Waking Up

by Renee Dyer

  “Still is a perfect relationship, Kid,” Preston says, looking at her with nothing less than complete admiration on his face.

  “Yes, it still is, Pres. Alex would be proud of what you guys have accomplished.” I can tell that one sentence is like a hammer to the gut for her, but she goes on. “Alex and Preston picked their lots first and, yes, Alahna and I had a say. We all knew we wanted to live here. All of us loved this area. We loved the idea of living back to back, growing old next to the people we knew would always have our backs. We just didn’t expect that one of us wouldn’t make it to the growing old part.” She has to stop. When Preston starts to get up, she holds her hand up to stop him. Everyone stays silent and gives her the time she needs.

  “The guys,” It’s not lost on me that she doesn’t say Alex’s name this time, “they built two houses while they were building our houses so there would be income coming in. Alahna and I were renting a studio in Manchester to start and were doing well. The guys surprised us by building us a studio on Preston and Alahna’s lot. They figured we could have two studios. One in the city and one here with more of a country feel to it. We were thrilled.” She looks at Alahna and the two share a look, a shared memory, maybe of the first time they saw the studio. She gets up and walks over to hug Preston. I feel the loss of her presence instantly, but I think she knew Preston was still feeling the need to comfort her from her earlier comment. She remains there with her hand on his shoulder. He stares up at her with a look of love and relief on his face.

  I can’t imagine what this has been like for him losing one best friend physically and the other emotionally. All I know is that I respect the hell out of the guy for holding it together and taking care of Adriana.

  “The first two houses sold fast. I think the biggest selling feature was the lot size. Every lot had two to three acres. The guys,” Guess she still isn’t ready to say his name, “wanted families to live here and didn’t want people living on top of each other. Lance loved the idea. He thought with the designs and the lots sizes they’d sell.”

  “Isn’t that bad business, though?” I ask before I can stop myself. “Don’t developers try to put as many houses as they possibly can into an area to make as much profit as possible? Isn’t that how they make all their money?” I’m not trying to be rude, but for companies just starting out I don’t understand why they would take the risk.

  “Yes, Tucker, you’re right,” Adriana says. “It could have backfired and bankrupted both companies, but, in the end, every lot sold. Both businesses made money and a great reputation for themselves.”

  “I’m not trying to interrupt you again and you’re not boring me, but I still don’t understand where the others come into this group.”

  She smiles at me like a mom would a child who’s asked “Are we there yet?” one too many times. You know the smile. It’s a strained one.

  “I was just getting there. So, the first few homes sold to couples in their thirties and forties. After they sold, I would deliver a welcome to the neighborhood basket. I kept telling Alex,” Looks like she’s saying his name again, “it would be nice to get some neighbors our age into the neighborhood.” The smirk she gives Deidre lets me know who the next story is about. “About two months after the last sale, the guys tell us they’re going to meet with a young couple to look at the only house available at the time. They had a couple others started and lots being cleared. The guys made it a point to meet with every person interested in buying one of their houses if they could.”

  It’s all about the personal touch, right, babe?” Alahna says, still in Preston’s lap.

  “Absolutely.” He smiles at her, running his hand up her thigh.

  “As I was saying, the guys headed out to meet this young couple. Turns out it was Deidre and Kale. Dee was pregnant with her third child.” I notice the quiver in Adriana’s voice. Were she and Alex trying for a child when he died? “She fell in love with the house and made no secret about it. Her and Kale told the guys that they had two other kids and that they planned on one or two more. The house they were looking at was a four bedroom. Alex and Preston knew one of the houses they were currently building was a six bedroom so they mentioned it to them. Dee and Kale both said they would love a bigger house, but the four bedroom was the max they could get a loan approval for. So, the guys sent them off to keep looking at the house while they cooked up a plan.” Deidre is glancing at Kale with misty eyes. It seems this story still gets her emotional.

  “They could hear Dee gushing over the house while Kale kept trying to tell her to keep quiet.”

  “I really did love that house. It was beyond stunning.” I’m confused by the past tense talk of the house because I thought they all lived in this neighborhood.

  “Alex and Preston really wanted some young families in the neighborhood. Families with kids that would grow up in the development. Better our community. Alex asked Preston if he would be okay with selling the six bedroom they were building for the price of the four bedroom to this couple.”

  “They seemed like a couple who really wanted to live in a nice neighborhood for their kids and Alex was so excited by the idea. I couldn’t say no to him.” Preston shrugs when I look his way

  “Soooo,” Adriana starts again, “Alex called Lance. Luckily the lots were selling like hotcakes and Lance was a good guy. With everyone in agreement, the guys headed back in to talk to Dee and Kale.” Deidre keeps wiping under her eyes obviously affected more as the story progresses. They found them in a bedroom that Dee was saying would make a great nursery. Alex wasted no time telling them that they had a special offer for them and what it was. He was like a little kid, so excited when he came home that night to tell me. When I asked him if the couple accepted the offer he told me, “Hell yeah, they accepted!”, and that Dee was so happy she jumped up and down and hugged him and Preston both and cried. Then apologized to them that her damn pregnancy hormones made her crazy.”

