by Liz Talley
“Oh, my Lord,” Addy muttered before looking around for her gardening clogs. She found them beneath the desk, quickly slid them on, and took off for the back door.
Seconds later she shouted at the boys, “Hey, cut it out!”
But either they didn’t hear or didn’t care they’d been discovered. They didn’t stop grunting, punching, and rolling around before popping up and tackling each other again.
Chris’ lip bled and Michael’s shirt was torn at the collar.
“Stop it,” she yelled again, reaching toward the nearest boy and catching only air. “Chris. Michael. Stop now!”
She heard the heavy pounding of feet coming her way and knew it was Lucas.
The large man grabbed each kid by the upper arm, ripping them apart before giving them a shake. “What in the hell are you two doing?”
“I’m kicking his ass,” Michael shouted, jabbing a finger toward his younger brother, who was crying.
“No, you’re not,” Lucas said, letting each of the boys go but keeping himself firmly between them.
“It’s not my fault,” Chris said, choking as he said it. The kid needed to go into acting. He could summon tears at the drop of a hat and he had the wounded victim expression down pat. “He attacked me, and I didn’t do nothing.”
“Yeah. Sure you didn’t,” Michael said, straightening the shirt bunched up around his skinny torso. Hair flopped into his eyes and a bruise looked to be forming on his cheekbone.
“Hush, Chris,” Lucas said before looking over at her. “Thanks for coming to break this up.”
“I didn’t do much good. They’re nearly as big as me.”
She should go back home, but she didn’t. Though she’d never before interfered in the lives of her neighbors, she felt she was needed here. Strike that. She knew she was needed here.
“Okay, Michael, what’s going on?”
The thirteen-year-old gave his uncle a withering look, turned, then stomped toward the front of the house effectively telling them all to go to hell without even opening his mouth.
Lucas locked his mouth into a tight line, his eyes betraying disbelief over the lack of respect. He released Chris and started toward the front of the house.
“Lucas,” Addy said.
He turned.
“Let me go. You take care of Chris.”
“Hell, no, I’ve have enough of his disrespect. He’s acted like a turd since the moment I arrived, and I’m done with him.”
“Look, let me try first. Okay?”
The man stood for a moment, shoulders tense, before finally taking a deep breath. “Okay.”
Addy walked to the front of the house and found Michael sitting on the porch steps. Obviously, the shady location was the go-to spot for calming down. Except Michael didn’t look calm. With his forearms propped on his knees and his jaw firmly set against the emotion he obviously battled, he looked anything but calm. He looked more like a kid about to lose it.
“Hey,” she said, hoping he wouldn’t bolt… or turn his anger on her.
“Hey,” he ground out, not looking at her, staring out into the last fingers of sunlight stretching toward the darkening sky.
“I’m guessing you’re not okay?”
“That obvious?”
Addy climbed the steps and sat down beside him. “I know you don’t know me. Sometimes it just helps to talk to someone who you don’t know so well. If that makes sense.”
“I’m pretty sure you’re not going to fix the shit storm Chris just caused on my snapchat story. And you can’t call my mom and tell her to stop treating me like a baby. I don’t know. Can you heal my father and bring him home? Or maybe you have the power to turn back time so everything is like it was months ago?”
Yeah, she probably couldn’t help with any of that. “No. I can’t do that. But I can listen.”
Michael grunted and stared out toward the streetlights.
“You know about your father?” she asked.
“Do I look totally stupid? You think I don’t know this has something to do with his getting injured overseas? I heard my mom talk to my dad weeks ago. She wanted to fly into Germany, and he wouldn’t let her. He wanted her to stay with us. So what happened to make her leave?”
“I don’t know.”
He shook his head. “My mother’s bullshit gag order on everyone means it’s pretty bad. She left us with an uncle we’ve never met before. I get As in math so I’m pretty sure I can add all that up.”
Addy could add, too, though minutes before reconciling her bank statement might have proven differently. “Lucas hasn’t said anything to me about your father.”
