That Blue Gibson

CH 57

Liz tucked her boys into their beds in her sister's old room and met her mom in the hallway.

"Try to get some sleep, dear," her mom whispered, "We're just across the hall if you need us."

Liz nodded and retreated to her childhood bedroom, still somewhat unchanged since she had last slept in it some fifteen years ago. Her mom had taken down the band and gig posters, lovingly rolled them up and stashed them in the closet, but the bulletin board and CD collection still were intact. Liz curled up onto her full sized bed and stared at her old nightstand, smiling at the pick collection she had stuck to the side of it. She wondered if Travis had talked Kyle into rehab and if he had the will to get clean again. An emergency custody order had been arranged through her lawyer to strip Kyle of his rights until he was proven clean which she knew would infuriate him, but the boy's safety came first above everything else.
Rolling onto her back, she took inventory of her day. Up at five with the kids, dropped Jack off at school at 8, then drove over an hour to Portland for her dance lesson, then an hour back to pick up Jack and then head home to relieve Travis of watching Owen. An hour later Kyle had shown up. She took a deep breath just to see if she could, thinking that the exhaustion of everything was so heavy that she might not be able to. Her life was a fucking wreck, but it wasn't all gloom and doom if Paul McCartney wanted her to work on an album. And then there was Dave, who cared enough to worry about her and her seemingly endless drama. Why did everything have to fall apart right when he showed up? He probably thought she was a complete nutjob. Remembering she still hadn't called him, she felt for her phone and dragged herself off the bed when she realized she had left it in the kitchen.
Tiptoeing down the steps, she avoided the squeaky treads that she knew by heart and grabbed her phone off the kitchen counter. She was just passing the foyer when a figure in the window next to the front door made her gasp and jump back before realizing it was Travis.

"You fucking scared me," she whispered as she pulled open the front door and let him in.

"You didn't answer your phone," he replied, looking down at the device in her hand, "Kyle is all checked in and under lock down for three weeks."

Liz let out a long sigh and leaned against the wall, "Good. Thank you for dealing with all that."

"He's my brother, Liz. I'd do it whether you asked me or not."

Liz felt the rush of empathy hit her and realized she was being incredibly selfish. She stepped forward to hug him and he immediately hid his face in her hair. He didn't often let his tough facade break, but when he did it was a full collapse. "He's such a fucking idiot, Liz."

"Yeah, I know"

"The boys deserve so much better." He loved Jack and Owen like they were his own and cherished being their Uncle T more than anything. He had come running when Liz was in labor with Jack and Kyle had vanished, holding her hand through the thick of it until Kyle miraculously reappeared and kicked him out of the room.

"I know," she repeated.

"Do you think..." Travis stepped out of her arms and looked down at his feet, "Do you think maybe I could take the boys while you're in London? We can send Andy for security and-"

"Travis, I'll never take those boys away from you, ever. Regardless of what your idiot brother does," Liz said firmly, "If you want to send Andy and watch the boys, I'm 100% down with that."

Liz couldn't remember the last time Travis looked so happy. She hugged him goodbye with the promise that she'd see him tomorrow to work out logistics and locked the door before heading back up to bed.

*

Dave's phone lit up and buzzed sideways, bouncing off the red glass candle that was set in the middle of the booth's table.