I swiped my phone off the counter and said to Anna, “You ready?”
“Yup.” She smiled, her backpack over her shoulders.
Si handed her an identical scrambled egg sandwich. She pushed up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “Thanks.” Then she disappeared outside.
“Oh,” He rubbed his forehead, still looking a little sideswiped by Anna’s glow-up. “I fixed the tension on your inversion table.”
My hand pressed against my heart, and I almost went to hug him. But he was clearly struggling this morning. With everything. So I just said, “Thank you, friend.” It seemed completely inadequate after months of trying to fix it myself. Carpet cleaning, cooking yummy food, fixing broken things…I had to step it up.
His eyebrow lifted. “I’ll be at the ranch if you need anything."
“I won’t. Have fun.” I smiled and gave him the peace sign as I opened the door. He responded with a half-hearted wave and a typical Silas grimace. I pulled the door shut behind me.
Anna and I had a pact anytime we drove anywhere, and it was this: Crank the radio up as loud as possible and sing at thetop of our lungs. Before I had my seat belt in place, one of Anna's favorite female singers—streaming from the bluetooth off of my phone—blasted through the speakers.
Another text from Billy interrupted our jam.
Billy: I’m coming over tonight. We need to talk this out. What time works for you?
Anna’s lips pursed. “Tell him I said he’s a zero, and he’s going bald. And to get some rizz.”
I snorted but put:
Me: How about never o’clock. Don’t bother. The chain will be on the front gate. Stop texting me.
“Eh. It’ll do.” She shivered. “He’s such an ick.”
She wasn’t wrong. I still couldn’t believe I’d been married to someone that terrible as long as I had.
I put my phone on Do Not Disturb before he could text again. I’d need that on when the barre class started, anyway.
With one hand I drove and with the other, I stuffed the egg and ham sandwich into my mouth. Anna bit into hers at the same time.
She moaned and her eyes grew quarter-sized. “That is bussin’.”
I groaned and set mine down on the foil wrapper. Something about the texture of the eggs was repulsive. I swallowed slowly, hoping it would get better once it was no longer in my mouth. Nope. Nausea churned in my stomach. But maybe it had just been the first bite and the rest would be fine. Si had made it for me. I had to eat it. I would be ungrateful if I didn’t.
I jammed the sandwich into my mouth and took another bite. I was going to get this thing down, whether my stomachliked it or not. I plugged my nose as I chewed. Daddy had taught me that trick when Momma made me eat collard greens. Ticked Momma off, but I got them down.
Anna sniffed the air, searching for a bad smell.
My gut revolted at my attempt to overpower it, twisting and contracting in hard, powerful waves. Okay. That was stupid. I shouldn’t have forced it. I set the sandwich back in the foil and balled it up, done.
“Lemon?” Anna whined. “I’m gonna be late.”
I’d slowed to a crawl without realizing it. I punched the gas and focused on taking some deep breaths. My stomach was a rolling boil. I scanned the fence lines to distract myself.
It worked for a moment. But only because of the miracle spread out before me.
Like another little gift, it became glaringly apparent that Silas’s “errands” weren’t errands at all. He’d spent the morning fixing all the broken wire on the two fence lines straddling the driveway. Every last foot. My mind whirled along with my stomach. Sweat drops rolled down my cleavage. I turned the A/C up full blast.
“That’s freezing,” Anna shrieked over the diva's declaration of revenge. The overpowering base seemed to egg my stomach on.
I smacked the volume knob off and focused on breathing. Inhale and exhale. Four in, eight out. Just like we taught in our flexibility class.
Hot tears formed, and I wasn’t sure if it was the overwhelming gratitude about the fences or the vomit that threatened to erupt into my esophagus like an angry volcano.Distract. Distract. Distract.
How did Silas know where the extra wire was? Or the crimps? Or the fencing tool?
