a class or two. But Cory has been her project for so long and she's done such a good job with him, I can't fault her. She's devoted to him and works hard to give him the tools to manage his life.

"What about you? Did you meet the guy next door? The builder?" she asks.

"That's not the construction guy. It's the owner, Finn Colton. Finn asshole Colton. What a jerk," I say.

"You tried?"

"He basically said, 'I don’t have a choice,' yadda, yadda, yadda. Oh, and ‘you have to leave.’"

"You have to work on your wily ways," she says.

I make a face. She knows I am wily-challenged. She's twenty-two, super curvy, with a beautiful tiny waist, gorgeous, full breasts, thin arms, great calves, and a wild mane of shimmering black hair. Men love her. They always have, and she found that out early in life. She enjoyed them too, though. Her sex life is the opposite of mine. I live in the Sahara Desert. She's in the middle of a steamy rainforest I will never be able to chart or navigate.

"He's going to take this land and develop it. All of it," I state.

Laurel pauses. I have to say, for someone so young, she nearly always gives a measured response. She's had to train herself to be this way because of Cory. "The elders aren’t going to like that."

She means town council and she's right. They are all in their seventies and the alchemy of gossip and power makes them a potent bunch of white men probably all punched to power on Viagra. Last year, they shot down some poor high schooler's attempt to create a dog park at the edge of town, said the birds needed nesting areas. There is nothing but trees and mountains between us and Acadia to the north and Portland to the south. They're just cranky.

"Listen," I say. "Let's talk about this later."

"No, let's talk about it now. This is a big deal. This guy's after our place."

"It's not our place anymore," I reason.

"This is your place, Claire. He has no right to make a land grab," she says.

"I can’t deal with this right now."

She lowers her voice. "This is so much more interesting than what I went through last night."

The sounds of tinkering stop in the next room.

Laurel tilts her head up slightly and calls, "Mommy's talking about her headaches. Don't worry. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you."

I scoot to the edge of the sofa so she can lean in and not be overheard. "Did he tantrum again?"

Nodding, she pushes her hair back from her forehead like she did when she was little. "It started around eleven. He woke up for the night and I tried to hold him. I tried holding really tight the way they taught me and I couldn't. He's getting too big. You know he's five and he's strong. Anyway, he totally freaked out and started headbanging. I thought we were over that."

She lowers her voice even further and I have to really listen to catch what she's saying. "I don't know what to do. He seems so miserable. I just started crying and tried not to yell at him to stop."

"You are an amazing mother. He’s not miserable. He's just unhappy in that moment. I know it's hard to tease apart normal behavior and the autistic parts, but you were the same way. Full-blown temper tantrums." I lay a hand on her shoulder, but she won’t look at me. "It's not going to be easy but you will get through this."

"It's not something he’ll ever get over."

I sigh. "You caught this so early. Look how far he's come. He's amazing." I say all the things I'm supposed to say and feel guilty knowing I'd crack if I were in her shoes. "He's speaking in full sentences now."

She wipes her face where a few tears left her chin wet and takes a deep breath. "I know, I know, I know. It's just hard. Man, I needed this coffee."

Weaver's, the general store, doesn’t open until nine now, because it's offseason. The gas pump at the pier opens at five-thirty for the fishermen, but Laurel was out of coffee and had come straight to me.

I pat her knee. "Glad I could help."