  Deidre chuckled. “I couldn’t believe I was hugging two complete strangers, but they were about to build my dream house. They walked us over to the started house. Only the frame was up, but Alex had drawings in his truck. With the visuals he gave me, I could see my kids running through that house, see our pictures on the walls, see our lives there. I didn’t need the walls in place to visualize how happy we would be. I remember Alex looking at me like he knew exactly what I was thinking. I asked him if he had kids and he said not yet. Said he was still enjoying the newlywed phase and gave me a big smile. A genuine smile, not the fake kind you get from someone just trying to sell you something, but from someone you know is going to be a lifelong friend. I knew that day that Alex was going to be someone we would call our friend.” Her voice was getting more choked up as she talked, but her smile was also getting bigger.

  I got so wrapped up in Deidre’s emotional moment that I lost track of Adriana for the first time tonight. Focusing on her again, it pains me to see she’s slipped back into her lost look. There’s a smile on her face, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. They’re blank. No one else seems to notice. They’re talking about how great Alex was and how he always wanted to help everyone. All the charities he was a part of. They make him sound like a fucking saint. I can easily imagine he was a generous and caring husband, too. And, it makes me want to kick the guy’s ass. Just mess him up a little bit. He seems too damn perfect. But, one look at Adriana stops all my thoughts of Alex and put them where they should be. On her. Her shoulders are slumped. She looks like her world just fell apart and she’s all the way on the other side of the table where I can’t reach out to her. I’m hurting for her and want to take it away, but I can’t go to her without creating a scene.

  “Are you going to tell me how you met the rest of the group now?” I blurt out. The look she gives me is one of pure relief. I’m not sure why, but I’m hoping it’s because there won’t be much more talk about Alex and not because I don’t want to hear about him anymore. I think she’s had about as much as she can take.


  “Sure. Preston’s crew finished up the house. Dee and Kale closed on it and moved in. She was about seven months pregnant, I think.” She looks over at Deidre who shakes her head yes. “As I said before, I brought a welcome basket to all the new members of our neighborhood. I would put goodies I baked, a map of the neighborhood, a bottle of wine, and a list of local emergency numbers, poison control, local restaurants, and my and Alex’s numbers. It’s probably silly, but I thought it was scary moving somewhere new so I wanted them to have local information and the number to reach someone local if they needed to.” I didn’t think it was silly at all. I thought it was extremely thoughtful just like her offering to let me stay. Grams would love her. Whoa… Where the hell did that come from? I haven’t even known this chick for twenty-four hours. There’s no way she’s meeting Grams.

  Not that she’d want to anyway.

  “You still with me, Tucker? Tucker?”

  “Hmmmm. Oh yeah. I was trying to picture what kind of goodies you put in the basket,” I lie.

  “Oh. Well, that depended on the time of year people moved in. Dee and Kale moved in in late September so I made applesauce muffins.”

  “And they were delicious,” Kale says. “When can you make me some more? They’re still my favorite.”

  “Maybe this week. They’re pretty easy to whip up.”

  “Thanks, Adri. Too bad I have so many mouths I have to share them with,” he says with an exaggerated pout.

  Adriana grins. “Don’t worry. I’ll make a double batch. Ok. Back to meeting Dee. While the muffins cooled, I pulled myself together. I was so nervous. I’ve never been good about meeting people, but I’d been working on it. Especially because I had the business now with Alahna. I put her basket together and headed out. As I was walking over to their house, I was fretting the entire way. I’ve always been one to call first, but I didn’t have their number. Alex didn’t have it like he had the others. I was hoping I wouldn’t offend them or that they wouldn’t be there. I had pre-written a card so I could leave the basket on the porch. When I walked up the driveway, I saw movement inside and my hopes of leaving the basket were dashed.” I want to laugh at her being this nervous about bringing a welcome basket to a neighbor, but I can see by her description that the awkwardness was very real for her. “My heartbeat sped up every step I took closer and by the time I climbed the last step, I thought for sure my heart was going to pound right out of my chest and knock on the door for me.” I can’t help it. I laugh at that one. She looks at me with a small smile that lets me know she knows she was a little crazy back then, too.

  “I stood on her porch for a minute or two trying to gain my composure and finally just had to bite the bullet. I gathered all my courage and rang the doorbell.” I can picture her standing there all shy hoping that the person inside ignores the ringing doorbell. This thoughtful, kind woman who brings welcome baskets to new neighbors and welcomes strangers into her home. My angel. In a world full of madness, I’ve found an angel.

  “The door opens and there’s Dee with her baby belly greeting me. I was in awe of her. You hear about woman who are meant to be pregnant. That glow with the beauty of pregnancy. Well, Dee is one of these women. Her hair looked like the sun was shining through it and her skin was glowing in a way that wasn’t possible with creams or by going to the spa. It was like she had been touched by Heaven. Her brown eyes smiled at me when she asked if she could help me with something. It took me a second to remember why I was there and then I just kind of shoved the basket at her. I think I squeaked out, “Welcome to the neighborhood.” Her damn pregnancy hormones kicked in and tears sprang to her eyes.”

