Brother's Best Friend

by Natasha L. Black

“You okay up there?” I asked.

  But instead of getting a response, the movements stopped.

  “Millie?” I called out.

  I sent a text message to Layla to let her know we were headed to the store and would be back before lunch, then headed upstairs. I knew we had a long road ahead of us. But maybe this wouldn’t be harder than it needed to be. Maybe, just maybe, Millie would open up to me a bit today.

  Like she had first thing that morning.

  5

  Layla

  I pulled up to Cole’s house and saw him unloading groceries from the bed of his truck. He looked exhausted, irritated, and red in the face as the small girl sat in the lawn with her legs curled up to her chest. I pulled in beside him, watching him as he hauled groceries into the house with Millie staring off into space.

  The poor little girl looked petrified.

  I turned my car off and watched Cole come back out of his place. He huffed, like he was out of breath. He kept peering at Millie as she kept her back to him, swirling a stick around in the grass. Ace leapt to the front of the car, pulling me out of my trance and whimpering to get out. And as I continued to watch Millie on the grass, the sunlight hit her face just right.

  Showcasing the tears slipping down her cheeks.

  What the heck happened at the store?

  I opened my car door and Ace went flying, almost like he knew where to go. And as he wrapped around the back of Cole’s truck, I heard the squeal of that little girl.

  Which made Cole whip around.

  “Millie, are you—?”

  Her giggles filled the air as I stepped out of my car. I came around to stand by Cole, who smelled like he’d been in the gym for three hours. His shirt was drenched. Yet, Millie tumbled around in the grass with Ace as my little weenie dog licked at the sweat on her brow.

  “Puppy!” she said through her giggles.

  “Thank fuck you’re here,” Cole whispered.

  He dropped the bags on his arms and wrapped me up in a hug. A sweaty, nasty hug that left me smelling like him. Though, I didn’t mind that as much as I did the damp patches of clothing I now had against my skin. I patted his back and watched Millie, seeing her tears dry right up. I knew it had been a good idea to bring Ace with me. What I didn’t know was that a simple trip to the grocery store would have resulted in the two of them being so emotional.

  “What in the world happened?” I asked.

  Cole pulled away from the hug. “Give me a second. Hold on.”

  He picked up the bags and made his way back into the house. When I turned around, I finally got a glimpse of his new place, which I’d had yet to visit. It was gorgeous with a beautiful redbrick facade with white trim around the edges and a white roof to match. There was a white porch with gorgeous columns that brought everything together. The lawn was crisp and green and smelled freshly mowed. The trees on the front lawn of the property gave the entire area a wonderful smell, and the hedges of flowers blooming around the porch attracted butterflies that fluttered about.

  It seemed like a small slice of paradise any girl would love.

  So, why wasn’t Millie warming up to the place?

  I turned around and watched the girl stare at Ace. He ran in circles before jumping at her face from time to time. I saw her reach out for my little dog, her hands gripping a bit too tightly in the air. I walked over to her and settled my hand between her small shoulder blades, watching as she looked up at me.

  I held my breath, because I could’ve sworn I was gazing directly into Susie’s eyes.

  “Hiya, little one. Remember me?”

  Millie nodded, but she didn’t say anything.

  “It’s okay to pet the puppy. His name is Ace. But it’s very important for you to be gentle. Okay? Like this.”

  I held my hand out for Ace, and he came running up to sniff my hand. I waited until he bumped it with his nose, then I softly petted him down his back. I stroked slowly, going over his short hair. Millie’s eyes darted between mine and Ace’s, and then she slowly held out her hand.

  “Like this?” she asked.

  “Exactly like that. Wait until he sniffs you.”

  She giggled as Ace licked her fingertips.

  “Can I pet him now?” she asked.

  “Once he bumps your fingertips, you can—there we go! You have permission from him to pet. Now, soft strokes. Just like that.”

