“She’s confident you’ll get it.” He offered me an easy smile. The same one I was sure won my mom over. “She’s so proud of you. She told everyone. So, you know, no pressure.”
I forced out a laugh and glanced away. Uneasiness prickled across my skin. Daniel meant well, but he didn’t know me. He didn’t know how my brain latched on to things to obsess about. This was one of them. I needed that promotion, and right now, I wasn’t sure I was doing a good enough job to get it.
Daniel pointed at wood jutting out of the back of his truck. “Could you help me carry these pieces up to the bedroom?”
I nodded, happy to be put to work.
“Thank you. I’ll be there to help in a second. I need to wake my granddaughter.” Daniel walked up to the truck and opened the passenger side door, revealing a kid who was fast asleep. “Emily Ann.” He gently poked and prodded her.
I’d heard all about the beloved granddaughter but had yet to meet her.
I lifted a large piece of wood before carrying it upstairs to the second floor, where it would be transformed into a closet.
It took a few trips up and down, but eventually we got everything up there.
“Ever built a closet before?” Daniel asked, setting out all the boards. Most of them were already cut to the right size, but there were a few pieces that seemed unaccounted for.
I shook my head.
“I used to be a carpenter.” Daniel looked up at me from where he knelt on the floor. “Many moons ago.”
I knew that. I wasn’t in the least bit surprised Mom paired us on an activity that would highlight his abilities. But Daniel seemed to want my validation.
“Cool,” I said, and when it didn’t feel like enough, I kneeled beside him. “I’ll follow your lead, then.”
I enjoyed working with my hands. It helped silence my mind, which is why I never complained about all the little tasks my mother made me do. On some level, I was sure she knew.
This time, my mind couldn’t rest. There was one thought plaguing me.
I was betraying my dad.
This was something I’d have done with him. My father was a construction worker capable of building anything. I spent years watching him fix things in our house and sometimes other people’s houses.
He should have been the one teaching me.
I didn’t blame him, of course. He certainly hadn’t intended on leaving behind a wife and an eleven-year-old boy who had even fewer social skills than I do now.
My chest ached. Far less than it used to, but it was like the pain in my lower back that sometimes flared up.
Emily Ann, who was now wide awake and fueled on her half-eaten candy bar, bounced into the room and pulled me from the thoughts that were close to consuming me.
“Ma wants to know if anyone wants chai,” she said, and did not even try to avoid staring at me. “Are you Uncle Lincoln?”
Uncle?That was a first.
“Uh, yeah. Are you Kid Emily Ann?”
She giggled and lost her balance but quickly found her feet. “You don’t have to say ‘kid.’ That’s silly.”
“I’m a bit silly.” I shrugged as I fixed the last shelf. “And a bit thirsty.”
“Gotcha,” she said, finger guns popping in my direction and then toward Daniel. “Pops?”
“I’d love a cup, but could you…” Before he could finish his sentence, Emily Ann was gone.
She whooshed downstairs and landed on the first floor with a big thud. “They said yes!”
With the tea came more tasks, and after we finished the closet, we built a TV cabinet and a few floating shelves, nothing that I had on my list for the day.