  Deidre starts laughing, but her eyes are misting over again. “Hey, I pulled it together enough to invite you in and make us tea. Decaf of course. Don’t leave out the best part though, Adri. Tell Tucker what you offered to do for me. It was so sweet. Alex wasn’t the only one with a big heart. There’s a reason they were together.” The words are out before Deidre can stop them and I see regret flitter across her face. Kale grabs her hand.

  “I was getting there, Dee. I would have been done telling this a long time ago if there weren’t so many interruptions.” I see her joking for what it is. A way to cover up the hurt in her heart over the last comment made. This time I think everyone is seeing through her façade. “Alrighty then. As I walk into her house, I see everything is unpacked and the house is fully decorated. They’ve only been there a couple days so I ask her about it. She admits she’s a bit OCD about being organized and couldn’t take the boxes being everywhere. I told her that her and Alahna would get along great. As the water heats up for tea, I tell her a little about the neighborhood. That Alahna and Preston are the only other couple in their twenties and that they’re my and Alex’s best friends. She tells me her and Kale have been together since high school.” I notice again how her hands animate every story she tells. It’s cracking me up that she’s almost cuffed Preston more times than I can count because she’s still standing behind him. I wish she was back sitting beside me, but I’m finding humor in watching her. If Eddie was here I’d start a bet with him as to how long before she ends up smacking Preston.

  “As we’re getting to know each other a little over tea I keep noticing how beautiful she is. Not in a lesbian way as you pervy guys may be thinking, but from an artist’s eye. I kept thinking I wish I had my camera with me. She was inspiring. Dee must have caught me gawking at her a time or two because she asked me if she spilled something on herself.”

  “That stomach of mine was a food and drink magnet. My maternity clothes always looked like they had gone through food land mines. Regardless of what Adri is telling you, I looked a mess most of the time.” Adriana is looking at her incredulously. Women never seem to see themselves for how beautiful they are so I’m not surprised that Deidre didn’t see herself the way Adriana did.

  “Anyway, I apologized for my rudeness and staring and explained that I was a photographer and that she was positively glowing. That from the moment I walked into her home, I could think of nothing else but photographing her and hoped I didn’t sound like a total creeper.” I can’t help the laugh that escapes my lips. Adriana really doesn’t see how adorable and sweet she is. I’ve been around a few pregnant women on the sets I’ve worked and I know they would have loved to have had someone say to them what Adriana said to Deidre. “I told her I’d take the pictures for free as a welcome to the neighborhood. That she could come look at my portfolio any time. When she turned into a sobbing mess, I thought I totally messed up.”

  “It wasn’t that at all,” Deidre said wiping a tear from her cheek. “Being pregnant you feel so fat and unattractive. You made me feel as beautiful as you said I was. And the pictures… oh… they were just… stunning.” She has to catch her breath for a minute and I wonder if she’s always this emotional. “Adri introduced me to Alahna before the shoot and asked if I’d be okay with her helping. We hit it off right away so I didn’t mind. Watching them work together was something. They’re like a well-oiled machine. Just know what the other needs done before the other can ask. It was effortless and the end result was… wow! Kale was so surprised.”

  “Yeah I was! It was the first pictures of the kids professionally taken and I couldn’t believe they behaved long enough to snap one picture let alone a series of them, but the one that got me was the boys kissing Dee’s stomach. Almost dropped me to my damn knees.” I could picture it and I wanted that in my life. A wife, kids, a baby in her belly, the family pictures, all of it. I’d never wanted it more than I did watching all these couples so in love with each other.

  “That was all Adri’s idea,” Alahna pipes in. She speaks. Getting her to share personal details is like pulling teeth and I find myself most intrigued with her story because Adriana gave no detail on her.

  “Those weren’t the only pictures that almost dropped Kale to his knees.” Deidre beams at Kale and the look of passion that comes across his face tells me this should
be interesting. “Knowing I was feeling fat and insecure the girls took some risqué pictures of me that I wasn’t sure about at first. But they were feminine and I was covered in all the places I needed to be and they made the pictures feel so… Oh shit, I don’t know what word I’m looking for.”

  “Hot,” Kale fills in for her. “They were hot as hell and those pictures were just for me.”

  Tucker watches as Adriana blushes at the compliment and Alahna smiles at her, pride evident in her eyes. Deidre was right in her earlier statement. Alex wasn’t the only one who does nice things for people. Maybe she was also right about there being a reason they were together. They’re both fucking saints. Me staying here is so not a good idea.

  I need to stop my thoughts from spiraling out of control before my anger rushes to the forefront and I do something I’ll regret. Who hasn’t she told me about? Oh yeah. Firecracker I think with a mental smile. “How’d you meet Mickayla?”

  “Get ready for a fucking trip,” Mickayla belts out. “My story is a good one.” She winks at me.

  “Somehow I don’t doubt that.” I wink back at her earning a slight scowl from Blake. Hmmm. Me thinks he has some jealousy issues. Interesting. He obviously doesn’t see that his woman is completely devoted to him.