“Shit.” My stomach sank. “You serious?”
“Yeah,” Steve said. “And I know when I’m beat, kid. Either I sell now, or he waits me out until the business goes under anyway.”
“That fucking asshole.”
“Yeah.” Steve dragged a grimy hand through his hair. “Here’s the thing. I’m taking the deal. I’m getting too old to be climbing up ladders all day. That’s a young man’s game.”
“You ain’t that old,” I said, pushing down the selfish urge to yell at him. To demand to know how the fuck I was gonna pay my bills and support my kid if he went through with this.
Steve shoved his hands back in his pockets. “You need to think about your future too, and this job ain’t it. I’ve been talking to a buddy of mine, Larry Harper over in Brodnax. Runs Harper’s Plumbing. He might have a spot for an apprentice.”
I stared at him, too caught up in the idea that he was leaving me high and dry to realize for a second that hewasn’t.
“Only if you’re interested,” Steve added quickly, like he was worried he’d offended me by mentioning it. “If you can get something else lined up, then that’s great. I don’t wanna overstep.”
My brain finally made the U-turn it had been struggling with. “I—no, I’m—yeah, I’m in!” Shit, if I could get a trade qualification, that would make all the difference in the world. My mind startedracing with what this could mean for Gracie and me. Sure, the pay as an apprentice would be lower to begin with, but my stripping money would hold me over, and once I was qualified I’d be earning a decent wage. “Plumbing’s a solid trade.”
“Good,” Steve said gruffly, the relief shining in his eyes. “I’ll give you Larry’s number and you can call him if you want.”
Like there was ever any question. I was overcome with gratitude. For an awful moment, I’d thought the worst of Steve, thought that he didn’t have my back, but of course he did. He always had. “I appreciate it, Steve. Really.”
“That’s settled then,” Uncle Steve said, and I had a suspicion that it actuallywassettled and me talking to Larry was just a formality. I wouldn’t have been surprised if Uncle Steve had pulled some strings to get me the job—he had all kinds of contacts, and he’d been watching out for me since my parents had thrown me out—but at the same time, I felt like I’d kind of earned it. I was mostly on time, and I didn’t take sick days, and I did good work. And now hopefully it was all gonna pay off.
On impulse I grabbed him and gave him a hug. “I don’t know how to thank you.”
“It’s not a big deal,” Steve said, patting me on the back once before pulling away.
We both knew he was lying, but I didn’t call him on it.
“Don’t you have to go get your kid?” he asked.
I checked the time. Shit. “Yeah, I gotta go or I’ll be late.”
I was still grinning as I drove out of the parking lot, and I found myself tapping my fingers along in time to the music on the radio as it really started to sink in that I might just have a future after all. I couldn’t wait to tell Avery all about it.
Danny.I couldn’t wait to tell Danny all about it. That was who I’d meant, obviously. Danny, my best friend, not Avery, my neighbor who happened to be my sex coach.
Although maybe, if things went the way I hoped when we talked, I could look at updating that definition.
Once I got all the details from Larry, I’d have to let Cassidyknow. She’d be happy for me. She’d always worried about me being a roofer, but that was just because she didn’t like heights herself. She thought it was more dangerous than it was. I sure as hell wouldn’t miss working on a hot roof in the middle of summer, though.
I got to the school right on time. I didn’t even bother trying to get a spot in the lot, which was always full to bursting at pickup time, and I avoided the kiss and drop zone where the older kids got collected. We were a little while into the school year now, so a bunch of parents had taken to waiting in their cars for their kids, but I liked to walk to the classroom and get a glimpse of what the kids had been working on that day. The place had an ever-changing wallpaper of drawings and paintings. Of course, it helped that I liked to get a glimpse of Avery too.
I parked about half a block past the school and walked back.
As I arrived, little kids were just starting to spill out of the place, lugging backpacks that looked too big for them and running and chattering with their friends.
I reached Gracie’s classroom and exchanged a smile and a nod with one of the moms I vaguely recognized.
The classroom was a riot of color, like always, and the kids were grabbing backpacks and hats from their cubbies. Gracie was helping some little boy with his shoes. It was the blind leading the blind, though, since even I could tell from the doorway that she was trying to put them on the wrong feet. That was usually the sort of thing that Avery would have been all over, with a warm smile and a gentle correction, but when I looked around for him, he was leaning against his desk, his arms folded tight over his chest and his mouth downturned. Mrs. Freeman, who’d been the principal back when I’d been coming here, was talking to him in an undertone and Avery was nodding unhappily.
His eyes widened as he caught my gaze, and Mrs. Freeman turned to see who he was looking at.
“Wilder,” she said, smiling. “Can we have a word, please?”
And yeah, walking over to her now caused my heart to poundin my chest in the exact same way it had when I was seven and she’d busted me throwing rocks at a hornets’ nest in the playground.
I cast a worried look at Gracie as I crossed the room, but she and the little boy had finally figured out the shoe thing.
