Page 4 of Worth the Fight

“Really?” Theo says. “I mean, I'm glad you called, but that was rough, dude. So awkward and painful my butthole was puckered the entire time.”

Grayson reaches an arm out, shoving Theo to the side. He catches himself with the side railing, and it nearly gives way with an audible crack. Theo snickers, looking up to face me.

“I’m just fucking with you, Lukas, I’m glad you finally called.”

I nod and glance at the phone in my hand, wondering now if every single call, every humming vibration of a text is going to make my heart race, thinking it’s her. I quickly shove it into my back pocket before scrubbing my hands over my face. “All right, now that’s over, let’s go inside and see how much damage has actually been done.”

CHAPTER 2

Lukas

OCTOBER

“Hey, this is Magnolia. Sorry I missed your call. Leave me a message, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”

“Hey, Mags, me again. This probably sounds weird, but I found some old videos of your ballet troupe online. I went down a rabbit hole and watched you dance to Giselle. I think that was the one you tried to tell me about when I was deployed. The video was clear, but it was from pretty far back, must have been recorded from a balcony or something. It didn’t zoom in on the dancer’s faces, but I could tell which one was you. Is that odd?” I chuckle awkwardly to myself. “I think I’ve watched you dance so much that I can tell just by the way your hands move, if that makes sense.”

Something about her movement just draws attention. She can be in a line of dancers, all dressed identically. Same height, same stature. They will be doing the same move, meant to be part of the backdrop and not the focus, and she still stands out.

“It was … I don’t have the words, honestly. You were incredible. You always have been. It’s been so long since I’ve seen you dance that it felt like the first time all over again. You’ve really made something of yourself, and … well, I’m proud of you. I don’t know if I ever said that enough when we were together, that I’m proud of you. And I hope you’re proud of yourself. Not everyone gets to make their childhood dream a reality, and that’s not a dig at myself for what I lost. I just mean that getting to live out your childhood dream is one thing, but being damn good at it is another. But you’re living it, and you’re the best of the best, Mags.”

CHAPTER 3

Lukas

An avalanche of stale dust and debris rains down on me as I tear down the next group of ceiling tiles. The worn, rotted piece crumbles in my hand, falling through my fingers to land on the floor around me. There’s a gray haze in the air, and for once, I’m thankful that Grayson pulled the big brother card and suggested—no, more like demanded—that we all wear dust masks. Otherwise, I’d be sucking in about a hundred years of plaster and mouse droppings with each breath.

We have the front door and all the windows propped open to let as much crisp fall air in as possible, yet there’s a stink to this house that we can’t quite clear. A musty, closed-off smell that stings my nostrils and has my eyes watering each time we’ve worked on it.

“Jesus Christ!” Theo shouts, just as two of the tiles fall down at once, landing on his head. He jumps back, his head twisting one way then the other, eyes darting to the floor to desperately scan among the garbage surrounding his feet. When he whips around, I see something black hanging from the hood of his sweatshirt.

“Hey, Theo.” I point, but before I can get the rest of the words out of my mouth, his body jerks, and he starts running his hands over his arms, reaching one over to brush his shoulders.

“Where the fuck is it?” he screeches, flailing and flapping his hands around his head. I’m trying to call his name, trying to tell him that the flattened, dried out carcass of a mouse is dangling from the neck of his hoodie by its crusted tail, but I’m laughing too hard at his high-pitched screams to get the words out.

Theo finally rips off his ballcap and sweatshirt, throwing them both to the floor along with the dead mouse. He screeches again, lifting one booted foot to stomp over the discarded pile before running to the doorway.

Once he deems himself safe, he turns toward the mess, letting out a full-body shudder when he spots what it was. It’s then that he looks up at Grayson trying to hold in his laughter, me nearly doubled over from it, and his fear turns sinister.

“You son of a bitch,” I yelp as he swipes the mouse from the floor and flings it in my direction.

It slides across the floor, stopping when it hits the baseboards, and I lunge for it, picking it up and twisting to fling it at Grayson. For a big guy, he’s still pretty spry and manages to jump out of the way before it hits him.

“So, this is what you guys do all day in here?” We turn toward the front door and see Harper standing at the entry, one hand on her hip, the other pinching her nose shut. “Why does it smell like something died in here?”

“That’d be all the dead mice we’re freeing from their graves,” Theo says, reaching down to grab his sweatshirt from the floor. He slips it back on, and when he leans for his hat, he uses his other hand to grab the desiccated creature. He slyly cups it into one hand as he tentatively approaches Harper. “Want to see what’s left of it?”

She squeals, raising one leg like she’s going to drop kick him if he dares come any closer. “Don’t you dare, Theo. I know where you sleep.” Harper might be small, but she’s mighty, and she’d have Theo pinned to the ground quicker than he could shout mercy.

He opts to toss the mouse into one of the garbage bins nearby, and once he raises his hands to show Harper it’s gone, she starts to take a step forward.

I hold up a hand, gesturing to the box of masks sitting on the counter. “Put one on before you come in, please.”

She reaches for a mask, tucking both loops behind her ears, then picks up my ball cap I had discarded on the counter. She puts it on her head and flips it backward, spinning to face us. “I don’t need any mouse poop in my hair, thanks.”

She takes a few more steps into the room, standing in the center and looking around. A sense of wonder crosses her face as she spins. “Wow, Lukas. I’ll admit, I thought you were crazy for wanting to do this, but now that the walls are knocked out, and you’re working on that disgusting ceiling, I feel like I can see your vision now.”

We had an inspector check out the foundation and overall structure. With winter on its way, I bit the bullet and hired a professional company to come out and repair the part of the roof that had caved in. Thankfully, the foundation was intact, so besides the roof and a few additional support beams, the rest of the original frame can be salvaged.