Every Other Weekend

by Jaxson Kidman

  Miss Beth met me at the door as I was running late. She was quick to get Sam and broke the ice with ease by asking him about Halloween. She said they were all going to talk about their adventures of the previous night. She looked back at me and winked, giving me the go ahead to get out of there.

  I made it to work with about ten seconds to spare.

  And waiting for me was Mike.

  “I need twenty copies of this,” he said, handing me a folder. “And then we need to pull a few files. I want to check some valuations. You’re good with that?”

  “Of course,” I said with a big smile. “Anything for you, Mike.”

  “That’s what I like to hear,” he said. He started to turn but paused. “How was your kid’s thing?”

  “Halloween?”

  “Yeah.”

  “It was good.”

  “You plan on taking down all the pretend scary crap in my office?”

  “Of course,” I said with an even bigger smile. “Anything for you… Mike…”

  “You’re the best, Jordyn,” he said.

  He finally walked away, and I curled my lip. There were worse jobs in the world to have. That, I had reminded myself of too many times in my life.

  I kept to my normal routine, which had never failed me before to keep the hours moving along. The phones kept ringing. Mike and Bill kept coming and going. Jane was in and out of the office three times. Two times she came back pissed off.

  Then the door opened, and I looked up to see Ramsey standing there. A second behind him was his Uncle Tom.

  I stood up, my eyes wide.

  I hadn’t talked to Ramsey since the day after we were together. Which was something I didn’t, and wouldn’t regret. That was a moment and time of need and it went exactly as I needed it. It was my fault for wanting him to stay. When he didn’t stay, that should have been the big clue hanging in front of me. Yet in some dumb way I thought we’d get together the next day and spend the rest of the weekend together.

  That’s what couples did.

  Ramsey and I were not a couple.

  “Hey, there she is,” Uncle Tom said. “Look at how pretty you are.”

  “Easy, old man,” Ramsey said. “You’re a married man.”

  “Happily married,” Uncle Tom said. “But when you see someone like Jordyn…”

  I swallowed everything down and slapped a smile on my face. “What can I do for you?”

  “I’m here to talk to Bill again,” he said.

  “And you?” I asked, looking at Ramsey.

  “I like the way this place smells,” he said. “So clean and pumpkin spicy…”

  Jerk.

  I placed a call for Bill.

  His office door popped open and he stood with his arms open. “It’s Uncle Tom.”

  “You can call me Thomas,” Uncle Tom said. “We’re not friends, Bill.”

  “Maybe you should call me William,” Bill said with a wink.

  “Maybe we should call another realtor,” Ramsey said.

  “Hey, no need for that,” Bill said. “We have a lot to go over. Good and bad. But that’s life.”

  “You good with this?” Ramsey asked Uncle Tom.

  Uncle Tom looked at me, then at Ramsey. “Yeah. Have at it, son.”

  Have at what?

  Uncle Tom walked toward Bill’s office.

  Ramsey stood at my desk.

  I looked at him and crossed my arms. “I have a lot of phone calls to make.”

  “I’m sure you do,” he said.

  “So, if you don’t mind, go outside and wait for your uncle.”

  Ramsey put his hands flat to the desk. The muscles in his forearms flexing. The tattoos almost coming to life and dancing with the way his muscles moved. He leaned forward.

  “Darling, the only way I’m going outside is if you come with me…”

  “I’m busy.”

  “You’re not doing anything right now.”

  “I’m waiting for you to leave so I can work.”

  He didn’t budge.

  I sat down.

  I pretended like he wasn’t there. I collected files and folders, organizing them as I normally would have. I filled out sticky notes the way Mike and Bill liked it, placing them on the paperwork that needed to be reviewed and signed.

  The entire time - all of a minute - Ramsey just stood there.

  I finally closed a folder and looked toward Bill’s office. “So, you come to meetings and don’t bother to go inside?”

  “Because it’s bullshit.”

  “What is?”

