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“Baseball… I mean, I can help you with the basics,” Zoe offered.
“I can teach you,” I told him. “My brothers and I all played in the town league. Even Elias, though he was pretty bad at it.”
“Really? You’ll help me learn to play?”
“How hard could it be? We’ll just work on some hand eye coordination and a batting stance. Maybe go over some terms and stuff.”
“Carter, you don’t have to do that,” Zoe reminded me.
“Mom, come on,” Rex protested.
“Yeah, Zoe. It’s fine,” I said. “I think it’ll be fun.”
Rex cheered, but Zoe shot me ayou don’t know what you’re in forlook. I shrugged. I could handle teaching a kid how to catch a ball. Zoe smirked and raised an eyebrow.
“Rex, it’s getting late and you need to get up for school in the morning,” Zoe asserted. “Time for bed.”
“But Carter’s here.”
“I’m heading out, man,” I told him. “You’re not missing anything.”
“Okay then.”
Rex headed to his bedroom and Zoe followed. I washed the dishes and, by the time I was through, Zoe had returned to the dining room.
“You didn’t have to do that,” she said.
“I like being useful,” I said, drying my hands on a dish towel.
“Not just dishes. I mean volunteering to play ball with Rex. I love my son, but we all know that’s an accident waiting to happen.”
“Zoe, I don’t offer to do things I don’t want to do. It’ll be fine. It’s just baseball.”
Zoe started putting the dishes away, but as she stacked the plates in the non-decimated cupboard, she took out two wine glasses.
“You don’t offer to do things you don’t want to do, huh?” she teased. She reached for a half-full bottle of red wine on the counter and emptied it into the two glasses. She handed me one. “So you really want to help me figure out how to fix up this place?”
I took a sip of the wine. “Couple more drinks and I’ll agree to pretty much anything.”
Zoe smiled and took a sip too. It was nice to see her relaxed and in her own space.
“But, in all seriousness, yes. I can help you with all this.” She opened her mouth to protest, but I stopped her. “I don’t have to. I want to.”
“Sure you do.”
“I promise I do. It’s in my blood.”
“What do you mean?” she wondered.
“I… my father… have you seen that big house on Main and Laurel? That pink one?” I swirled the wine around in my glass.
“Yeah. That kind of gingerbread looking house, right? There’s an old lady living there, right? Rex and I see her when I drop him off at school.”
“That’s Mrs. Heffernan. My dad and his crew helped build that house. And they did it mostly for free.”
“Really?”
I nodded. “She was in her sixties, like, ready to retire when she got custody of her daughter’s four kids. All under ten.”
