"And maybe for you too?" she said.
She sounded questioning but still more positive than Wyatt felt about moving here. This place was where his brother chose to live and raise a family. If it was his idea of the right kind of place, Wyatt had a strong suspicion that he could never fit in or be happy here.
His nephews were here so this was where he had to be. The best he could do was make peace with it.
"Let's get you settled in," his aunt told him.
As she led the way inside with her basket of tomatoes, Wyatt hefted his bags and followed her. The boys looked after them but quickly turned back to Barney. The dog had found something interesting and had his nose stuck in the grass. He was such a city dog, everything out here was new to him.
The décor inside wasn't as country as Wyatt expected. The furniture was solid and sturdy, but the dominant colors in the living room were gray and yellow. The kitchen cabinets had paneled white doors, the countertop was tiled slate. That's where Aunt Deb set down her basket with tomatoes.
Right away Wyatt noticed that there was a kitchen door that went out onto a second porch. "A front and a back porch. OK."
"It's nice to sit out there," Aunt Deb told him. There was a field and some brush further on then a thicket of tall bushes and trees. "And it should be all right to let your dog run around back here."
Right away Wyatt looked for those bright orange berries the young guy had warned him about, but he didn't see any. After taking in the view, they moved on, and Aunt Deb showed him the rest of the house. Family pictures were everywhere along with some nature prints that decorated the walls.
Aunt Deb took him down a hallway where he saw three bedroom doors standing open. "That's the boy's room," she said.
In there Wyatt could see paper airplanes suspended from the ceiling which was painted sky blue. A desk with two chairs was under the window. On either side of it, two beds were roughly made up and covered with colorful comforters. A shelf was stuffed with books and toys all crammed in every which way.
"They've been taught to keep it pretty neat, and they make their own beds, as you can see," Aunt Deb told him with a smile.
Wyatt did notice that there were no toys strewn around their room or any of the other rooms they passed through. Was that even possible? Lloyd and his wife raised them that way, but Wyatt wasn't sure he could keep up with that kind of disciplined childrearing.
They moved on to the other two bedrooms. Aunt Deb was in the only spare room, and Wyatt figured he would be staying on the couch until she left.
"I got the big bedroom ready for you already. You can make the spare room your office. You'll need it if you want to get any work done," she said. "I bet those boys don't give you a minute's peace."
"I don't see them anywhere right now. It's Barney who won't get a minute's peace," Wyatt predicted.
"Your secret weapon," Aunt Deb said with a smile then she showed him the way to his bedroom.
The room was at the end of the hall. Wyatt went to the door and looked in. It was the master bedroom. "Is this really a good idea? Won't the boys mind that I'm taking their parents' bedroom?" Wyatt asked.
"I think they need to know that you aren't just a guest here. That you're here to stay. I think that's the most important thing for their peace of mind," Aunt Deb said decisively.
"I guess I feel weird taking over this room," Wyatt said as he walked further in. He eyed the open closet and saw that there was hardly anything in there.
"Jill's sister, Eva, already took away most of her things. And I had the thrift store in Ashbury pick up a lot of Lloyd's stuff. Nothing of sentimental value just clothes," she said.
That seemed too fast to Wyatt, but Aunt Deb was always a decisive, no nonsense person. As for Wyatt, he was standing in the middle of that room, staring at the big bed covered with light blue sheets and a quilt folded at the foot of it. He was still trying to take it all in. So this was going to be his room for the foreseeable future, his life. For now, it still seemed too unreal, like something he might wake up from then go right back to his old life.
That's when the boys ran inside and stopped abruptly in the hallway when they spotted Wyatt.
"Barney is thirsty. He tried to drink from a puddle," DJ said.
"Let's get him some water. And I have some of his food in the car. He has two dog dishes, where should we set them up?" Wyatt asked.
"In our room," Riley answered right away.
"Outside or in the kitchen," Aunt Deb told the boys like she didn't trust Wyatt not to agree to something crazy.
"We'll set them up on the porch for now," Wyatt decided. "I don't think Barney wants to be cooped up inside right now. We'll put some ice in the water so it's nice and cool."
"I'm gonna get ice," Riley volunteered.
"We're both getting it," DJ said.
