Page 38 of Fighting For You

I sat with that. Jen's credentials were on the entry, but Sullivan had asked me about it, not Jen. I was the nurse on the patient when the discrepancy surfaced, and I'd missed it. That was the data point he'd walk away with.

Ian's birthday was in two weeks.

Before the fire, I wouldn't have needed to plan anything. I'd have made his favorite dinner in our kitchen, bought a cake, lit the candles, and he'd have walked through the door already knowing what was waiting for him. But we weren't under the same roof anymore. He was at Jesse's and I was at Barb's, and if we wanted to see each other on his birthday, one of us had to pick up the phone.

I called him on the bus home from work. He picked up on the fourth ring.

"Hey. So your birthday's coming up. What do you want to do? I was thinking I'd take you somewhere. Dinner, your pick."

"Actually, I've got work that week. I just started and I don't want to ask for time off yet."

"On your birthday, Ian?"

"I know. But I'm still new. I don't want to make a bad impression."

I leaned my head against the window. We had never skipped his birthday. I'd scraped together enough for a sheet cake from the grocery store the year I was broke. I'd argued him out of "birthdays are for babies" when he was thirteen. The year our mother died and neither of us felt like celebrating anything, I made him dinner, lit a candle, and sang to him in our empty kitchen. It didn't matter what was happening. You showed up.

"Besides, I was planning to take you out for dinner when I get my first paycheck."

"Ian, you don't have to do that."

"I want to. I'll have my own money." There was something in his voice I hadn't heard before. Pride, maybe. Or the shape of it. "Let me do this, Nora."

His own money. My little brother wanted to take me out to dinner with his own money. Somewhere between the cereal bowls on the living room floor and this phone call, he'd started becoming someone I didn't get to watch happen. I couldn't stop it. I wasn't sure I was supposed to.

"That sounds really nice, Ian. Thank you."

"Cool. I'll text you about the weekend."

"Okay. Love you."

"Love you too."

I put my phone in my lap and watched the city slide past the window.

My phone buzzed when I walked through the door at Barb's.

KNOX

Have you made a decision on the car yet?

NORA

That was a long bus ride home. I'm seriously considering the Corolla.

KNOX

Want me to call Ray and tell him we'll pick it up?

NORA

Yes please.

KNOX

I'm off Thursday. You?

I pulled up my schedule. Thursday was clear.