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She strode toward the living room and I took a second to scrub that image from my head permanently.
“Mostly construction,” Bishop was telling Charlie as I went back into the living room. “But I don’t have a job yet.”
“What kind of construction?” Curt asked. “Charlie’s parents are buildin’ a new house. They might need some help with that.”
“If I get on with the crew that builds it,” Bishop said, nodding in thanks as I handed him a beer. “You know who they’re usin’?”
“The insurance company is being a huge heaping pile of shit,” Charlie said angrily. “So we might end up doing most of it ourselves to cut down on costs.”
“Really?” Bishop said in surprise. “That’s tough.”
“My dad has enough favors from people that it’s possible,” she said with a shrug. “Everyone owes him something, even plumbers and electricians.”
“Your parents have plans drawn up yet?” Bishop asked, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees.
The conversation continued and I contributed, but I wasn’t even sure what I’d said. I was happy as fuck to have Bishop hanging out with us, but my attention was fixed firmly on the front door, waiting for Kara to come home. It got later and later and eventually, we ran out of beer and moved on to Charlie’s stash of hard liquor.
“He’s a good man to have at your back,” Bishop said to Curt, toasting me with his Mason jar filled with some concoction Charlie had dreamt up. “Glad he never got as pissed at me as he was at you.”
Charlie snorted. “You should have seen them,” she said, laughing. “Rolling around on the ground like a couple of four year olds.” She bent at the waist, trying to catch her breath. “And I should know. I saw them doing the same thing when we were four.”
“We weren’t wrestling, for fuck’s sake,” Curt argued, offended.
“You did go down pretty quick,” I said, taking a drink of my whiskey.
“Oh!” Charlie sang. “Burn!”
“We’ll go another round anytime you want, brother,” Curt said, his voice laced with amusement. “Just let me stop pissin’ blood first.”
Everyone laughed.
“Not in here,” Charlie ordered, getting to her feet. “Don’t break my shit.” She weaved her way across the room and tripped on Kara’s stuff, still packed up near the doorway.
“Well, hell,” she said. “Someone should put that away.”
I got to my feet as she grunted, lifting a box from the floor.
“I’ll get that,” I said, taking it from her. I carried the box into Kara’s room and set it down at the foot of her bed. I paused. She hadn’t even made it before she’d left for Montana.
“I can do it,” Charlie grumbled from the living room. “Just—” there was a long pause. “Oh shit.”
I strode back out to the living room and found Charlie on the floor, scooping shit toward her drunkenly with her arms. “Don’t look,” she snapped at Curt, who was trying to help her. “Go.”
“I’m tryin’ to help your ass,” Curt replied.
“Don’t,” she snapped, leaning over the open backpack and the papers that had fallen out of it, like she was trying to block his view.
I almost didn’t go closer, because she was getting seriously panicked that Curt wouldn’t take a couple steps back, but then, between her arm and her knee, I spotted a photo I hadn’t seen in years.
“D,” Charlie said, a warning in her voice that I completely ignored. “Step back.”
“Move,” I ordered.
Something must have sounded off in my tone, because Bishop stood up from his place on the floor of the living room to see what the fuck was going on.
“It’s private,” Charlie said, still hovering over the pile. “She wouldn’t want you to—”
“Move, Charlotte,” I repeated, making her jerk in surprise at the use of her full name.
With a grimace, she leaned back and I got a look at what she’d been hiding.
Hundreds of pieces of notebook paper, folded into little squares littered the floor, mixed with photos and a familiar box of matches. I didn’t kneel so much as stumble to my knees.
The photo I’d recognized was one I’d taken of me and Kara the week before my court date. She was standing with her arms wrapped tightly around my belly, her head on my chest, while I held the camera out with one hand and the other hand tangled in her hair. I was smiling. She wasn’t. I remembered the exact moment I’d taken it. I’d been trying to get her to smile, making funny faces, tickling her, but nothing had worked. She hadn’t smiled much back then.
I swallowed hard and picked it up so I could see it better. The sadness in her eyes would’ve been enough to knock me on my ass if I hadn’t already been on the floor.
“D,” Charlie said softly. “Just let me put all this back, okay?”
