"No it's okay, Tot. You don't have to defend me because I wasn't doing anything wrong."

"But she doesn't know that," Tatum said. "Just tell her."

"Tell her?" I exclaimed. "In front of everyone at this table just tell her? In front of Amelia just tell her?" I reached for my drink and then looked at Everly. "If you want to be pissed off at me, that's fine. I'm sorry you misunderstood. I'm even sorrier that I thought I understood."

"Everly?" Nick began, but I cut him off.

"No more questions for Everly. Everyone needs to eat and mind their own business."

He looked at me. "No offense, Callum, but I didn't travel half way across the globe to come here and starve. SO ... " He looked back to Everly. "If you're not gonna eat that roll, Puff, I'd like to have it."

She almost smiled, and then handed it over. Nick ate half of it in one large bite. "Also, I didn't come half way across the globe, after being shot at repeatedly, just to hear a bunch of girls cry about high school drama. SO . . ." His attention turned back to Everly, "Let's get a few things in order, shall we? Callum is an emotional black hole thanks to a time we call Some Very Unfortunate Events. Tatum and I infiltrated his Happy Place years prior to SVUE, so yes, we're privileged to know some of the musings of our friend's fragile little heart that you might not know. I don't know anything about you, but what I do know about my brother is that, if he brought you home to be questioned, humiliated, and stripped to the bone by the vultures of this table, that is his metaphoric pulling of your braids. And to that I say good. The world is-excuse my language, Mrs. Trovatto-royally fucked. If two people can find some semblance of contentment with someone else with all the bullshit that's going on-GOOD. Now, everyone shut up and pretend to eat your food."

Tatum ran her hand along his arm. "And that's why he's the Sergeant."

"Sergeant or not," I looked at him. "Don't ever tell Everly Anne to shut up."

He pushed back from the table. "You wanna go outside, Trovatto?"

"Nick, you can't even say that shit with a straight face."

He laughed. "You're just pissed because I told your girl about The Black Hole."

"There you go again, talking about my holes, Nicholas. The army has fucked you up royally."

"Come here with that mouth, Princess, and I would love to fuck you up royally."

Tatum threw her hands in the air. "Do you wanna switch chairs with me, Cal? Sit next to The Serg?"

"No way." I glanced to Everly as I reached for my drink. "Even pissed-off at me I'd still rather to sit next to this pretty girl." I took a sip of Coke. "You can keep that pretty girl all to yourself."

Marta sighed loudly. "Forget the lemons. I should have garnished all of your glasses with Holy Water."

And for the first time, we all laughed in agreement.

It was a silent, awkward, walk to her room. My heart felt heavy. My legs felt heavy. Every inch of me wanted to fix what broke during dinner, but her quietness left me nervous. I wasn't sure how to heal . . . I wasn't even sure what I needed to heal.

I stopped her before we reached her room. "Come somewhere with me?"

"I'm tired, Callum. I want to sleep."

"You can rest. I promise." I offered her my hand. She stared at me for a moment, and then rested her hand in mine. "There's a room that you'll love."

She was still silent.

I led Everly inside a dark room on the other side of the house. I didn't turn on the light; the full moon did all the work for me. Illuminated in the blue glow swung an old wooden boat, that Nick and I had found, washed ashore one summer when we were teenagers. We tied ropes to it and made a swing for Tatum, pushing her up, up, up, holy shit stop! Stop! Laughing, laughing, up, up, up.

After we grew up, grew away from those summers and into the real world, Marta had us hang it up in that spare room and she turned it into a bed of sorts. A downy-filled mattress filled the inside of the boat and it was lined with feather pillows.

I grabbed the ropes. "Sit down. I'll swing you."

Everly smiled despite herself, and sat in the boat. I swung her slow, back and forth, listing to the creaking of the wood. After a while she lied on her back, closed her eyes.

"I want to die like this," she whispered. "And when I wake up in Heaven, I want to wake up like this."

I smiled. "With me swinging you?"

"Yeah," she said. "With you swinging me."

"I wouldn't have thought so after tonight. After dinner I would have thought you'd be hoping for this weekend to sprint on by."

She went back to being quiet. I sighed and came around the boat to sit with her.

"How could you think I was making fun of you after what we went through earlier today? After all that I've told you, Everly Anne?"