  She giggled as Ace wiggled his way into her lap. He flopped down, his head lingering against her thigh. Millie petted him softly, following my instructions to the letter, and my heart filled with pride. I wiped at her tears softly and brushed her sweaty hair away from her forehead. She was a beautiful little girl. Brown skin with a red tint, almost like copper. Eyes like her mother’s. Curly brown hair with natural black highlights that lent a gorgeous hue when the sun hit her curls.

  My, gosh. I miss Susie so much.

  “Can I sit beside you?” I asked.

  “Yeah. That’s okay,” Millie said.

  I sat down beside her and peered over my shoulder. I saw Cole standing on the porch. He leaned against the column, his clothes changed and his arms crossed over his chest. I couldn’t read the look on his face; he was a bit too far away. But I did register the thumbs-up he gave me.

  Apparently, I was doing well.

  “Do you like puppies?” I asked.

  “Mhm.”

  “What else do you like?”

  “Kittens. And elephants.”

  “Wow. Elephants? They’re pretty big.”

  “They’re my favorite, because their noses do this.”

  She wiggled her arm in front of her face before trying to make an elephant sound, and it was the cutest thing I’d ever seen. I smiled at her and she giggled, causing me to giggle along with her. Then, Ace began panting. Even for Maine, it was hot this fall. Summer had just switched over, and the cool breeze hadn’t usurped the strong rays we got for the last three weeks of the season.

  “Why is his tongue out like that?” Millie asked.

  “Well, he’s getting hot. And thirsty. You want to go inside and get him some water?”

  “Yeah. Because I want water, too.”

  “Sounds like a plan. Do you like drinking other things?”

  “Mhm.”

  I stood up. “What do you like to drink?”

  “Milk. And pineapple juice.”

  “Those are two wonderful drinks. I like pineapple juice, too.”

  “You wanna share some?”

  I offered her my hand. “I’d love to share some.”

  She took my hand and the three of us headed back toward the house. Cole stood on the porch as Ace rushed inside, sniffing around for water. The shock on his face wasn’t lost on me. We walked up the porch steps and into his home, and I tried my best not to gawk. But the place was massive, far beyond any home I figured Cole might ever live in.

  “Wow. Nice place,” I said.

  “Thanks. It was a fixer upper when I bought it. But it’s coming together nicely,” he said.

  We all walked into the kitchen, and Millie clung tighter to me. Her grip around my hand tightened and she squished herself against my leg. The closer Cole got, the tighter she pressed into me. I rubbed her back, trying to make her more comfortable. I grinned as the sight of Ace drinking out of a Styrofoam bowl. It made me swallow a giggle back. I knew Cole didn’t like my dog. And yet, he’d set a water bowl out for him for whenever we came inside.

  How sweet.

  “Do you have any pineapple juice? Millie says she likes pineapple juice,” I said.

  Cole paused. “I didn’t know that. I uh…”

  “Water’s fine. It’s okay,” I said.

  He nodded, but he seemed defeated. His eyes fell to Millie before he started grabbing glasses, and I took Millie over to the kitchen table. I wanted to talk with her. I wanted to figure out what in the world happened today, and why she seemed so skittish with Cole but so open with me.

  “Millie?” I asked.

&
nbsp; “Yeah?”

  Cole slid two glasses of water onto the table before standing back. He seemed to understand his presence was an intrusion. But I saw the hurt behind his eyes. I saw the worried furrow of his brow. I motioned for him to step back a little farther, and I kept having him step back until Millie relaxed again.

  “How’s that?” I asked.

  She nodded, but she didn’t say anything.

  “So, I hear you went on a grocery shopping trip.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Did you have fun?”

  She sipped her water. “Kind of.”

  “Only kind of? Did you get anything you liked?”

  “Not really.”

  “Why not?”

  She shrugged, and I peeked over at Cole. He probably hadn’t noticed anything wrong, but Millie was a bit behind developmentally. She wasn’t quite looking me in the eyes. Some of her R’s weren’t hard. I watched her spin her water glass around with her entire hand instead of her fingers, which made me wonder about her occupational and fine motor skills.