“Par for the course.”
“I’m sorry.”
He didn’t say anything, and Addy knew she wasn’t helping any. She had no clue why Courtney hadn’t told her kids anything about their father’s condition. Seemed wrong not to reveal the situation… to leave them with an estranged relation.
“Why did she leave us with him?” Michael’s voice trembled with unshed tears. “We don’t even know him. At all. We’ve only seen his picture at Grammy’s house.”
“I don’t know, but I know he’s trying his best.”
“Yeah, well, his best sucks. I need my mom to come home.”
“Sometimes people do things we don’t understand. It’s not fair. But it doesn’t mean they’re trying to hurt you.”
Michael snorted. “That’s an understatement.”
“I’ve spent my life accepting I can’t control everything. It’s hard to swallow being powerless, but once you accept it, it’s easier to face the world around you. You can’t control things with your father… even if you knew what was going on with him. You also can’t control the fact your mother left you with your uncle. So what can you control?”
For a moment, Michael was silent. If she could see into his mind, she guessed she’d see the cogwheels turning, pulling in her questions, and churning to make sense of them.
“Nothing,” he said with a shrug. “I guess I can’t control anything. Dumbass Chris just posted on my snapchat stories a pic of me looking at that orchid and put something stupid about how I wanna give flowers to Hannah Leachman. Now everyone is going to think I like her. I look like a total idiot in the picture.”
“Oh.” Addy paused thinking about that one. “Do you like her?”
Michael shrugged. “She’s kind of cool, but now I’m going to get ragged about it, and I didn’t even post it. Chris loves to mess with my shit because he doesn’t have a phone.”
“All brothers and sisters cause trouble. Trust me. I have four of them. My older sister still tries to set me up with guys. The last one she set me up with lived with his mother and played in Boggle tournaments. He also walked around with a parrot on his shoulder. All the time.”
A semi-smile twitched at the boy’s lips. “Yeah, sometimes it sucks having siblings. Lottie spilled hot chocolate on my math homework last week and Chris used up all my body spray. He got sent home because no one in the class could breathe and one kid was allergic and swelled up.”
Addy laughed. “Yours are definitely interesting.”
“You like Lucas, huh?”
“What?”
“My uncle. I can see you like him.”
Addy blinked. Well, she didn’t think it was that obvious. “I suppose so. I have to give him credit for showing up. He’s a bachelor, you know? Not used to kids and animals and noise. This has to be a shock to his system, yet he’s still here. He stepped up when no one else did.”
“Why though? He and my dad have been mad at each other for a long time.”
“Not sure. Maybe because your mother asked him. Maybe he needed a reason to connect with you and your family. I don’t know because I don’t know the background between Lucas and your parents. But that doesn’t change the fact he’s here.”
“Yeah, he’s here, telling me how to live and think. He doesn’t have the right to tell me anything.”
“Have you talked
to him about the way you feel? Not just complained?”
He didn’t respond.
“Because Lucas can’t change something he doesn’t know about.”
Michael slid his gaze to her and in those chocolate depths she saw a tiny crack, a sort of “maybe she’s not totally stupid” fissure in his wall of mistrust. It was about as good as she’d get as a thank-you from the kid.
Addy rose and stretched. “Why don’t we go inside and get a bag of frozen veggies for your cheek? You might turn a shiner out of this one.”
“’Kay. In a minute.”
Addy left him, sending up a silent prayer of thanks for the words she’d managed. All those hours of sitting in therapy group noshing on doughnuts and sipping weak coffee had paid off. Of course, she hadn’t fixed anything between Michael and his uncle, but she had given the kid something to chew on. An old proverb her Aunt Flora used to say sprang to mind. Wish in one hand and spit in the other and see which one fills up the fastest.
Addy had held plenty of spit in life and complaining about how life deals you a shitty hand doesn’t take that spit away.
