Turning that last corner, the house came into view and the sheer magnitude of the job that lay ahead of me came crashing down.
There were things I would want to keep. Mementos of the dad whom I wouldn’t talk to again. Sadness was no reason to let the things rot. I wanted the house to be ready to sell the minute all the paperwork was finalized so I could unload it before I left. Then I’d never come back. Though that thought made me even more sad, if that was possible.
“Dylan, wait up, buddy,” Zac called from the far side of his house. I’d successfully avoided him for all of three hours, but with him right next door, running into him again was inevitable. “Whoa,” he said as he pulled Dylan back from running right into me. I’d been so deep in thought that I hadn’t even seen him coming.
“We gonna miss it, Daddy.” The kid squirmed in Zac’s strong arms.
“No, we won’t. It’s coming around the corner.”
Glancing over my shoulder, the ice cream truck rounded onto our street as the melody played calling kids from every corner of the neighborhood. It had once called to me daily. Dylan wriggled his way out of his dad’s grasp and bolted right to where the truck stopped. A mass of kids swarmed like it was the beacon of God and they were disciples.
I couldn’t help but smile as I watched the kids excitedly tell the Ice Cream Man their choices. This was the simple life of the neighborhood I’d missed when we left.
The chatter from Zac’s yard was the only thing that diverted my attention from the kids, but there wasn’t a chance in hell I’d look over to see who was there. Heat burned at my skin from more than the actual heat outside. Knowing that some of the voices bellowing from Zac’s yard would’ve included some of the people who stopped talking to me years ago caused some anger to rise up inside me. It shouldn’t have mattered and yet it did.
“I can’t believe that thing still comes around,” I said with a smile as Dylan and Zac came back by me.
“Yeah, every day. Same time.” Zac smiled back.
“I wonder if it’s the same ice cream pops from when we were kids. Do those things expire?”
He laughed. “Not sure. But let me know.” He swung a hand from behind his back to present me with an orange sherbet push-up. The exact same thing I’d always gotten when we were younger. “I wasn’t sure if you still liked these or not.”
“Still my favorite. Thanks.” I smiled again and took it from him because honestly, it was hot and the ice cream would help cool me down. Not to mention there wasn’t much left at the end of my massive clean out of the fridge and cupboards and I was getting hungry.
“No problem.”
A car pulled up to a stop near where we stood. There was no chance I could look away from his dark eyes, though. No way. I could feel myself forgiving him for dropping me like a hot potato, so I hardened everything inside me. He wasn’t getting off that easy—if at all. I didn’t need him to be my friend anymore. I had others. But seeing him now made me realize how much I’d missed him.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dylan skipping toward the house with ice cream dripping down his arm. Something about seeing him being a kid warmed my heart.
“Hey. Sorry I have to pick him up a day early, but with the birthday party… ” a woman said as she got out of the car and walked nearer to us. “Oh, sorry. Didn’t know you had company.” The voice was too familiar. When I finally looked over, I found Maddie Preston, former second-best friend. Light brown hair a couple of shades lighter than in high school, still darker than mine. Back then she’d made me feel mousy because of how put together she’d always been. Of course, by now I’d discovered highlights and loved the long hair I’d grown, but back then… not so much. Her sparking hazel eyes tinged with surprise. “Oh my god. Laney?”
“Hey, Maddie.” Since she was a good four inches taller than me, she wrapped her arms around my neck, squeezing until I couldn’t breathe. My entire body stiffened and I did not hug her back. My arms lay limply to my side. “Maddie… ”
“Sorry.” She pulled back. “What are you doing here?”
“Mr. Douglas died,” Zac answered for me, but I was surprised he hadn’t already told her. I knew it’d only been a few hours since I told him but after finding out she was his baby mama, I figured he’d tell her as soon as he got home.
“I’m so sorry.” Her face fell completely from the happy, surprised, wide-eyed smile to a frown. She moved slightly toward me with her arms extended, clearly wanting to hug me again.