  “Bill sold a piece of land out from under my uncle. Now he’s kissing my uncle’s ass to get in his good graces again.”

  “And your opinion on it?”

  “I think what my uncle wanted to do was crazy. We’re in construction, not developing. I think he was watching too many TV shows late at night. Probably from the heavy sauce Aunt Millie makes. Gave him heartburn so he was up dealing with it.”

  “I don’t think you should mention that to your aunt,” I said.

  “I never would. Hearts and stomachs, right?”

  “Yeah. Right. I remember what she said.”

  Ramsey took a deep breath. “Okay, darling. I wanted to talk to you in private. But I’ll do this here.”

  “Do what?”

  “I stepped too far ahead,” he said. “The night I came into your house. I only wanted to check on you. But when I saw you… that moment… that was the realest you I’ve ever seen.”

  “Sitting on my son’s floor, crying?”

  “Yeah,” he said.

  “And that was a turn on to you?”

  “Everything about you is, Jordyn. I shouldn’t have left when I did. I shouldn’t have talked to you on the phone the way I did.”

  “Is this your attempt at an apology?”

  “Something like that. There was a lot that happened that night. You saw a piece of me that I don’t show anyone. And I saw a piece of you that you don’t show anyone.”

  “Okay. I agree with that.”

  “It wasn’t just a simple situation,” Ramsey said. “Me being a bad kid and all that. It wasn’t just some phase. Or attitude. It was more than that.”

  “What does this have to do with us sleeping together?”

  “I don’t know, darling. I just keep playing everything over and over. Wishing it was all different.”

  “Wishing you didn’t come into my house?”

  “I would never take that back,” he said. “There’s a lot about me… a lot that happened.”

  “Hey, Rams, we all go through a lot in life,” I said. “You’ve seen my life.”

  “Yeah, I know. That’s what has me here. I want to tell you about my brother. My family. What led me to this point here.”

  “Right now?” I asked.

  “You won’t come outside with me.”

  “I can’t just leave work, Rams.”

  Bill’s office door opened with the booming laughter of Bill’s fake, salesman laugh. “I told you we’d get this figured out. You don’t want to be in the business of land, Tom. Believe me. You’re good at what you do.”

  “Meeting’s over,” Ramsey said.

  He inched away and I jumped up. “Wait a second. You can’t do this to me.”

  “Do what?”

  “Come in here and talk like that. You called me the day after we… you know… and you basically didn’t want to see me.”

  “No, darling,” Ramsey said. “I told you to work. I don’t want to fuck up your life.”

  “You’re in it,” I said.

  “I’m not all the way in it,” he said with a grin.

  “Because of Sam.” I touched my forehead. “You have to realize…”

  “No, I don’t,” he said. “I already understand. I just wanted to tell you something about myself.”

  “Then tell me,” I said.

  “I have to get back to work, Jordyn. I know this weekend is no good for you. But if there’s a chance yo
u can get a babysitter, let me know.”

  I sighed.

  What are you doing to me, Ramsey?

  My gut and my brain were arguing, with my heart quietly chiming in, wanting to know more about Ramsey. He accepted me and my flaws. My story. My life. The way I lived because of Sam.

  “It was good to see you, pretty girl,” Uncle Tom said to me.

  “She’s the best, right?” Bill asked.

  I rolled my eyes. Mike and Bill always called me the best when it was convenient for them.

  “You’d better take care of her,” Uncle Tom said. “I have an office that could use someone like her.”

  “You couldn’t afford me,” I teased.

  “Job comes with benefits,” Uncle Tom said.

  My eyes looked to Ramsey, but I hurried to look away.

  “Oh yeah?” I asked.

  “Aunt Millie’s cooking?” Ramsey asked.

  “Now that’s tempting. But with that, comes Ramsey, right?”

  “There’s the bad part of the job,” Uncle Tom said.

  I laughed.

  Ramsey held the door for his uncle as they left the office.

  Bill quickly hurried back into his room.

