Page 12 of Everything After

“Another?” Ronan deadpans.

“If Sierra gets overwhelmed… she’s probably gonna disappear. If she walks away, nobody follows her. If she wants to be alone, let her. My room is off-limits.”

“Even you?” Mason asks with a frown.

“Even me,” I say. “If she closes that door, she’s telling us that she needs space. I don’t care if dinner is ready. I don’t care if somebody has a question. I don’t care if you are worried about her. Leave her alone.”

“How will we know she’s okay?” Lisa asks.

“I’ll check on her,” I say. “If she doesn’t want me to go in either, then I won’t”

“Good,” David says.

“You good?” I ask Mason.

“Yeah,” he sighs.

“You sure?”

“I scared her today,” he says, his voice quieter than I have ever heard him before. “I won’t do that again.”

“You don’t have to walk on eggshells,” I tell him. “You just have to remember she is not who she was seven years ago.”

“I know…” he says.

“She apologizes every five minutes. If somebody drops something, she jumps. If the door closes too hard, she freezes. You are all going to see things that don’t make sense. Don’t correct her. Don’t tell her she’s being silly. Don’t even tell her that she is safe. Show her.”

Mom wipes her eyes as she holds Beth’s hand. Even Ace’s smile disappears.

“I know every one of you loves her,” I continue. “So love her the way she needs right now.”

“I’m telling you,” I hear Bella’s voice carry in as the door opens. “If you apologize again, I’m buying you another pair of shoes.”

“That sounds expensive,” Ace laughs.

The living room fills with shopping bags before I can see either of them. Bella comes around the corner, carrying what looks like every bag in the county. “I regret nothing,” she announces.

“I do,” Sierra mutters.

“How many more?” I ask Bella as I grab bags.

“Twelve more on the porch and nine in the car,” she says.

“Bella,” I laugh.

“Bex!” she says mockingly. “She owns exactly one bra that isn’t trying to escape retirement.”

Ace nearly chokes laughing, but Sierra covers her face. “Oh, my God, Bella,” I laugh.

“Oh, don’t sass me. I saw your sock drawer. How do you put so many holes in your socks?”

“Leave my socks alone, freak,” I say, taking bags from Ace as he pulls them inside.

“They look like they fought in the war,” Bella argues. “So I got you some new ones.”

Laughter ripples through the room, because of course she did. I look over at Sierra, and she’s rolling her eyes. She is smiling. It is not a tiny, polite smile that she has been giving everyone since she came home. It’s not the shaky one she gave me this morning because she thought she was inconveniencing me. It is a real smile. She’s laughing, and it’s only for a few seconds. Maybe ten. But it’s the first time since I found her standing barefoot on the side of the road that she looks like the girl I remember. Not completely. Not even close. But… for just a moment… I can see her, and I know she can feel her. That sight alone makes every damn bag that my little sister has brought in worth it.

Chapter Seven