“I know,” I whispered.
“So she let me see them today and…and…Christ!” he suddenly exploded.
I went solid, but when Brian didn’t go on, I pushed out, “What?”
“She’s like, I don’t know, maybe thirty-five, forty pounds.”
What?
“Who?” I asked.
“Portia,” he answered.
“What?” I shrieked.
Boone wrapped his fingers around the wrist of my hand that was holding the phone.
I shook my head at him, hard.
His mouth got tight.
Through this, Brian spoke.
“She’s skinny, Ryn. Like, super skinny. Eyes all hollowed out. I…it’s freaking me out.”
“What the fuck is happening, Brian?” I demanded.
“She wants to see you.”
I pulled away from Boone, started toward the door and declared, “I’m going there right now.”
“Okay, I’ll meet you there,” Brian said readily.
I was nearing the door, Boone at my side.
“Portia’s not eating because I’m not around?” I asked my brother just to confirm I was getting this right.
“Fuck,” Boone hissed.
“Angie says no. Angie says she’s just going through a phase. But I asked her, Portia, direct, and she says she’s on a hunger strike until her mother lets her see you.”
“Goddamn Jesus Christ,” I bit out. I shouldn’t have stayed away. I should have made the peace. Goddamn it! “How long has this been happening?” I asked as Boone beeped the locks on Mo’s truck that we’d borrowed to pick up the lighting.
“I don’t know, Ryn, because I,” his voice cracked, “fucked shit right the fuck up and I haven’t seen my babies.”
“Okay, Brian, you go there, and I’ll go there, and I won’t go in until you get there. And I’m calling Mom. I’m also calling fucking Brenda,” I said, hauling myself up into the cab after Boone opened my door.
He also closed it the second I cleared.
Wasting no time.
Loved my man.
“Okay, Ryn, but I’ll call Brenda. You call Mom,” Brian told me.
“You got it, bro,” I bit off. “See you soon.”
“Ryn,” he called.
“What?” I asked.
“I love you so fucking much too.”
I stopped breathing entirely.
Brian disconnected.
“Baby,” Boone growled.
I started breathing.
Only then did Boone ask, “Your niece isn’t eating?”
“She’s on a hunger strike until she sees me.”
“Fuckin’ hell,” Boone murmured, switching on the ignition.
“Angelica says it’s a phase. But I’d say she probably weighed about fifty pounds. I don’t know how much a kid that age should weigh, but she was a healthy weight. Brian says she’s super skinny. Says she weighs, like, thirty-five pounds. She’s a tall girl. Thirty-five pounds is little.”
“Your mom hasn’t seen them in a while?” Boone asked, his arm around my seat, looking over his shoulder, backing out of the driveway.
“No. I didn’t think about it, with all that was happening with Brian. But she hasn’t mentioned them, and I thought she hadn’t because she didn’t want to make me feel badly, because I couldn’t see them.”
“Right, we’re gonna be there in fifteen, sweetheart. So get on the phone with your mom.”
I got on the phone with Mom.
In the brief conversation with Mom before she was out the door, I learned three things.
One, she’d only seen the kids once since Brian’s accident.
Two, she had noted at that time that it looked like Portia was taking off weight, but again, at that time, it wasn’t alarming, and she just thought it was because of all that was happening with the adults in Portia’s life. However, Mom did warn Angelica to have a care about that.
And three, right now she was freaked way the fuck out.
When I disconnected, Boone asked, “How was your brother when you talked to him?”
“Flipped out about Portia.”
“Other than that.”
“Sober,” I told him.
“Sorry?” he asked.
“He’s going to meetings. He says he’s sober. Has been for a little while. Not long. Eight days. But Angelica wouldn’t let him see his kids, and I guess that was the catalyst for him to find some help.” I took in a big breath, mindfully, which meant I also let it out. “He said he started meetings a bit ago. Kept falling off the wagon. But he’s on it now.”
Boone had no reply.
“He was nice to me, Boone. He ended the call telling me he loved me.”
It took a sec before Boone said, “Okay, baby.”
Yeah.
He was with me.
He was going to give Brian a chance.
Me?
“He’s gonna fall off again,” I said.
“Maybe. Maybe not. He’s on now and needs positive reinforcement for that.”
“Yeah,” I agreed.
“And it’s a pretty intense incentive to stay on it, his daughter starving herself and her mother doing dick about it.”
He could say that again.
“Yeah,” I repeated.
“Babe, that’s bad, but this is good. Her family is closing in. You’re all going to see to her. She’ll be all right. Focus on that.”
“Yeah,” I whispered.
He held out his hand, palm up.
I took it.
We were at Angelica’s in less than fifteen minutes.
Brian was already there.
Boone and I met him at the end of the front walk, and it shook me, seeing him.
Not in a bad way.
In a good one.