  I stood there alone and watched as Ramsey walked by the large front window of the realtor’s office. He turned his head once to look at me.

  All I wanted was to see his eyes and feel nothing.

  But that didn’t happen.

  And if I kept going this way with him…

  … there were more than two hearts at stake here.

  “Okay, so I brought him some snacks and juice,” I said as I put my hand on the bag. “I brought some of his cars and trucks. He likes to play with those a lot. If you don’t mind, there’s a show he-”

  “Jordyn,” Brenda said, shutting me up.

  She stood with a neon red coffee mug, her short auburn hair tucked behind her ear. She used to have really long hair and a lot of piercings in her ears. Now the earrings she wore were ones her husband - Charlie - bought her for her birthday, telling her it was from their daughter, Hazel. It was amazing how Brenda went from a wild and free spirit to full Mom mode.

  “Sorry,” I said.

  “I know you never do the babysitter thing with Sam, but just breathe.”

  “I do the babysitter thing,” I said, defending myself. “For work…”

  “This isn’t work.”

  “I know.”

  Brenda put her coffee mug down. “It’s good to see you dating.”

  “It’s not a date.”

  “Right. You’re having me watch Sam, so you can go out with a guy.”

  “Not a guy.”

  Brenda raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

  “Stop,” I said. “I’ve been talking to him for a while. Kind of casual. On the weekends when Sam is with Keith. Okay? I don’t know what’s going on, but he wanted to talk about…”

  “It’s a date, Jordyn. And it’s fine. You’re a human. I know things with Keith didn’t work out, but you can’t hold that over yourself like it’s something horrible.”

  “You have a perfect life here, Brenda.”

  “Far from perfect. Charlie has been working crazy hours. I’m alone most of the time with Hazel. She’s teething and more mobile. Believe me, nobody’s life is perfect. Now go enjoy your date.”

  “Now I feel bad asking for help,” I said. “If you’re having a rough time…”

  “It’s our job, Jordyn. We get to have a rough time. And when I need a break, I take one. Look, I know your main thing is to protect Sam. That’s fine. But you need to take care of yourself. You deserve to be happy with someone.”

  “I don’t want Sam hurt again.”

  “Hurt again? Who said he was hurt to begin with?”

  “He says things,” I said. “Okay? He’s not comfortable with Keith. And seeing his father two times a month? That’s not a relationship.”

  “I agree. But it’s the situation right now. It’s going to keep changing. So just go with it, Jordyn. Go out and have fun. You can let Sam sleep here. He’ll be fine. I have the spare bedroom upstairs. Charlie is in the basement finishing up some work.”

  “I can’t do that, Brenda. But thank you for helping me.”

  I said goodbye to Sam with a kiss to the top of his head. He thought I had a work meeting, which was fine with me.

  I left the house and was happy I had my hoodie and my jacket.

  I was going to need it.

  Where Ramsey wanted to meet… it was outside.

  16

  All These Hearts

  Ramsey

  I took her to the top of town again. I parked my truck so we could sit in the bed and look at the town. But if she got too cold, I’d turn it around so we could sit in the truck with the heat on.

  There were pieces of my life that I would rather have left behind. But that’s not how it all worked. The night I saw Jordyn crying in her son’s room, it was like someone found that old box of memories and kicked it open.

  “Are you too cold?” I asked her as she sat, huddle up tight as we sat next to each other.

  “Nope,” she said. “I’m fine.”

  My feet touched the ground. Hers just dangled off the back of my truck.

  “I told you my brother was down there,” I said. “In the cemetery.”

  Jordyn looked at me and nodded. “Yeah. You mentioned it.”

  I looked down at the town.

  “We always floated along in life, darling,” I said. “My family. It was the four of us. My father was a closet drunk who lost job after job, but he loved us. At least I tell myself that’s how it went. My mother tried to cover everything up with fake smiles and everything else fake. Everything was always fake. Except with Brian.”

