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Chapter Seven
Luke pushed back in the recliner to get the footrest to come up. A sigh came out of his mouth, and he let his eyes drift closed. He’d worked hard today, kicking off his day by unloading fifty-pound sacks of feed. Then he’d been up and down on that structure, checking joints and load-bearing beams.
He’d been pleased to see that the initial construction had been done right, or at least well enough, and he’d spent the afternoon going over the blueprints with Marc, Jack, and Sarah. They all had a decent amount of construction experience, and he’d worked with all of them the last time he was at Hope Eternal.
“Pizza’s here,” Dallas said as he came through his own front door.
“About time,” Slate said. “I was about to chew off my own arm.”
“Whatever.” Dallas’s footsteps sounded and Luke opened his eyes. They felt a little scratchy, and he’d have to get used to the grasses here all over again. His stomach grumbled, and he put the footrest down to join his friends in the kitchen.
“Nate’s not coming,” Dallas said. “By the way. He doesn’t want to leave Ginger home alone.” He opened the first box to reveal a supreme pizza with all the meats and veggies. Luke’s mouth started to water, though he’d half-expected Hannah to call or text or even stop by the Annex. He’d imagined her proclaiming that she’d broken up with Chuck, and would he take her to some fancy restaurant where he thought he wouldn’t like the food?
She hadn’t. No texts. No calls. No pop-ins.
“I got the Alfredo one you like.” Dallas glanced at Luke. “You’re still eating that, right?” He flipped open another box to reveal the mostly white pizza, with chicken, green onions, extra cheese, and Alfredo sauce.
Luke salivated. “Definitely.”
Ted wasn’t coming tonight either, but Luke appreciated that Dallas had bought pizza and set this up for him. Jess had taken the kids to the mall for dinner in the food court and a movie in the treehouse theater there. They’d be gone for a couple of hours, and hopefully by then, Luke would know all the secrets of the universe.
Dallas took some plates out of the cupboard, and when he turned back to Slate and Luke, he said, “I have some news.”
Slate exchanged a glance with Luke, and they looked at Dallas again together. “Jess is pregnant.”
“That’s great, brother,” Slate said, but Dallas didn’t even smile.
“You…don’t seem happy about it,” Luke said.
“I am,” Dallas said, the smile finally appearing. “Honest, I am.”
“Are you?” Slate asked, reaching for a plate.
“I have an eight and a twelve-year-old already,” Dallas said. “Thomas just entered this sort of snarky phase, and he’s started arguing with me about the weirdest things, at the weirdest times. Sometimes we can’t even get out of the house, because he wants school lunch and not a home lunch.”
Dallas sounded beyond frustrated, and Luke knew that had nothing to do with the pregnancy.
“So then, the lunch just sits there, and no one ever eats it, and we throw it away.”
Luke wanted to say it was just a school lunch, but Slate said, “Bro, bring it to the ranch. I’ll eat that lunch any day of the week.” He added a chuckle to the statement, and that got Dallas to smile a little.
“Remmy’s still sweet,” Dallas said. “I just feel like I’m starting over.” He picked up a couple of pieces of the supreme pizza and plunked them on his plate. “Which is good. Of course it’s good. I love Jess, and she wants a baby, and we want a family that belongs to both of us.” He went over to the table. “I’ll feel different in the morning, I’m sure. It was just a rough day.”
“We all have them,” Luke said, taking three pieces of the white pizza Dallas had bought just for him. “For example, today, right at the beginning of the day, I told Hannah that if she wasn’t dating Chuck, I’d ask her to dinner for tonight.”
He turned his pizza around and took a big bite of the back corner, which meant he got a mouthful of mostly crust. Then he could chew for a while and not have to talk.
Slate choked on his pizza as he started laughing, and Dallas chortled too. Luke wanted them to tell him what to do about the whole Hannah situation, so he ate and waited.
“What did she say?” Dallas asked.
“Nothing,” Luke said. “She didn’t say anything.” His shoulders slumped and he reached for a can of soda.
“I’m sorry,” Slate said. “Maybe she was just shocked.”
“Oh, she was shocked,” Luke said. “I told her she’d have to decide if she’d say no if she wasn’t dating Chuck.” He scoffed. “Or something. I’m not even really sure what I said, to be honest. I know I walked away, and she didn’t call me back. She barely spoke to me the rest of the day, and I haven’t gotten a text, a call, nothing.”
“Well,” Dallas said. He took another bite of pizza and chewed it thoughtfully.
