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DREW
By Monday evening I had most of the house packed up. I’d left the family photos and a few decorations that suited me, but it no longer looked like the place was a living memorial to a life long since passed. There was space to move on.
Even if I wasn’t one hundred percent sure that I could move on in this house. Not when the dining table and the couch and most of the beds reminded me of Sadie.
I still hadn’t stripped the bedding in her room.
One step at a time.
Every box was neatly labeled so I could invite Val over to go through things and see what she wanted to keep. I planned on donating whatever was left to charity. My mom would have wanted her things to go to good use, not sit around collecting dust.
As I finished packing away the last of the doilies there was a knock at the front door. Kobie had given me an out for the rest of the festival, telling me the opening ceremony was the most important duty. I’d been ignoring texts from Val, Brody, Will and Ben all weekend. It shouldn’t come as a surprise one of them finally showed up on my doorstep.
Hushed whispers were barely audible on the other side of the door. I found an unlikely pair when I opened it.
Val and Paul stopped whatever quiet argument they were having, and both turned to look at me.
“Oh, good. You’re still alive.” Val pushed past me before pulling up short. “Holy shit.” She looked around.
I turned to Paul.
“May I?” he asked, having the decency to wait to be invited.
I nodded and stepped back to let him in. He let out a low whistle when he saw all the boxes.
“You finally did it,” Val whispered.
I rubbed the back of my neck, unable to find the right words for the occasion. Val hadn’t been back in the house since Mom died. But she’d been at my front door more than once. She knew how I’d been living all these years, even if I refused to let her in or admit how fucked up I was.
“Is this—” She got a little choked up. “Is this a good thing, or an oh shit, he finally snapped thing?”
“Maybe a little of both.” I shrugged, but then clarified when panic crossed her face. “Mostly column A. I feel good about this part.” I waved toward the boxes. “It’s just…”
“The Sadie part you don’t feel so great about?” she prompted.
I swallowed and changed the subject. “I was about to call you, actually.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Yeah?”
“You should go through and see what stuff you want to keep. I’ve got the boxes labeled. I’ll have the rest picked up sometime next week.”
Her eyes shone, and she nodded. “Okay. Thanks.”
I jammed my hands in my pockets and stood there. Waiting for one or both of them to explain why they were here. Not that I didn’t have some idea—this was a safety check.
“So…” I looked back and forth between Val, who was wandering around the stacks of boxes looking amazed, and Paul, who stood to the side with his arms folded over his chest, observing. “No offense, but you two are kind of an odd couple to be checking up on me. Was there another town meeting? You guys draw the short straws?”
She snorted. “Pure coincidence. We both showed up at the same time. Then proceeded to argue about who had the better chance of convincing you to rethink things.”
“Great minds.” Paul flashed her his dimples.
“Lay off, man, that’s my sister. And she’s married.” I gave him my most menacing glare, knowing it would slide off him like Teflon. The guy was unflappable.
Val rolled her eyes.
“So, who won?” I asked her. “And rethink what?” My brain finally caught up with that last bit.
“We opted for a two-prong approach. And rethink how you handled things with Sadie, of course,” she said.
