"Alright girls, so you know the drill. No funny business. If you need anything, give us a call and we'll leave the movie early. Phones'll be on silent, but we'll check them throughout. So we're good?" Annie and Tess looked at each other, smiled, and nodded.
Randall turned to his wife. "Ready, my queen?"
Beth, whose arms were folded as she stared disapprovingly at Kevin, motioned for Randall to wait. "Kevin, can I see you in the hall for a minute?"
"Yeah!" Kevin replied. He turned to his nieces. "Prepare yourselves, cuz we are gonna have so much fun," he grinned, and walked off to follow Beth. He could hear Tess and Annie giggling as he walked off, and he smiled. He was excited to get to spend some time with his nieces, even though the sharp glare Beth was giving him reminded him that this was a test.
"What's up?" Kevin kept his tone light and his face smiling. He didn't need to go into this conversation looking for an argument.
'You better not hurt them, Kevin."
His smile faltered. He'd known it was coming, but it was still painful that Beth felt she had to tell him this. Annie and Tess were two of the most precious people in the world to him. How could she ever think he would hurt them?
Because you already have.
"Kevin. Did you hear anything I just said, or is it just like, in one ear, out the other? Jeez." Beth rolled her eyes, sighed, and looked at her brother-in-law expectedly.
"No, I - Beth, I won't -," he started, then hung his head. "Look, I can't promise that I won't ever hurt them. I wish I could, but I can't. So I'll promise you that I will never do anything to intentionally hurt them. I mean, I'll do anything I can not to hurt them. I -"
Beth rolled her eyes again and held up a hand to signal him to stop talking. "That's not what I asked you to do. Don't hurt my daughters, Kevin Pearson. Full stop." She walked off to where Randall was waiting, and said her goodbyes to Annie and Tess.
Kevin nodded. "Right…," he muttered, and took in a deep breath. Pull it together, Pearson. Time to be the fun uncle.
"Alright guys, so I have a ton of fun Kevin Pearson activities planned, but the question of the day is…" He paused and gestured to them dramatically. "What do you want to do?"
Annie shot him a dubious look. "You're just saying that because you don't know what to do anymore, aren't you?"
Tess smirked, grinning at her uncle.
Kevin looked off to the side and hung his head, feigning embarrassment. "Yeah...not really. Ball's in your court. Got any ideas, Annie?"
She thought for a moment, then her face lit up. "Can we do a fashion show?"
Kevin grinned. "Of course, yeah! Whatever you want. That cool with you, Tess?"
Tess looked down and just shrugged. "I dunno," she said. "Can we just talk? I really miss you. And I miss Déja."
Kevin glanced over at Annie, who was looking impatient and bored. "Annie, how about you put together your first outfit, okay? Tess and I can catch up a bit, and we'll be down here when you're ready to go. Hallway's the runway."
Annie grinned. "Yay!" she exclaimed, her eyes shining.
Kevin grinned back. "I'll fix up a little snack for us afterwards."
"Ok!" Annie agreed happily. She rushed off upstairs.
Kevin looked over at Tess, who was sitting on the couch, slumped over, chin in her hands. "Mind if I join you?" Kevin asked.
Tess gave her uncle a soft smile. "Of course, Uncle Kevin," she replied.
He sat down on the cushion next to her. "You alright? You seem sad," Kevin said.
Tess sighed. "Yeah, but so do you," she said softly.
"I - what?" Kevin couldn't bring himself to look at his niece in that moment, instead focusing on the fabric of the couch cushion.
"You look like how I feel, Uncle Kevin. You try to be happy but then there are these quiet moments and I just feel sad because everyone leaves and everything just hurts. And I try to protect Annie from it, but I think it only works some of the time because she's been having nightmares. And I don't…"
She stopped, the words catching in her aching throat, tears starting to run down her face. Her uncle enveloped her in a hug, rubbing her back. She felt safe, and leaned her head on his shoulders. They sat like that for a minute before Kevin spoke.
"Hang on a sec," he said, and then surprised her by scooping her up and walking over to the stairs before setting her down. "Annie," he called up. "How're we doing up there?" There was a pause, then the sound of footsteps and a door opening a crack.
"Umm, wardrobe misfunction. Be down in a sec!" Annie's voice called out.
Kevin grinned. "I think you mean malfunction, sweetie. But that's okay, you can't rush greatness. We'll be ready for you, okay? Just let us know when you're coming down."
"Okay!" Annie said.
Kevin walked with Tess back to the couch. "Sweetie, I'm, sorry to hear you're feeling this way. But I'm glad you're telling me about it. When did this start?"
Tess shrugged. "I guess around when Déja left. It's just been so hard. William came, and he was the best, and I loved having a grandpa around. But then he was so sick, and then...he died. And then Déja came, and it was like having a big sister. And now she's gone, too. I know she didn't die, but what if I never see her again? It's all just too much."
Tess grabbed a pillow from the couch and hugged it, looking at her uncle with eyes more serious than a child's her age should be. "What about you, Uncle Kevin? What makes you sad?"
He paused. He didn't want to go into everything, but his niece had just told him what was hurting her - he could at least return the favor.
"Well, uh, you know, I'm missing some people, too."
"Your dad?" Tess asked, knowingly.
Kevin nodded. "Yeah," he whispered. "And, I've, uh, I've made a lot of mistakes lately, Tess. I've done some things that I'm not proud of. And I want to apologize. Honey, I'm so sorry for scaring you like that. I never should've gotten behind the wheel that day. I love you so much, I would never want to hurt you. And I hope you can feel safe around me. I hope you can trust me again."
Tess wrapped her arms around her uncle, just as he had done for her a few minutes ago. It would feel weird to rub his back, so she just squeezed him tightly.
"Mmm. Thank you, Tess. I needed that," Kevin confessed.
She smiled up at him. "I know my mom's still mad, but I'm not. I forgive you, Uncle Kevin. And I love you and I trust you. You make me feel safe, and you always listen. You did scare me that day, a lot, but...I don't know. Somehow I'm not mad. Maybe I'm supposed to hate you or something, but I don't."
She frowned. "Don't cry, Uncle Kevin," she said. He was looking at the floor again and rubbing furiously at his eyes.
"You're a very special girl, you know that?" Kevin said. Tess smiled, but before she could reply, she heard her little sister screaming from upstairs.
"I'm ready! I'm ready! But don't look! Don't look yet!"
Kevin swatted his eyes again and cleared his throat before flashing Tess an encouraging smile.
"Okay, our eyes are closed! Let's have our model come on down."