Thankfully, she didn’t. Maybe she’d picked up on how uncomfortable that first hug really had been for me. I couldn’t just pretend the last four years hadn’t happened.
The thing about Maddie and me was that we’d been friends. Actual friends. Not-do-each-other’s-hair-and-paint-nails-while-talking-about-boys kind of friends, but we’d hung out. As the only two girls in a group of guys, we’d had to have each other’s backs. Besides, in high school, I’m pretty sure each of us would have punched someone in the face for trying to do our hair. That wasn’t us.
“So, I’m gonna go,” I said once the tension hanging in the air became too much.
“Oh, no, you don’t have to do that. I just need to grab Dylan, then I’ll be out of your hair.”
“Grab Dylan?”
“It was my weekend,” Zac explained.
I just nodded, even though I wasn’t sure what that meant. I assumed he meant visitation, but he hadn’t told me that he and Maddie weren’t together. This whole situation was confusing me yet I wanted to figure out the dynamics.
Right then, Dylan came running out of the house with a backpack flopping around him, right into his mother’s arms. The kid was cute. I had to give them that.
“Hey, we’re all getting together Thursday at Mac’s. You should come,” Maddie offered.
Mac’s was the small bar on our side of town where our group had spent more time than we should have in high school. Mac had never served us, but he hadn’t kicked us out, either. The invitation was Maddie’s attempt to pretend everything was fine between all of us.
“Uh… I don’t know. We’ll see.” I wasn’t sure how far into their lives I wanted to get. After all, they’d dropped me when I moved. We’d had phones. It wasn’t like contacting me meant sending a telegram by Pony Express. The maybe I gave her seemed to hold her over because Dylan hugged his dad and they left.
“So you and Maddie aren’t… ” I couldn’t not ask, even if it made me want to punch myself in the face.
“We aren’t together. Actually, we weren’t really together then. But we made Dylan together, so we’re raising him. Co-parenting. It’s all completely grown up.” So many questions swirled in my head, but not being friends anymore meant I shouldn’t ask them. “Hey, is it weird being back?” he asked.
I sighed. “Yeah, I’m just trying to get used to being here again. Haven’t done much yet. I did clean out the fridge, though. That was nasty.”
A deep laugh rumbled in his chest then he said, “If you need any help, let me know.”
“Thanks.” There was no way in hell I’d ask him for help. But it was nice that he’d offered.
This was my problem to deal with. I’d never been big on asking for help, though I wouldn’t have hesitated to ask Zac before I moved. That had been then. Now I’d manage on my own.
This summer break promised to be long and unhappy surrounded by people who’d stopped being my friends for reasons I didn’t know. Instead of getting a job as I’d planned, one fell into my lap. The unpaid job of cleaning out my dead father’s house in a town that I thought I’d never return to.
I’d always wanted to know and understand why Maddie and Zac had stopped talking to me, but now that I had the opportunity to find out, I wasn’t sure I wanted the reasons why.
Chapter Three
After four days of running out to grab a meal here or there, it was time to buck up, leave the house for more than twenty minutes at a time, and go to the grocery store. Wednesday seemed as good of a da
y as any, but I somehow found a way to waste the day. TV had gotten really interesting. And it really was wasting time because I didn’t start on the house or bills or anything. I sat there staring at a blinking screen without seeing it. The only thing I accomplished was calling waste management to see if trash pickup was the same. Luckily for me, it was and as long as I got it to the curb by ten in the morning, I should be golden.
Which was why I called right at eight.
However, when I went to the garage to get the bags I’d put out, there they were gone. Which didn’t make sense. Who would come into a garage and just take trash?
No one.
Not even in our neighborhood where people did do some weird shit. Before jumping to any conclusions, though, I thought I’d look around. Sure enough, I found three bags, mine plus the one that must’ve been there when Dad had left, sitting on the curb.
