Colt Read Free Page B

sit-ups and push-ups. At least twenty of each. Once, just to show him that he could do it, Mrs. Berry made him do fifty push-ups. He had been sore afterward, but proud, and he had started working out with hand weights too. He had started with a two-pound weight and was working his way up to five. He did not like exercises, but he did them doggedly, day after day, because he knew he had to. Exercises, like catheters, came along with spina bifida.
    They were all just sitting in the living room waiting for him when he came out: his mother, and Brad, Rosie, and Lauri. Rosie, despite his name, was a boy, a tall, slim blondish teenager as quiet as his father. Some tease had started calling him “Rosie” because of his last name, Flowers, and the nickname had stuck. He did not seem to mind it. Lauri, his little sister, was about Colt’s age, though she looked older. Whenever she was around, Colt watched her with cautious interest.
    She was plopped amid the clutter on the floor, looking bored and very pretty. “You’re lucky,” she complained at Colt as he wheeled his chair up beside her.
    â€œHuh?” He seldom thought of himself as lucky.
    â€œYou lucky piece of scum. You got to go horseback riding.”
    â€œBig deal. All they do is put you on the horse and lead it around a ring.”
    â€œHey, I wouldn’t mind! How come you get to go horseback riding for free?”
    â€œIt’s supposed to be good for me.”
    â€œNo fair! Just because you’re handicapped—”
    Before Colt could tell her that he’d trade her anytime, her father shushed her. “ Lauri. ”
    â€œWant to play something?” Rosie offered Colt vaguely at the same time, trying to smooth things over. They all thought Colt minded Lauri, but he didn’t. He liked the way she was honest with him.
    â€œDo you want to play something?” he asked her.
    She looked annoyed. But before she could answer, her father said, “Don’t go off, you guys.”
    â€œWe want to tell you something,” Colt’s mother said. Which was not Audrey’s usual style at all. Whatever she had to say, she generally just poured it out. And Brad didn’t usually even bring his kids to the Vittorio place. Colt had met them maybe twice before, because Rosie and Lauri generally had other things to do besides tag along with their father. But tonight here they were—and Colt suddenly noticed how tense and awkward his mother and Brad looked, sitting there on that sofa, just sitting.
    They looked at each other, each one nudging the other to go first, like a couple of kindergartners coming on stage at a school assembly.
    â€œYou tell them,” Audrey said, chickening out and passing the buck to Brad.
    He tried to joke. “It was your idea.”
    â€œBrad, c’mon! You’re the guy.”
    â€œI’m liberated.”
    â€œTell us what ?” Colt demanded.
    Rosie complained at the same time. “Will one of you just spit it out?”
    Flustered, Audrey tried. “Your father—I mean, Brad—well, we—”
    â€œWe’re going to get married,” Brad helped her.
    Nobody said congratulations. All three kids looked just plain shocked. Colt gawked at his mother.
    â€œYou serious?”
    She reached for Brad’s hand, and her warm, funny smile was answer enough. But she tried to say more. “Colt, he—he’s the one.”
    Looking back a year or two later, he wondered why he had been so surprised. It was just that, well, there had been other boyfriends. Boyfriends came and went, but Colt stayed. He had kind of thought it would always be just him and her.
    Now it was going to be him and her and Brad and …
    Rosie stood up, moved a few steps closer to his father. “Dad.” His voice sounded tight. “Dad, Lauri and I aren’t going to have to go back with Mom, are we?”
    â€œHeck, no!” Brad Flowers looked as shocked as