AllFreeNovel
Share Us
So cute, that kid.
“Where’s your enthusiasm?” I asked, sliding my two-by-twelves onto the grass.
Miguel just stared back at me blankly.
“Come on, it’ll work,” I said, pulling the plans I’d sketched up last night from my back pocket. I unfolded the piece of paper, tried to smooth out the worst of the wrinkles and, after stealing some masking tape stuck to one of the bundles of boards, taped them to the front of the red door. “Won’t it, Louisa?”
“Yep,” she said, putting the boxes of nails next to the boards.
“But have you ever built anything like this?” Miguel asked.
“No,” I said.
“You ever designed—”
“This is my first,” I said.
“This ain’t ever going to work,” Miguel said.
“Your lack of faith is truly insulting,” I said.
“My lack of faith?” Miguel scoffed. “Dude, you been sitting in a chair refusing to help me tear down a porch because you said you got no clue how to do it. Now, you draw up some crap on a—” Miguel flicked the paper on the door, glancing at the back of it “—flyer for a strip club? And you think I’m going to be able to build it? A porch? By myself?”
“First of all,” I said. “Sully’s is not a strip club. It’s a gentleman’s club and someday you will understand the difference.” I stepped over to the piles of lumber and grabbed the two tool belts. I pretended to hand one to Miguel, but at the last minute I handed it to Louisa, who howled with laughter.
I needed to keep this girl around all the time; she was great for my ego.
“And second, I don’t expect you to build it. I expect us to build it,” I said.
“Me, too?” Louisa asked.
“Of course. Who else will be using all the power tools?”
“She’s not touching any power tools!” Miguel cried, his voice climbing ten octaves.
“It’s a joke, kid.” I smiled at the boy’s steamed expression. “You’ve got to lighten up. Derek helped me with the plans and told me what kind of lumber and tools we needed. He measured and cut most of the wood.”
“Derek gonna come over here and help us build it?”
“No. Come on, man. You and I can do this.”
Miguel squinted at me, sizing me up. The boy’s face was getting better; he still looked like he’d been roughed up, but the burn was less vivid and the bruising was turning yellow.
“First you buy that crappy truck—”
“Don’t call Lila crappy,” I said. “She’s sensitive about her age.”
“Now you’re building porches?” Miguel shook his head. “I always knew you were strange, but this is a whole new level of weird. You’re changing and it ain’t pretty.”
Changing, I thought. I can only hope.
“Hey, Miguel?” Louisa said, her voice suddenly smaller than I had heard it all day. “Who is that with Juliette?” she asked, sidling up next to me, reaching for Miguel’s hand.
Miguel and I turned to see Juliette crossing the lawn with Nora Sullivan.
Shit.
“Miguel!” Juliette cried. “We just want to talk.”
“Louisa, come on,” Miguel whispered, backpedaling past the porch. “Run.”
12
“Whoa!” I said, and I scooped up Louisa, stopping Miguel in his tracks.
“Let her go,” Miguel breathed and I held Louisa closer. “Come on, man. You know that woman is going to take us away.”
Louisa pressed her face into my shirt, sounds like a kicked dog coming out of her throat.
“You’re scaring her,” Miguel snapped.
“No, Miguel, you are. Listen to me.” I tried to loosen Louisa’s firm grip on my windpipe. “You can run, but…but sometimes it’s smarter to see what you’re running from.”
The words were barely out my mouth before Juliette was there and I realized how terribly ironic it was that I should say that. I’d run away from the best thing that had ever happened to me. I’d known that, and still I ran.
“Miguel,” Juliette said. “Ms. Sullivan just wants to talk to you. She’s not taking anyone anywhere.”
She reached for Miguel but he stepped away and Nora Sullivan took over like an arctic wind. “We need to talk, Miguel,” she said, and Miguel froze. Even Louisa stopped whimpering. “As the person taking care of Louisa, you need to be making some smart decisions, and running away with her, with no money and no means to get anywhere, isn’t a smart decision.”
Miguel blinked and I had to hand it to Nora. Treating the boy like an adult held him spellbound.
“Louisa?” Nora asked with a smile that softened her face. “Could you come and talk to your brother and I for a moment?”
Louisa loosened her death grip on my throat and took the few steps between me and her brother.
“If you’d give us a moment?” Nora said, dismissing me and Juliette, and we both nodded, easing around to the other side of the porch.
Once out of sight, Juliette turned away from me, braced her hands on her hips and took deep breaths, staring up at the sky, calming some panic inside her.
