“Brody, son, come give me a hand with the tools from the truck.”
Cujo started to follow his dad outside, but Trent slapped him on the shoulder, “Looks like your girl needs you more than your old man.I’ll deal with the tools.”
Drea was still standing by the open door.“Did you do this?”
“If I say yes, will you let me keep my only working testicle or are you going to kick me in it?”
“You are a good man, Brody Matthews.”
He rubbed his thumb over the seam of her lips, lowered his head, and kissed her quickly.For a moment, he pretended there wasn’t a houseful of people around them.That it was just the two of them.
Still together.
***
The house no longer looked the same.Ten hours of hard work by her friends revealed a nice family home.
“Not sure my knees will forgive me,” Lia said moving the cushion she was using to kneel on a few inches further along the floor.She dipped her brush into the white paint and continued along the baseboards.
Drea popped a can of diet cola on the floor next to her.“It looks so shiny and new.”
Pixie was rolling the walls in warm beige, Cujo’s dad cutting in ahead of her.She walked out the front door, which was wide open as it had been all day since Eric had painted it a deep red first thing that morning.
Bags of yard cuttings were piled up on the curb.Broken tree branches, sawed into smaller pieces and tied up with string, sat on the ground next to them.She patted the post of the FORSALEsign Suzi had brought over earlier.
“Connor”—she handed him soda—“you’ve worked miracles out here.”The front yard looked so good—no more weeds in the garden and the grass was cut.
“Can’t take all the credit, Devon is making up for lost time.”They looked over to where Devon he was tilling the newly weeded soil.
“Devon.Catch.”She threw the bottle of water he had asked for straight to him.
Eric and Dred were up two different ladders installing a new gutter along the front of the house.Devon had brought the second ladder when he had arrived.
Drea walked around the back.New posts and panels replaced the damaged ones.As with the front garden, yard waste was piled up in bags.Cujo and Trent grappled with a tree they’d cut down to a stump.Both were shirtless and were forcing shovels into the hard earth to cut the root ball.
“Overwhelming, isn’t it?”Harper stood beside her.
“The level of testosterone in this yard?”She looked at Harper and laughed.
“Well, yes, that, obviously… but all of it… having a big family.”
Drea nodded, tears stinging her eyes.Harper wrapped her arms around her.A huge testament to how far Harper had come from the abused and scarred woman she’d been two years before.
“I’m sorry, Drea.I never realized how tough things were for you.Too caught up in my own shit.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for.I didn’t really want anyone to know how bad it had become.And you were clearly dealing with your own stuff.I wanted to be there for you.”
“Still, I could have helped more.I feel like a crappy friend.”
“You know, my parents never wanted me around.I’d be consigned to my room.My mom was so wrapped up in him, they’d forgotten about me.I’d make my own meals.Get ready for school by myself.Hell, sometimes I’d even leave to go to school and nobody would notice.”She thought back to her first day of school when she’d begged Mrs.Hernandes to help her cross the street.
“Oh, Drea.No child should have to go through that.”
“I’d watch other parents drop their kids off, kiss them at the gate.”Drea took a deep breath.“I just got used to doing everything by myself.”
“The irony,” Drea continued, “was that when Dad left, I was so used to looking after myself, Mom just let me continue.She’d curse at me occasionally, blame me for Dad leaving.And I let her because I didn’t understand there was absolutely nothing I could have done to change it.”
“Why didn’t you leave?”Harper leaned up against the post at the top of the steps.“I mean, when you were old enough.”
