“Whoa,” I breathed. “Dude. That’s awesome.”
Jeremy chuckled. “I thought so too. I figured he would try and fight me on it.”
“He didn’t, though,” I said, sure of it.
“No,” he said. “He didn’t. He cried. Which made me cry, thinking I’d done something wrong. But then he said that he wanted nothing more. And from that day on, he wasn’t just Robert. He was my dad.”
“A good one too.”
“The best, really. He gave up a lot for me. I was… clingy. I suppose that happens when a kid loses their parent when they’re young. I didn’t like being too far away from him for years, sure that he was going to go away like she did. It wasn’t until I got ready to go to college that we had our first real fight. He wanted me to go out and see the world. I wanted to stay local so I could keep an eye on him.”
“What did you do?”
Jeremy nodded toward the stack of dirty dishes. I picked up another plate and began scrubbing it.
“We compromised,” he said. “I would give it two years at an out-of-state school. If I didn’t like it, I’d transfer to the U of A. How do you think I did?”
I thought for a moment. “You lasted a semester.”
He grinned. “Close. Two. And I didn’t tell him I was coming back until I showed up at the front door, a backpack slung over my shoulder. I told him in no uncertain terms that I was old enough to make my own decisions. He rolled his eyes and let me in the house without saying a word.”
“And you’ve lived together all this time?” I didn’t know how I felt about that.
“Oh god no,” Jeremy said with a laugh. “We would have killed each other. I moved out after I graduated. Lived my own life, made my own mistakes.” He made a face. “Many, many mistakes. He was in a car accident a few years ago and shattered his hip. I moved back in then to keep an eye on him, much to his annoyance. It works for us. We’re different people now. I’m there because it’s the best for both of us. I needed him when I was a kid, and he needed me after he was hurt.”
“And you stayed.”
“Yeah,” he said, taking another plate from me. “I did. It’s…. We don’t really have any other family. Dad had a sister, but she died back in 2001. And I never knew Mom’s family. They didn’t really want anything to do with her after she got pregnant.”
“Assholes,” I muttered.
“Maybe. But even though we only had each other, we made it work. We didn’t have
a dishwasher at that house, so every night, she and I would stand at the sink, washing the dishes. She was busy, and I was busy being a kid, so it was something for just the two of us.” He bumped my shoulder. “We have a dishwasher at the house, and it gets used. But sometimes I wash the dishes by hand. It’s a memory, you know? Something small and personal, and it helps me remember her.”
I looked down at my hands in the water. It was lukewarm, and the soap was bubbling across the surface. “I don’t have many of those.”
I felt him freeze next to me. Then, “Memories?”
I grimaced. “That sounds ridiculous, I know. I mean, I remember things, but it’s not… they’re not good memories. Not like you have.”
His voice was harder when he said, “Your fosters weren’t good people?”
I was surprised until I remembered our first meeting at Phoenix House. I’d told him I’d been in foster care. “They weren’t bad people. They just… I think the best way to describe them would be apathetic. It wasn’t good. It wasn’t bad. It just was.”
“I’m sorry.”
I arched an eyebrow at him as I tossed his own words back. “For what?”
“That they weren’t better people. You didn’t deserve that.”
“How do you know?”
“I know you,” he said, and my skin felt like it was thrumming. “And even if I didn’t, you were still a child. No kid deserves indifference. Especially those who are vulnerable. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to be bigender in a household like that.”
That old chip on my shoulder returned in full force. I didn’t mean for it to, but I hated the sympathy in his voice. “I wasn’t vulnerable,” I snapped at him. “I could take care of myself.”
“Hey,” he said, eyes widening. “Whoa, I didn’t mean—of course you could, Kori. But you were a child. You shouldn’t have had to. That’s the whole point of parenting, to make sure your kid doesn’t suffer. A parent is supposed to keep their child safe.”