My Own Worst Nightmare (Sample only; full version available at Amazon.com)

Nightmare: Chapter 2

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Chapter 2

Bryce's sister, Lisa, flung open the front door of her lake house with a giant smile and a baby on her hip. "Bryce! You didn't tell me you were coming out."

"I needed to get away from the city," he said, patting his nephew on the head and reaching over to give her a kiss on the cheek.

Lisa peered out the door before closing it. "Where's Kristen? She's usually with you."

"Kristen left me," he said, stepping over toys to get to the kitchen. He opened the refrigerator and pulled out a beer.

"Oh, no," Lisa cried, setting little Lenny in his high chair. "What happened?"

Before he could answer, the twins, Benji and Julian, galloped into the kitchen, screeching, "Uncle Bryce!" He put his beer on the counter and scooped each in an arm, swinging them around.

"Good God! You two are getting heavy," he said dropping them to the tiled floor.

"They do tend to do that," his sister said, shooing her other boys out the back door. "What happened?" she asked, rounding on him.

"Nothing," he shrugged.

"Nothing? There has to be something."

"Nope," he confirmed with a deep swig. "Absolutely nothing. She left because she saw the future and didn't see what she liked."

Lisa put her hands on her hips. "Well, I never liked her anyway."

Bryce choked on his beer through a laugh. "You never liked any of them."

"That's because they only want your money. Find a woman that will tell you "no" and I'll like that one."

"Kristen did tell me no," he said.

"Yeah, but only this one time. And if you really loved her, you wouldn't have let her go anyway."

"And how do you know what happened?"

She smiled at him as she placed some Cheerios on Lenny's tray. "Because I know you. You never go after them. It's like you don't want them to begin with. They walk out, and you go looking for another to replace her. You've been doing it your whole life. It's been this parade of life-sized Barbie dolls since high school. One of these days, you're going to have to settle down. I want a niece at some point. These boys are driving me crazy."

"Speaking of boys, where's Aaron?"

"Out with his father, fishing on the dock," she answered as she waved out the kitchen window.

"How's that working out?"

Lisa sighed, looking worn out. She always looked worn out, but since her oldest son was diagnosed with Asperger's a few months ago, the life seemed to drain out of her quicker. "He's having a good week. He went to a birthday party last Friday. It took us the whole weekend to calm him down again."

He looked out the window at his six-year-old nephew sitting on the dock with his father, talking animatedly as the twins raced up and down behind them. One child with the disorder was enough to bear, and Julian and Benji were not showing any signs of repeating that curse. That relieved Bryce. What if his youngest nephew was diagnosed with Asperger's or another kind of Autism? What if he himself had that gene and could give it to his own child?