AllFreeNovel
Share Us
As the conversation shifted and Barrett put his notebook away, Gemma leaned in, eyes glittering. “So word ’round the lake is you and the new neighbor are getting on all right. You gonna tell me what’s really going on?”
Gemma would have been a good cop in her day. Her stare made him want to confess everything immediately. “We’re uh…we’re good. I thought it would be weird having someone new in Perry’s place but Ambrose has made it his.”
“A looker, your neighbor.” She smiled. “Bet you two are cute together.”
The flush making a mad dash up his neck was also making him sweat. Fuck, she was good. “Okay, come off it.”
Gemma cackled. “I knew it.”
“You didn’t know anything.”
“Didn’t I? Don’t get me wrong, there’s some speculation about you two but it’s more like arguing between the old coots who live around here. And then thirty seconds in they’re so busy yelling about who is right and who didn’t return what hammer and it all devolves into chaos.” But she nudged his knee with hers and, with a softer smile, said, “Good for you.”
Barrett was going to leave after taking some pictures of the chicken coop, but Gemma held out a handful of bent nails. Immediately that thing in the back of his mind sparked with awareness. That bend was the same. The same angry twist to the metal, the same marks around the nail head. All the same like the ones in the nails they took out of the ruined door to Alpha fire tower. He took his pictures and the nails back to his house, leaving Gemma with a kiss on the cheek and a promise to bring Ambrose by for dinner.
Fuck. Fuck. It was one thing to have sabotage creating issues - major ones - at work. There were files and reports, evidence and logs, and lots of people involved. It was another for it to hit so close to home, with just him and a dog and a notebook and a handful of nails. But somehow in his mind, the ferocity behind each of those bent nails didn’t match up to the stuff-shirt snobbery of one of those stupid puffer vests.
It left him feeling queasy. Having the sanctity of his home and the little neighborhood of weirdos he’d known for a decade threatened wasn’t right. His boat was gone, Gemma’s chicken coop had been damaged, and someone or several people were wandering around the lake looking to cause trouble. Hackles raised, Barrett headed home, phone gripped tightly as he texted Ambrose.
From: BarrettCome see me when you can? Got some weird news and I just…want to know you’re okay.
There was no answer, even by the time he unlocked his door. Unease turned into worry and he’d never been good at compartmentalizing his worry. So he texted Val.
From: BarrettHow’s the kid? How are you?
From: HopscotchHe’s all right today. Read a few comic books, we watched a movie, and now he’s asleep.
From: BarrettYou free to talk? Kind of need to hear your voice right now.
His phone rang a moment later. “Hey, Bear. You okay?”
“Honestly, I don’t know.” Barrett sighed and leaned back into the sofa, rubbing his forehead with the heel of his palm. “Can I vent?”
She laughed. “I’m pretty sure I owe you about a day’s worth of venting. Go for it. And don’t let me forget to send you the video Forrest made earlier today. He felt pretty good, so he was fiddling with this little handheld camera a friend loaned him. He wanted to make a video diary about what it’s like to have leukemia, so other kids who have just been diagnosed can have facts coming from someone like them.”
His nephew’s ingenuity and selflessness had no boundaries. “Jesus.”
“I know. I’m so proud of him. He was hoping you’d watch them and give him some input. Asked about Ambrose, too.”
“Shit, Ambrose knows his way around a video editor. I know he’d -”
“No, Bear, that’s not what I was saying.” Val sounded exasperated. Or maybe it was just the exhaustion he knew she was feeling. They weren’t twins but they could have been, for all the times they felt each other’s pain; some visceral, gnawing thing ready to chew on their bones. “He was just asking if Ambrose and you were doing okay. He’s excited, he’s never seen his Uncle Bear with someone.”
“One, I’m asking Ambrose anyway. And two, you tell the kid I’m happy and so is Ambrose.”
There was a clink of glass and ice cubes. “And what’s your real answer?”
He smiled, and that warm feeling spreading in his chest knocked that pain away. “That we’re happy and it’s been good. You two do know it’s only been a few weeks?”
“Bear. You big loveable dumbbell. It’s been months. You only made it official a few weeks ago. You’ve been dating for months.”
“That’s what Ambrose said.”
“And then you kissed him after that, right? Cause that’s -”
“Val!”
“Some Hollywood shit,” she finished. He knew she was smiling, could hear it in every syllable. “Anyways, I’m glad. But I better get to meet him this summer.”