  “I don’t know,” Millie said softly.

  “You know you can talk to me, right? About anything,” I said.

  “Okay.”

  “Is there anything you want to talk about?”

  And when her eyes peeked over at Cole, a theory emerged.

  “Are you scared of him?” I asked.

  Millie shrugged.

  “Has he hurt you in some way?”

  I felt Cole bristle as Millie shook her head. Then, a conclusion I came to saddened me as the question fell from my lips.

  “Do you not like that he’s a boy?” I asked.

  When Millie shook her head, my heart sank.

  “You’re not comfortable with him because he’s a boy,” I said.

  Millie pulled her legs onto the chair and clung to them against her chest. I looked over and saw Cole practically vibrating with anger in the corner. I coached him through a couple of silent, deep breaths. Then, I motioned for him to come over. Now that I understood the gist of what was happening, I had a handle on the situation.

  So, I motioned for Cole to sit beside me.

  “Millie? Can you look at me?” I asked softly.

  Millie peeked her eyes out before hiding behind her knees again. I sighed, and I felt Cole’s thigh trembling against mine. I looked down and saw his fists balled up. I looked into his face and saw him gnawing on the inside of his cheek. I ran my hand up and down his thigh, trying to get him to calm down and take some breaths. Because if my theory was correct, they both had a long road ahead of them.

  “Children can pick up on your moods. Settle down,” I whispered.

  After a few more breaths, Cole relaxed.

  “May I take your hand, Millie?” I asked.

  I held my hand out and watched her slowly sneak hers into mine.

  “What was the rule Mommy had about boys? Can you remember?” I asked.

  Millie sniffled. “Mama said I’m not supposed to talk to them when they come to our house. Ever.”

  I nodded. “Okay. I totally understand that. I hear you, okay? Mommy doesn’t want you talking to boys.”

  “Ever.”

  “Ever. Yes. But this boy over here is special. Do you know what an uncle is?”

  She shook her head.

  “Well, an uncle is someone who loves you very much. Someone who will always protect you and will never hurt you. Your Uncle Cole was your mommy’s brother and he loved her very much and he’s just as sad as you are that she’s gone.”

  It took all I had within me to say those words without crying. I felt Cole take my hand against his thigh, squeezing it in an effort to keep his own emotions at bay. And as I sat there, holding both of their hands, Millie finally looked over at him.

  Before the faintest hint of a smile crossed her cheeks.

  “I’m sorry I yelled and cried at the grocery store,” she said.

  Not to me, but to Cole.

  “It’s okay, Millie. I understand. And the next time I have to go to the store, we’ll go when it isn’t so crowded. Okay?” he asked.

  “Okay,” she said.

  I drew in a deep breath and motioned for Cole to get up. That was as much progress as we’d make for today. I wanted to spend the rest of my time there getting to know the little girl. We played with Ace in an empty room devoid of furniture and pictures on the walls. The carpet seemed new, though. Probably freshly put down. Millie laughed and rolled around with the dog. She kept holding her hand out and letting him bump it before she petted him. It warmed my heart to hear her laughter. To see her smiling. To watch happiness fill those gorgeous eyes of hers.

  But when Millie started getting tired, I bedded her down for a nap.

  “How did things go?” Cole asked.

  He stopped me halfway down the stairs after tucking that sweet girl in.

  “They went fine. She didn’t want me to, though. So, she’s sleeping in the clothes she’s had on all day,” I said.

  “Anything special? A song? A book? A stuffed animal?”

  “Nope. I just brushed her hair back and cuddled with her until she fell asleep.”

  “I don’t think she’ll let me do that anytime soon.”

  I put my hand on his shoulder. “Give it some time. It’s obvious she’s been through trauma. It’s also obvious that’s the one rule Susie already reinforced with her daughter. There’s no telling what that girl has seen.”

  He shook his head. “How could my sister do this to that girl?”

