Page 22 of When Love Takes Root

“That fence still crooked from when Kacey tried to fight Demarcus and lost.”

“He didn’t lose. He got relocated.”

Juice snorted. “Boy got folded like a lawn chair at a family reunion.”

I laughed.

His smile faded first.

“I never liked how that dude watched you,” Juice said. “He’d clap for you, but his face always came late. Like, his hands knew what love was supposed to do, but his spirit had to be dragged behind them. Every time you won, something in him looked inconvenienced before it remembered to look proud.”

The truth of it settled in my chest.

I’d spent years calling it friendship because history made betrayal harder to name.

Juice shifted in the seat. “Kacey wanted your life without earning your discipline. Wanted the fruit, the shade, the fence, the mailbox, and the alarm code, but didn’t want to plant nothing but drama.”

I glanced at him. “When you get profound?”

Juice lifted his chin. “I been profound.”

“You been loud.”

“Loudly profound,” Juice corrected. “That’s different. That’s wisdom with surround sound.”

A reluctant smile pulled at my mouth.

The light ahead turned yellow, and I stopped.

Juice looked through the windshield, then at me. “You drive like somebody got court in the morning.”

“I drive like I enjoy freedom,” I returned.

For a moment, only the engine and the air filled the truck.

Brooks Hardwire Electric & Co. didn’t just have our last name on it.

It had our repentance.

Juice cleared his throat. “You still going to the gym tonight?”

“If I’ve got time,” I said.

“You never got time. You make time for everybody else, then act surprised when there ain’t none left.”

I looked over at him.

He lifted both hands. “I’m just saying. Go hit the bag before you start carrying the whole town on your shoulders again.”

“You been talking to Miss Claudette?”

“Me, Miss Claudette, your mama, the Holy Ghost. We got a group chat,” Juice said.

I laughed despite myself. “You’d get removed.”

“Probably. But the message stands.”

We rolled past the boxing gym. Heavy bags hung in the window like old friends waiting for honesty.