There was only person I could think of who would put the trash out that morning. I had no idea why Zac was being so nice, other than the fact that my dad had died. I suppose that could’ve been it. Either way, one less thing for me to do. And I didn’t even want to think about how he’d gotten in there without the key. The garage was always locked.
After that excitement, I decided to start on some paperwork. Seemed reasonable. Paying the electric bill and other regular expenses shouldn’t remind me of Dad too much, right? Wrong. His name was on everything, which somehow brought up one memory or another.
Dad hadn’t been wealthy by any means, but he and Mom had done OK. Better than a lot in our neighborhood and that didn’t change after they split. Then Mom remarried two years ago and things had been even better for us. Dad had still insisted on paying what he’d called “his share.” Not because he’d had to, but because he’d wanted to. The thought of that almost brought me to tears, but I pushed anything that wasn’t bill-related out of my head and focused.
I’d been getting good at burying the things I didn’t want to face.
He’d been gone a month and I was pretty sure some bills were going to be overdue. Turned out he’d paid everything right before coming to see me, so nothing was technically late, but I still pulled out his checkbook and scribbled those babies out. He’d added me to his checking account when I moved so he could send me a check when I needed something and I could use it to pay. Such as school expenses.
Once I was done with that, I balanced the checkbook. Seemed like there was enough in there to keep the house running until I left at the end of summer. Hopefully by then, I would have sold it, so I wasn’t overly concerned. I had money for my personal expenses from my on-campus job while I at school. Mom had also given me a tidy sum for my trip.
All in all, things looked good. As good as they could financially anyway.
Finally around seven, I needed to get my butt out of the house. I’d already ignored three calls from Rhian because she’d asked too many questions about Zac when I stopped at her place. No need to revisit all that. Though the threat of violence in her last voicemail meant that I should call her back at some point. The fact that she hadn’t sent even one text really meant I should because she meant business. But hey, a girl needs groceries.
I wasn’t two steps off the porch when Zac called over to me. It was like he’d sat there watching my house waiting for me to step outside. Which was ridiculous and made me sound conceited.
“Where are you off to?” he asked, jogging over.
“Grocery store.”
“I’ll go with you.”
No way. “I’m a big girl. I don’t need an escort.”
“Hey, I have needs, too. Come on.” That last part almost sounded like a plea.
Obviously, he wasn’t taking no for an answer and headed off toward my car. I guess I wasn’t shopping alone.
Being close to him was a weird thing. I craved it in some ways and cringed in others. And being in the confined space of my car was a little slice of hell on Earth. I had so many questions but didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of asking. I wanted to know things. Specifically what I’d done wrong to make him stop talking to me. As far as I could tell, I’d done nothing.
It might have been my imagination, but the grocery store looked exactly the same. The same people worked there, as far as I could tell. Zac pulled a cart out of the line and off we went. I needed everything because there hadn’t been a thing left after I’d cleaned out the fridge. As I first put items in, he picked up one here and there I think just to make it seem like he really needed to come here. But we were still in that uncomfortable silence. Neither of us had said anything since getting in my Jeep.
“How long’s it been, Laney?” he finally asked. I knew he was talking about Dad because I hadn’t answered that question before. And if he was talking about anything else, he wasn’t getting an answer.
“A month. He came to see me right after the semester ended in April and I moved back to Mom’s. That night we were at dinner and… ” I swallowed hard. “He clutched his chest. It was sort of like in the movies, but so, so much worse.”
“I’m sorry you had to see that,” he said with soft, sincere words. Outside of ending our friendship, I’d never known him to be cruel. Compassionate, yes. Hot as all get out, obviously. Mean, not so much. Whatever happened to our friendship he still had empathy for me.
I shrugged. “I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. It means I got to spend his last minutes with him. They pronounced him dead in the emergency room an hour later. He never regained consciousness.”
“Fuck, that sucks.”