  “We don’t know her life, Cole. We don’t know her circumstances or what demons she was battling. Let’s focus on what we’ve got in front of us. Which is a little girl who’s gone from living with a girl to living with the epitome of someone her mother reinforced to her was bad. This is going to take time.”

  “I know. I know.”

  “Please, call me tomorrow. Okay?” I asked.

  He paused. “You’re not staying until she gets up?”

  I shook my head. “I think it’s important that she spends some time alone with you, too. So you can prove to her that you aren’t going to hurt her in any way. She’ll be skittish. But I think we made good progress this morning at the kitchen table.”

  He sighed. “I really appreciate you coming over.”

  “Oh, I’m not done yet. She’s going to need special services. It’s obvious she hasn’t been enrolled into school yet. Which isn’t illegal right now. In the state of Maine, you technically aren’t forced to enroll any child into school until they turn seven. But she’s developmentally behind. She’ll need help.”

  He paused. “I didn’t even catch that.”

  “You’ve had an overwhelming week, Cole. Cut yourself some slack. Spend time with her when she wakes up, then call me tomorrow. We can talk more then. Okay?”

  He wrapped his arms around me, hugging me tight. I didn’t hesitate to hug him back.

  “You’re a lifesaver, you know that?” he asked.

  “I just want to help. And if this is how I can help, then so be it.”

  6

  Cole

  I woke up with an ache in my bones. My feet touched down onto the hardwood floors of my bedroom, and I sighed. I pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes, then reached for my phone. When I saw it was a little past six in the morning, I groaned.

  So much for sleeping in.

  I shuffled past Millie’s room and stuck my head in. She was still sleeping, filling the room with those soft snores. She hadn’t woken up from her nap yesterday until dinnertime. Then, she came down long enough to eat before finding her way back upstairs to pass out again. Five years old, and she’d been sleeping heavily since lunchtime yesterday. I was worried about her. Was she getting sick?

  I needed to call Layla.

  I made myself a cup of coffee and walked out onto the porch. As I sat down in the rocking chair, I gazed out along the green lawn. Mornings like this were the reason why I’d purchased the old Victorian home and rehab
bed it myself. It took a lot of long nights, but it was worth it. There were still little things to do around the place. I still wanted to replace a couple of the hardwood floors upstairs and some of the crown molding needed to be sanded down and repainted. I also wanted to change out the handles on the cabinetry I’d installed last year.

  But other than those little things, the house had come together very nicely.

  I scrolled through my phone until I got to Layla’s number. I knew it was early on a Sunday morning, but I also knew she’d be up. That woman had been amazing with Millie yesterday, and I knew she’d be a massive tool in my arsenal while trying to settle into a new life with a five-year-old in the house. The phone rang as I sipped on my coffee. That autumn breeze wrapped around the house, blanketing me in the comfort of my favorite season.

  Then, Layla picked up the phone.

  “Hey there.”

  “Sounds like you’ve been up as long as I have.”

  “I tossed and turned a bit. How’s Millie?” she asked.

  “Still sleeping. She’s pretty much been sleeping since lunch yesterday.”

  “Wait, seriously?”

  “She got up for dinner, then went straight back up to bed. She’s been asleep ever since.”

  “Is she running a fever?”

  “I don’t think so. She wasn’t at dinner yesterday.”

  “She might be emotionally drained from everything that’s happened.”

  “That was my next guess.”

  I sipped my coffee as the phone call fell silent. The question I wanted to ask was stuck in my throat.

  “Layla, you don’t think that…”

  “I don’t know, Cole. I don’t want to jump to that conclusion.”

  I sighed. “Because of the light it shines on Susie?”

  She cleared her throat. “I mean, I knew Susie was lost. But you don’t think she was actually bringing her drug dealers to her apartment, do you?”

  “I don’t know. My fear is what they may or may not have done to Millie.”

  “My fear is how Susie was paying them and what Millie witnessed.”

  “Shit. I didn’t even think about that.”