Monday morning came with unsigned school papers and a glass of spilled milk, but otherwise, Lucas made it. After navigating New Orleans traffic and hitting two different schools for drop off, he needed something stronger than PJ’s coffee but he took a large cup anyhow. Then he would head back to the blissfully silent house. He was nearly giddy with the thought of being alone, even if it was in a house that needed about three maids to give it a good scrub down.
He’d never been good at dealing with clutter. His ranch house back in Texas was remarkably well-organized. In his world every item had its place. In his brother’s world, Lucas had concluded every item had to be handy which meant things were rarely in its place.
It drove Lucas crazy.
But he had only a few more days to live within chaos.
Courtney had said she’d make other arrangements for the kids, and then he’d be free to head back to West Texas and his open spaces. He thought about Addy and something that felt like regret pinged within his chest. But that was likely for the best. Wasn’t like he had a future here in New Orleans. Everything was messy here, and he no longer fit in this world of crooked streets, tropical plants, and ornate architecture. He needed clean lines and open space. He took a deep breath, angled his truck toward Orchard Street just as his cell phone trilled.
His sister-in-law.
“Morning,” he said in way of greeting.
“Hey,” she said, sounding even more tired than she had the day before. “How are the kids?”
“Still alive.”
“Don’t joke about that.”
“Sorry. They’re fine. Just dropped Charlotte by preschool, and I managed to not offend any church clergy this morning.”
“God, I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t said yes.”
He hooked a U-turn and made a right onto Claiborne and said, “You keep saying that, but you would have figured out something. You’re resourceful and tough.”
“I don’t feel that way. I feel defeated, like God is punishing me for all my past mistakes.”
He couldn’t respond to that comment so silence pulsed between them for a good ten seconds or so. Finally he asked the inevitable. “So, how is Ben?”
“Not good. His body’s not responding to the antibiotics like the doctors thought. He’s undergoing some tests today, and they’ll know more about what course to try next. I don’t know why he’s doing so poorly—everything went well in the surgeries in Germany. He was fine, so I don’t understand this.” She sighed, and then he could hear her swallowing. “Luke, his body is starting to shut down.”
He couldn’t respond to that either. Something grabbed him by the throat sank its teeth in him.
“I’m so scared,” she whispered.
“I know you are but have faith. Ben’s a fighter.”
“I hope he is,” she said, tears in her voice. Again regret or sympathy or some emotion he hadn’t felt in a while moved in his chest.
“I hate putting you out like this,” she said.
“No worries. I’m able to work from your house, and I have a manager for the ranch so there’s no rush.”
“I’m trying to get you back to your life.”
“Look, I can’t say I’m good at this, but it’s not a war zone. You don’t have to medevac me out. I have help.”
“Who?”
“Flora made gumbo for us yesterday, and Addy paid the boys to wash her car and help her in the yard while I took Charlotte to the Spring Fling. By the way, I let Charlotte have a large sno ball, and we were up until ten o’clock. Lesson learned.”
He could hear Courtney’s smile. “Thank you for taking her to the fling. She’d been looking forward to it.”
“You’re welcome.” And he meant it. He’d actually enjoyed seeing the joy Charlotte took in playing “Fishin’ With Barney” and walking on the cake walk. Strange, but true.
“Hey, Luke, why did you say yes?”
He pulled into the driveway and killed the engine. “To going to the fling or coming here?”
“Watching the kids. I never expected you to accept.”
He hadn’t expected to say yes either, but somehow the desperation in her voice paired with the sharp jab of something he wasn’t sure how to label at learning his brother was on the brink of death urged him to agree to the madcap adventure of caring for children he’d never met before. He still wasn’t sure why he agreed… why he’d even answered a call from a woman he’d spent years hating. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“No.”
“Well, I know you’ve got a ranch and business that need you. My cousin DeeAnn should get there by Thursday afternoon. Took me a while to get in touch with her and agree to a fee, but she-”
“Agree to a fee?”
