I point at the trailer. “Yeah. I’ve got a family of five in there.”
“Still as sarcastic as ever,” Kidd jokes.
A minute later, he’s in the perfect position and I hook up the trailer, then walk around and get in the passenger seat. He starts to drive forward I stick my head out the window and wave at Mr. Moutis who is scowling, glad to see me gone. I’ve known him for twenty of my thirty years on this planet and he’s hated me for every single moment of them. “Thanks for a great season, sir.”
He twists his face up like he just passed gas or something and turns and heads into his office. Kidd laughs. “He still hates you.”
“He’s not the only one,” I mutter.
“Well the boys don’t hate you,” Kidd explains. “Although they’re a little pissed that you’ve been in town this whole summer and haven’t hung out with us once.”
“You told the guys I’m back?”
He nods, his greasy brown hair falling into his eyes so he pushes it back. “Yeah. Went out for beers with a couple of them last night. Kyle, Donovan and Ken’s brother Pete. Ken is in jail.”
“Ken’s in jail?” I repeat, shocked. Ken and his brother Pete were some of my closest friends when I was a teenager.
“Yeah,” Kidd shrugs. “He was borrowing money from his work. And product.”
“Where did he work?”
“Same place I do. Super Shop and Slop,” Kidd replies and scowls. “Fucking place pays shit and I’ve been part-time for a year even though they promised me full-time.”
Super Shop and Slop was the nickname we used to give the grocery store that was actually called Super Shop and Save. We used to shoplift from their alcohol section all the time. The owner caught Kidd shoplifting a few times but never called the cops. Still, I’m surprised he’d hire him at all after that. I guess maybe Kidd has changed at least a little. Clearly, Ken hasn’t.
“So now that you know what I’ve been up to, what about you? Where the hell have you been?” Kidd asks as we roll along with the minimal morning traffic. “You just disappeared all those years ago. Like, you weren’t in jail this whole time, were you?”
“No,” I reply and roll down the window to breath the ocean air. “Did my two years in juvie in Augusta. My dad was there to meet me the day I got out. He handed me some cash and told me he’d met a lady and they were in a good place and he didn’t need me messing that up so he wasn’t letting me move home.”
“That’s fucking brutal. I mean I hate my old man and he hates me, but he’s never kicked me out,” Kidd says and I watch his face twist in sympathy.
I shrug. “I was eighteen. It was legal. And honestly, it felt like a relief. So I called my aunt. My mom’s sister. She said I could crash with her in Boston if I paid some rent. I started bouncing in bars and taking community college courses. Then I got into construction. I drifted around New Hampshire and Mass for a while and ended up back here on a job. I remembered how much I liked Maine and Ocean Pines, so I decided to move back.”
“I thought about going into construction, but those hours are insane, especially in the summer,” Kidd replies as he turns toward the beach. “I mean what the hell is the point of living here if you can’t spend your summer days chillin’ on the beach with some brews?”
He grins at me and I force a smile and a nod then look out the window at the passing pine trees. I want to remind him that you aren’t allowed to drink on the beach, but he already knows that he just doesn’t care.
He breaks at a stop sign and slowly starts to make a left-hand turn. He’s being really cautious and I’m appreciative. “You should come join us for beers tonight.”
“You’ll be at the Brunswick, as always?” I ask and he nods. Good, now I know where not to go.
“It’s this one on the right, isn’t it?” Kidd asks and points to the cedar-shingled two-story with the large front porch and the chipped blue trim.
“That’s the one.”
He pulls past it and then carefully starts to reverse, slowly positioning the Airstream on their small parking pad. He does a fabulous job and I sigh in relief that this went so smoothly. He turns off the engine and as we both hop out of his truck to unhitch the trailer, he turns to me. “So what are you doing here again, besides squatting?”
“Jude wants some renos done to the inside and outside of the house,” I explain as I lower the trailer. “Updates to the kitchen and bathroom, new wiring, some new plumbing, appliances, a couple walls removed and paint and trim.”
“He’s letting you do it?”
I nod and wonder if I’ll regret telling him what I’m about to tell him. “I’ve started my own renovations company. He’s my first big job, but I’ve reno’d some kitchens and a couple baths in some other local homes on the side this summer, on top of working for Carter.”
His eyes flare and he gives me a lopsided grin. “No wonder you don’t have a lick of a tan after one of our hottest summers on record. Dude, sucks to be you.”
Oh God, Kidd, you’re hopeless.
“Yeah, well, I’m hoping by next summer the business will be established and I can get some time off,” I say with a shrug. “And have enough cash to help out Bradie.”