“Yeah.” I grabbed some microwavable mac and cheese off the shelf. When I glanced over at Zac, he gave me a look like I’d just put pink slime in the cart. “What?” I said. “I’m a college student. This how we eat.” He shook his head but gave me a small smile. “I plan on getting some fruit and vegetables if that makes you feel any better,” I added.
“Maybe a little.” We turned to the next aisle, but I didn’t need anything down there. “So why no funeral?”
“Man, you want everything all at once, don’t ya?” I took a deep breath. I figured if I told Zac, he could pass it along to everyone else so I wouldn’t have to. While it might not be fair of me to put that on him, I couldn’t be bothered to care. I didn’t want to relive that over and over. “Apparently, he and Mom were still each other’s person after they got divorced. Mom knew what he wanted and he didn’t want a funeral. He wanted to be cremated and she and I are to decide what to do with the ashes. That’s it. Mom also had the contact information for the few friends Dad wanted informed. I guess he figured I’d tell everyone around here when I came to clean out the house. But I don’t think he thought I’d take so long for me to get here. Sorry about that. I know you guys loved him, too. I just couldn’t… ”
“I understand, Laney. Everyone will get it.”
We headed through two more aisles in silence. But now it was my turn. I knew he had a kid with Maddie, but nothing else about his life.
“What about you? What have you been up to the last four years?”
“Just trying to be the best dad I can be. I wanted Dylan to have someone like your dad and not like mine.”
Zac’s dad was an asshole. He wasn’t even an asshole who had a reason to be an asshole. He was just not a nice guy and didn’t care who knew it. Although to my knowledge, he’d never put his hands on Zac, his sister, or his mom, so I supposed there was that.
“Yeah, but where do you work? How’s your sister? If you’re not with Maddie, do you have a girlfriend who’s going to want to fight me because you took me grocery shopping?” I smiled at the last part. I may have grown up in a not-so-great part of town, but I’d never been in a fist fight in my life.
He dropped his head back with such a full laugh that I immediately wanted to hear it again. In that moment, it was like no time had passed.
“Well, I work at the auto parts store—”
“Joe’s?”
“Yeah. He says he wants to retire but is going t
o wait until I can afford to buy the place from him. I’ve been living cheap and pretty much just spending what I need to for Dylan, but I don’t know.” He shrugged. Obviously, he wanted to but the shop but didn’t want to admit it in case it didn’t happen.
“I can see that. You know more about anything with a motor than most mechanics.”
“Yeah, and Joe is kind of famous for getting hard-to-find parts for classic cars and shit. That’s where he makes a lot of his profit. I’ve been tracking down those parts for years.” He’d worked there after school as soon as he’d turned fifteen.
“You’ll make it happen,” I said because it was true.
Zac could make his dreams come true. I always admired that and tried to mimic it when we were younger. It never worked for me. I couldn’t make my parents not get divorced, couldn’t get my friends to stay in touch with me after I’d moved, and I sure as hell couldn’t get Zac to notice me as anything other than his best friend next door.
“Darby’s good,” he continued but moved on to talking about his family. “She got married a few years ago and moved up north.” Darby was a good five years older than Zac, so her being married didn’t surprise me. Nor did her moving away. That was the dream in East Branch.
We finally made it to the produce section, where I picked out just a little bit of several things. I was only one person and didn’t want anything to go to waste. My appetite also hadn’t been the best since Dad had died.
“And the answer to your other question is no. No girlfriend. I’ve dated, had one or two sort of girlfriends since you left, but nothing permanent or semi-permanent.”
“Same old, same old?” I nudged him with my shoulder.
“Something like that.” He pushed back a bit harder, which almost sent me into the apple display because I hadn’t been expecting it. Once I steadied myself, I looked over to find him smiling at me. “Not everybody wants to date a single dad and I don’t let other people get in the way of my time with Dylan. What about you? Since you came alone, I figure there’s no guy.”
Last Good Thing (The Fallout Series Book 1) Page 2
