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“I’ll get started on the locks too, once I’ve had a closer look at things.”
“Almost forgot about that. It’s inside. I’ll go get it.”
“I’ll be here.” I give her a friendly smile as she pulls the door in behind her. I’ll be here all day, and many more days, from what I can see while she’s inside. This porch has seen better days, but it’s not a complete disaster. I’d say I need to spend a few of my days off to fix this, if I wanted to be done as quickly as possible. But if not, if I wanted to woo the pretty girl inside this crumbling tower, I’d say I’d need to have a few of my days off to relax, preferably with her, and do more fixing after working day hours when my shift is over. Solid plan to me. Now all I need to do is convince her to spend those days off with me.
Shouldn’t be too hard. Last time I offered to help her in the store she practically threw me out the door. Flat out refused any help from me. Today I made it into her front door, she smiled at me, felt comfortable enough to touch me without hesitation, and agreed to let me help her while drinking the coffee I brought her. Heck, I might as well call this our first date. I might even get lunch and conversation while eating. Can’t think of a better scenario for a work date. Aunt Rachel’s going to be at the top of my Christmas list from now on.
I whistle, pulling out my measuring tape and getting the crowbar out of my truck. I lift a few loose rotten wood planks to see what’s underneath. Nothing under them looks bad. Only the wood on top, but I won’t know for sure until the real work has started. I pull out my pencil and pad to make a list. Before I finish writing the first word, I hear raised voices from inside, from Lexi and her brother Drew.
“Seriously, where were you yesterday? We were all supposed to go visit Grandpa.”
“Lexi, do you tell me where you are every minute of your day? No, you don’t. So get off my back.”
“I’m not sixteen and making questionable choices.”
“Questionable choices, ha! Do you want to go there, Lex!”
“Keep your voice down. We have a guest.”
“Sure, wouldn’t want him to know we all make questionable choices in this house.”
“Where were you, Grandpa would have liked to see you. He asked about you. He’s not getting any better. We need to spend as much time with him as we can—visit him more.”
“I know. Don’t worry, I’ll go see him this week. I promise.”
“Yeah, okay. He said something about you visiting him. Why didn’t you say anything?
“Cause I don’t need to tell you every single thing that goes on in my life. Like you making the questionable choice to let our mother into our house and let her take Axel out when you should have thrown her ass out.”
“You wanted me to rip our little brother's heart out and be the bad guy? She would have milked it for everything it was worth in front of Axel, and upset him to the point of wetting his bed for god knows how long, again! Ifyouwere here, you could have done it. And we could have spent a morning trying to console an angry six-year-old, instead of listening to the happy one making all the noise, playing upstairs.”
“Since you have it all under control as usual, you don’t need me here.”
“Drew! Where are you going? You’re supposed to help.”
“I have plans with my friends.”
“The ones who are going to help you end up as a statistic, like the men who contributed to half of our DNA!” I hear her sigh loudly. “Great, just great.” Right before Drew comes storming out the front door past me in a true teenage-filled dramatic way.
That was bad enough to rival one of Holden and my father's arguments. Almost. I’m so glad he’s not a teenager filled with rage and anger anymore. I feel for Lexi though. Definitely don’t miss getting yelled at by a kid brother who you’re only trying to help stay safe and out of trouble. I’d say she needs more than a helping hand with her porch. She seems like she needs someone to vent to who has been almost where she is but had way less responsibility than she has to deal with.
She walks out with her hand in her back pockets, shoulders slightly hunched. The first words out of my mouth are, “Are you okay?”
She gives me a dull lopsided smile, looking toward the direction her brother went.“There’s no chance you didn’t hear that, huh?”
“I might be a little older than you but my hearing is still good. If you want to talk about it, I’m a good listener. It’s a part of my job.”
“Your job, right. The cop thing…uhm…maybe—”
I don’t know why but not for the first time—it seems like my job may be a thing for her. Other than her mother, I don’t think it should be. To save this quickly before she finishes her sentence. I try to find common ground with her. “I’m not trying to get into your business or anything. If it’ll make you feel better, when I’m here I’m not bringing my job with me. I’m just Noah James. A guy helping you out. We have more in common than you might think.”
“Like what?”
“Pain in the ass brothers who won’t listen to us.” I give her a big smile. “I have first-hand experience with younger brother problems too, especially at that age.” I shake off an imaginary chill, earning a smile for my effort at humor. “They can be brutal.”
“They are.”
So for the next couple of minutes I listen to her tell me enough about her brother to know she loves him and they’re going through some growing pains and figuring out the changing dynamic between ‘you’re my older sister but not my mother.’ Even though it seems like she’s been both, too soon for too long for her age. My mother died when I was a teenager. Holden was younger but we never had to shoulder the responsibility of taking care of ourselves like it seems Lexi and her brothers are doing. After my mother died, we had my father and later my stepmom to help us along.
