She wasn’t sure what Liam had expected, but she always assessed her clients in as gentle a manner as possible. At thirty, Colm had long since passed the school system and his family had never enrolled him in any other community program or activities. “…and then I eat lunch. Sometimes, Liam’s here and works, but sometimes he works someplace not here and it’s me and Aunt Betty.” He dropped his voice to a very loud stage whisper and said, “She’s not really my aunt, but I love her, so she sorta is, and it’s okay to call her aunt, Liam says. Liam says our family is sorta small, so addin’ an aunt is good.”
“Liam says.” It was the phrase that had punctuated their hour-long conversation.
“Liam says bedtime’s at nine.”
“Liam says vegetables before dessert.”
“Liam says don’t answer the door.”
Liam said a lot of things. And the things he said seemed to illustrate a deep sense of caring and commitment for his brother. As bristly as he’d been with Anna, she suspected that he had an entirely different demeanor here with Colm.
It was easy to see that he strived to give Colm a stable, loving home. But Anna suspected Colm could do more than what his brother thought.
“Aunt Betty came to help after Mommy and Daddy went to the angels.” For a moment, Colm stopped building and looked at her with the first trace of sadness she’d seen in him. “I miss ’em.”
“My father is with the angels, too,” Anna told him. She’d only been sixteen when her father passed away. “I miss him, but it’s nice to think he’s watching over me.”
“Yeah, Liam says Mommy was always watchin’ me, so why would her being with angels stop her? He says that she’s probably makin’ the angels come watch me, too. She really loved me.”
Anna chased away the memories of losing her father. She’d long since come to terms with it, and though she missed him, she remembered the good times more than the pain. “I bet she did, Colm.”
“Liam says you’re gonna help find me a babysitter for when Aunt Betty can’t come. She don’t like spendin’ too many nights away from Mr. Taylor, ’cause he gets lonely.”
“Is that what you want, Colm?” Anna asked. “Someone to come stay with you?”
Colm seemed confused by her question. “That’s what Liam says. A babysitter for me is what we need.”
“Yes, it is. But what do you want?”
Colm stood up and started to leave the room. “I wanna get some of those cookies and milk. You want some?”
“Sure.”
He took her into the kitchen and said, “Aunt Betty, we want some cookies and milk, please.”
“You two have a seat and I’ll get them—”
Anna needed to get a feel for what Colm could do, so she said, “Actually, Mrs. Taylor. I was hoping you’d come sit with me for a minute. Maybe Colm would get us both some cookies and milk?”
Colm frowned. “I don’t pour milk, ’cause I make a mess.”
“Tell you what, you pour the milk and if you make a mess, I’ll help you clean it up,” Anna promised.
Colm looked to Mrs. Taylor. She nodded and motioned Anna to join her at the table.
Both women watched Colm go to the cabinet and take one glass out, walk it to the island, then go back for another….
“Mrs. Taylor, I’m sure Mr. Franklin told you why I was here.”
Her eyes never leaving Colm, Mrs. Taylor said, “Yes. I love Colm with all my heart, but I can’t be with him as much as Liam needs me to be. Daytimes are fine, since Mr. Taylor has his club, but he likes me home at night, and to be honest, I’m old enough that I need to be home at night. I like going to sleep in my own bed, in my own house.”
“I understand, Mrs. Taylor. I need to ask you honestly, do you think Colm is living up to his full potential?”
“Until this very moment, I wouldn’t have even asked myself that.”
Colm had all three glasses lined up in perfect order on the counter. He got out the half-gallon container of milk, left the refrigerator door open and slowly removed the cap from the carton.
“Colm, you should probably shut the door to the fridge,” Anna said, then looked back to Mrs. Taylor who was still watching Colm pour the first glass of milk perfectly.
“Maybe we have coddled him. He’s doing fine, isn’t he?”
When all three glasses were poured, Colm put the lid back on the plastic container, returned it to the refrigerator and carried the glasses over one at a time.
He started to pick up cookies from the rack that they were cooling on, and Anna said, “It’s probably more polite to put them on a plate, Colm.”
“Oh, yeah. Aunt Betty always does that.” He hurried off to the cupboard and grabbed a salad plate, piled it high with a stack of cookies, and with one hand on the top of the pile, and the other holding the plate, made his way to the table. He set the plate down carefully, but when he took his hand off the stack, the cookies tumbled. “Oh, no, I goofed. I can’t—”
Anna picked up a cookie and put it back on the plate. “Hey, cookies fall. No biggie. If they fall, you pick them up.”
“Ten-second rule?” he asked Mrs. Taylor.
“They’re not on the floor but the table, so there’s a lot more than ten seconds when something falls on a table,” the older woman assured him.
Colm broke into a smile and repiled the cookies. He looked proud as he announced, “There, I did it.”
“You did,” Anna agreed.
“I didn’t even spill the milk. I was real careful.”
“You did great,” she told him. “But even if you’d made a mess, you could have cleaned it up. If you spill milk, you wipe it up.”
“Yeah. If you knock cookies down you pick them up, and if you make a mess, you clean it.”
Anna hadn’t realized he was going to take her off-the-cuff comments to heart. She’d have to remember that. “Right, Colm. Everyone has accidents. All that matters is that when you do, you clean them up and try to do better the next time.”
They all ate their cookies, and Anna caught Mrs. Taylor giving her furtive looks as if she were trying to decide whether Anna would be good for Colm. Anna suspected if Mrs. Taylor decided that she wouldn’t be good for him, she’d be as fierce defending Colm as Liam had been.
When they finished, Colm said, “Hey, I’ll clean up ’cause I brought it all over. I can do it.”
“I’m sure you can, Colm,” Anna told him. “Thank you.”
He looked to Mrs. Taylor and the older woman offered him another dimple-filled smile. “That’s lovely, Colm. I’m going to sit here and let you wait on me.”
“Yeah, I’ll do that ’cause you’re old and get tired. Aunt Betty’s feet ache sometimes and she moans like this,” he made a loud wailing sound, and continued, “so maybe if I help, her old feet’ll feel better, huh?”
“I’m sure they will, Colm.” Anna tried desperately not to grin.
Mrs. Taylor watched as Colm tidied up. “It never occurred to me to let him help. His mother, Maire, was a dear friend, and she waited on him hand and foot, and when I started to help Liam out after she passed…” She