Page 40 of Sleeper: The Palisades Edition

“What’s up?…No, we’re at the zoo, actually. Wanna join us?…Oh yeah, is that next week?”

I catch up tothe twins so Shane can feel free to converse without me eavesdropping. “What’s your favorite animal here so far?” I ask them.

“Lucky!” Summer says, lifting their connected arms up in the air.

“Summer!” her brother says.

“Awww, you’re my favorites too!”

Shane catches up with us, sliding his phone back into his pocket. But instead of putting his arm around me again, he walks on the opposite side of the twins from me.

“Is my brother coming to join us?”

“No. He was just calling about his show next Friday.”

“Oh yeah… Are you going to that?”

“I mean…are you going?”

“Well, one of us should probably look after these guys, right? You should go.”

“But you haven’t had a night off yet.”

“I just started working for you.”

“You probably haven’t seen your brother play in ages, though.”

“No. I haven’t.”

“You should. He’s great live. The Hotel Café is a great place to see him. You go.”

I keep looking over at him, but he won’t look at me. “Okay. I’ll go.”

“You should. You should go out. Take your friend.” He nods, like he’s trying to convince himself.

“You really don’t have anyone else who could babysit them?”

“Nah. You go.” He nods again, still not looking over at me.

“Okay. I’ll go.”

ELEVEN

SHANE

It’s almost eight, Friday night.

The four of us went for a walk on the bluffs right after dinner. I watched Willa watch the sunset over the ocean. I watched how her skin tone changed as the color of the sky changed and couldn’t decide if she looked prettier against the glow of an electric pink, fiery orange, or muted purple backdrop. Because she’s always pretty. She’s ever-changing and always pretty and as untouchable as the clouds.

The kids are asleep in bed.

Nico’s supposed to take the stage at the bar in Hollywood at nine thirty, but Willa and I have been taking our sweet-ass time clearing the table and loading up the dishwasher.

I’m having a beer. Fuck it. It’s Friday night. I’ve been drinking coffee for almost a week now and I can still sleep. Lavender trumps caffeine, apparently. One beer can’t hurt. Now that I’ve drained almost a whole bottle, it hurts a little less to stand this close to her. Now that I’ve texted Nico to wish him luck, now that I think about how much fangirl asshe’ll be getting, I feel a little less guilty about how many times and ways I’ve imagined drilling his little sister. I mean, his sister is hot. She’s going to get with someone eventually. Wouldn’t it be better for everyone if that someone was me?

Wouldn’t everything be better if I had another beer?

But I don’t. Because in the back of my dad mind, I’m always reminding myself that I might have to drive my kid to the hospital at any given moment. So that’s it for me tonight.