  “That’s your brother?”

  “Yeah.”

  “The initials you have tattooed on you…”

  I smirked. “You saw that, huh?”

  “I think I saw a lot more than that,” Jordyn said.

  I loved the way she looked right there in that moment. The hood of her hoodie resting outside the top of her jacket. Bundled up tight, her hair bunched up and messy. But she looked beautiful.

  “He was my little brother,” I said. “By a few years. He was a pain in the ass, to be honest. In some messed up way, my parents dumped him off on me. They weren’t planning on having another kid, but there he was. My mother really started to slip away from us. She wouldn’t drink, but she would just get really dark and lonely.”

  “And your father?”

  “Trying to find work. But that’s hard to do when you have booze on your breath.”

  “Damn, Rams, I’m sorry.”

  “Yeah, well, that’s life. We lived here in this town only because of Uncle Tom and Aunt Millie. Uncle Tom and my father are brothers. I remember being really young and working in the office. Or going to a site with Uncle Tom and playing with a shovel. I tried to take care of Brian. I wanted to work and make money and buy a house for me and him. Uncle Tom wouldn’t hire me.”

  “Why not?”

  “I was a kid,” I said. “But I found other ways to work. Not good ways, Jordyn. I would steal stuff and sell it. Stupid stuff. A kid that didn’t understand anything about life. Brian got older and so did I. My attention turned to girls…”

  “Big shock,” Jordyn said.

  “… his attention was on toys. When he started to realize who our parents were, it was hard to watch him make the connections. Then my mother decided to leave. She packed one bag and left one note for all of us. And she was gone.”

  I rubbed my jaw.

  I was the one who found the note in the morning. I read it a bunch of times, wondering what to do. I decided to throw it out and let everyone think she was kidnapped or something. That would have hurt, but at least there wouldn’t have been the feeling of emptiness from being abandoned. Only I took too long to decide, and my father came into the kitchen and saw the letter.

  “That set my father off
on a wild path,” I said. “He was worse than ever. I managed to get a real job at a restaurant, helping the owner on the side. It was illegal, but we needed the money. I was at work one night, carrying cases of soda and beer from this small and damp basement. Washing dishes. Scrubbing the bathrooms. Anything to make a few bucks. That’s when…”

  I paused, and I jumped from the truck.

  I walked forward a little bit and didn’t feel like finishing the damn story.

  “How did it happen?” Jordyn asked.

  She didn’t chase me down. She didn’t grab my arm and turn me around and force me to look at her. She just sat there, waiting for me.

  “My father got loaded and got sick. Brian got scared and came to get me. He didn’t know the number of the restaurant. He was running, in the dark, alone. He cut between two cars into the street, not thinking about looking.”

  “Oh, no,” Jordyn said, slowly covering her mouth.

  “Yeah,” I said. “I was over in Landsly. Which is a decent thirty-minute walk. I had no idea what Brian was thinking. Just like that, it was all over. He was gone. My mother didn’t even come back for the funeral. As far as I know, she said and did nothing. I don’t even know if she knows or if she’s even alive.”

  “What happened to your father?”

  “He tried to get help but couldn’t figure it out. He died in a car accident a year or so later. The only good thing about it was that he hit a tree and not someone else’s vehicle. That’s when I was on my own. That’s why I kept changing schools, Jordyn. I went wherever my parents went. After Brian died, I had nowhere to release the anger. Then I was thrown into the street and never wanted to leave it. I was going to be put into the foster care system. That’s when Aunt Millie stepped in and said no. Uncle Tom was heartbroken over Brian. And his brother. But I think in some way he always knew my father was destined for that kind of life. He offered him a job all the time, but my father was too bitter and jealous to take it. When they took me in, I wanted nothing to do with them. I stayed out late. I caused trouble. I slept in the cemetery here to be close to Brian. I could never forgive myself for what happened to him.”

  “It wasn’t your fault,” Jordyn said.

  “I was the one in charge of him.”