Ziggy shakes her head, apparently not offended. “She’s sharing an apartment with three friends. Also doesn’t want to move back in with our parents. Even if she’d take those cushions on your porch furniture in a heartbeat.”
Jessica is flopped out on her back in theI’m never moving againposition while Ziggy scratches her belly, murmuring what I recognize as terms of endearment in Spanish.
So Ziggy loves the kitchen. And the sunroom. And the dog.
She fits here better than I do.
Hitting on her is a bad idea.
Fuck, even crushing on her is a bad idea.
But when I picture her sitting on the couch, playing a game on her phone or watching TV, rubbing her belly, bringing new life into this house after all of the sadness it’s seen the past few years?—
Yeah.
I want her to stay here.
I want to know somethinggoodis here.
“There’s a spare car in the garage you can use,” I tell her.
“Your brother’s?”
I wince and look up at the sky, then jerk my thumb behind me. “Other neighbor’s. That side. Had a stroke about four months ago. Didn’t make it. Her kids didn’t need an extra Buick, so they told me to keep it.”
She lifts her head and looks straight at me. “Can I ask you a blunt and possibly awkward question?”
“Five.”
“Five?”
“Five. My brother, the neighbor who was Jessica’s owner, the Buick neighbor, the mailman?—”
“Your mailman?”
“Three houses down. Heart attack while he was delivering mail. I was driving by when it happened. Did CPR. His family gave me a bunch of his paintings as a unique thank-you. They’re in the basement.”
“And the fifth?”
“Dude I knew on my team back in England.”
She stares at me.
I’m not looking at her, but I can feel it.
“Did they give you?—”
“You don’t want to know.”
Yes, they sent me something of his.
They sent me some of his ashes and asked me to scatter them on various rugby pitches across the US.
His dream was to play on every rugby pitch around the globe. Seemed fitting to scatter his ashes as far and wide as they could.
And because I’m me, of course I helped.
Quietly. It’s apparently illegal or something. But dude had a dream, and we’ll all be ash one day anyway, so why not? He had former teammates in at least six other countries who did the same.
