“Who the fuck is this?” he growls.
“Hey, Kidd. I am so sorry to wake you up,” I tell him. “It’s Holden. I have a bit of an emergency.”
“Oh. Hey, Hendricks,” he yawns. “Dude it’s like predawn or something.”
“Yeah,” I don’t correct him. “But you said you were looking for work and I have an emergency job. Just a one-time thing, but if you help me I’ll give ya fifty bucks.”
I’m really hoping that’s enough to lure him out of bed because I don’t have much more to give him. All the money I’ve saved this summer living in this dump and working construction I invested in my new business. And it’s paying off because I booked my first big job—which starts tomorrow—but this, having to rely on Kidd, is a price I have to pay.
“Anything before noon requires a seventy-five buck fee, doesn’t it?” Kidd replies.
“Sure. Seventy-five,” I agree through gritted teeth because I have zero options. “And it’ll take you only about twenty minutes and then you can go back to bed.”
“Okay. What do you need?”
“I need you to haul my trailer,” I explain, leaning against the counter. “Just like a mile or so. The park is closing for the season. I lent my truck to my sister who was stuck in Boston and took the bus back so I can’t haul it myself.”
“Okay,” he says easily. “Where to?”
“I’m staying in the driveway of a job I’m doing over the next few months,” I explain. “The Braddock cottage.”
“Seriously?” Kidd questions and lets out a raspy chuckle. “You’re staying at Larry’s place? She hired you? She sure as hell didn’t look like someone who would hire you yesterday. She looked like someone who would kill you. Bare-handed. And with a smile on her face.”
“Yeah, she didn’t hire me,” I explain and scratch my beard. “Jude did. I guess she’s not happy with it. Anyway, I doubt she’s going to be in the place very long. Jude said the house would be empty all off-season so she’s probably leaving any day now.”
“Okay, whatever,” Kidd replies. “I’m getting up now and I’ll be there in like an hour.”
“Make it twenty minutes and I’ll pay you a hundred bucks,” I counter.
“See you in twenty.”
I end the call with Kidd. I want to call Jude and double-check that it’s still okay to park my trailer, and my life, in his driveway while I do the job, but it’s just after four in the morning in San Francisco so I can’t. So instead, I put my phone down and head into the bathroom for a quick shower before I secure the trailer contents for the move.
Kidd shows up forty minutes later, which is not as late as I expected him to be, and gives Mr. Moutis an exaggerated friendly wave as he pulls in. I try not to crack a grin at that. He swings his truck around so he’s in front of the trailer near the hitch. I pull in the awning as he gets out of his truck and walks over to me. “This is really where you’re going to live from now on?”
“It’s where I’ve been living,” I say. “And where I’ll continue to live for the next few months. I’ll probably move back into a house or apartment or something by Christmas.”
“You better,” Kidd advises. “This thing is not going to keep you warm in a nor’easter.”
Right. The infamous New England snowstorms. I nod and secure the awning to the side of the trailer. “I wasn’t planning on staying in it through the winter.”
“I’m on the verge of getting kicked out of my place,” Kidd explains to me. “My girlfriend has turned into a total tight-ass since we had a kid.”
I turn to him in surprise. “You have a kid?”
He nods, but he’s frowning as he walks over to the truck again. “Yeah.”
“Congrats,” I say, but it sounds hollow because clearly he’s not happy about it.
“Thanks,” he pauses before climbing in the truck again. “He’s a cool little dude. We named him Buck. But like, now my girlfriend does nothing but bitch about how I need to make more money.”
“Well you’re about to make seventy-five bucks,” I say as he climbs in the truck. “That’s something.”
“You said a hundred,” Kidd corrects.
“If you got here in twenty but you got here in forty,” I remind him and he swears but doesn’t argue. He starts the truck and sticks his head out the open window as he backs up, watching me as I guide him toward the hitch with hand signals.
“What about you?” Kidd calls back to me. “Kids? Wife?”