“Well, yeah. Dee’s in cosmetology school on the Westbank and will have to miss a few days of work in order to watch them.”
He didn’t like the sound of Dee. What kind of person charged a relative for helping out? “How old is she?”
“Twenty-eight.”
“Is she married?”
Courtney sighed. “Why the third degree? She’s available, of age, and can come on Thursday. I’m sure the kids will be fine.”
“I’m not.”
“She’s responsible,” Courtney said, but she didn’t sound convinced. That made him nervous.
“If you say so. They’re your children.”
“So I’ll call later tonight to talk to the kids.”
“Fine.”
Lucas hung up and climbed from his truck, wondering if he believed her when she said this DeeAnn character was trustworthy.
But he didn’t have a say-so. Besides there was that getting back to normalcy thing he desired. He wanted to get back to Texas. Needed to brush his horse Cisco and eat chili and steaks and food that didn’t have crawfish in it. Time to rewind and go back to being Lucas, photographer and part-time rancher. Not Lucas, poor substitute for Mr. Mom.
He hadn’t seen Courtney in almost fourteen years, but the family pictures scattered throughout the house proved she was still pretty even with the smile lines around her eyes and rounder body. He’d once imagined himself standing next to her in those photographs… not his brother.
Lucas shook the sourness from his head.
No sense in crying over spilled love.
“Morning.”
He turned to find Addy walking toward her car. He could barely see her through the waxy leaves of the camellia bushes, but he saw she carried coffee and wore a navy jumper dress thing.
“Hey,” he called back ducking between two bushes and coming out in her driveway. “On your way to work?”
She held up her travel mug in a mock toast. “Have to pay the bills.”
“I’m about to pull out my laptop myself. Hey, I just talked to Courtney, and she’s having her cousin come stay with th
e kids on Thursday. This DeeAnn woman will probably be more competent than I am.”
Something in Addy’s face fell a little and hope fluttered in his gut… even if he told himself it shouldn’t. “Oh, so you’re leaving that soon?”
“I guess.”
“You’ll be happy to get back to Texas, back to normal,” she said.
“I guess.”
Addy licked her lips and he saw her grab hold of her emotions. She turned toward her car before spinning back around, a determined smile on her face. “By the way, Aunt Flora has bridge club this afternoon. They’re making martinis so don’t call the cops if it gets rowdy.”
Addy paused, almost at a loss, as if she didn’t want him to go so soon.
“Hell, I’m so bored I might join them. Do they drink gin?”
“Oh, heavens, maybe I should stay home and supervise.”
“Maybe you should,” he said, giving her a wink. “I’ll let you wear the lamp shade.” Flirting again—something he rarely did. But her sadness made him want to flip her emotions. He was someone different with Addy, that was for sure.
“I look terrible in hats. Just promise me you won’t strip for them. The last guy who took off his clothes at one of their bridge games needed therapy afterward.”
Lucas laughed. Which hardly ever happened. “Ah, Addy girl, you do make me smile.”
She stilled, her brown eyes growing sad. “Another time, another place, huh?”
“Yeah. It’s too bad I’m leaving.” He wanted to walk to her and take her in his arms. He wanted to kiss her, let her feel how much he wanted her. And, God help him, he wanted to stay a little bit longer.
“Bye,” she said, pulling the car door open. She stood a moment as if she wanted to say something more before giving her head a little shake and sliding into the car. Her sleek brown hair fell into a silk curtain as she ducked inside, and Lucas immediately wondered how it would feel tangled in his hand. He would tug her head back gently so he could taste her throat, slide his mouth against the pulse there, taste her, inhale her.
Addy lifted her hand to him in a small wave as she backed out her VW. A regretful smile curved those pink lips, and for a moment he almost called out to her to stay.
But he didn’t because he’d already decided not to venture into those waters. Wouldn’t be fair to a woman who’d endured as much as Addy had… but that didn’t change the fact he wanted her with a strange hunger he’d never felt before.