by P. J. Fiala
“I’m sorry. I guess I didn’t actually teach you boys how to be a good boyfriend. Is that what you’re worried about?”
“Yeah. I mean, I’m not blaming you, I just, well, until Mom, we didn’t have women around. Am I supposed to do something different? How did you know what to do when you met Mom?”
Taking a deep breath, Jeremiah slipped his fingers in his front pockets. “I didn’t know either, Ryder. I waited an eternity to press the issue with Joci. I knew she was scared and I didn’t want to scare her away, so I dragged my feet until I thought I would go out of my mind. I finally just told her I wanted to be with her and I knew she wanted to be with me and that’s the way it was going to be. Not exactly romantic or smooth, but I knew I couldn’t wait any longer.”
Ryder nodded. “I remember what a crab ass you were back then.” Ryder smirked and Jeremiah laughed.
“Well, so I guess we all learn as we go along. I guess you need to ask her out, spend time with her. Ask her what she likes and what she wants to do and don’t waste a lot of time. If you know you want to be with her, take a page from my book and don’t wait forever. Simple. The rest will come.”
***
“Come with me, Tammy. I can take some ‘before’ pictures and then we can go out and grab a bite to eat. We can call Cara and Suzie and ask them to meet us.”
“Sounds good. I’ll be over in about half an hour. This should be fun.”
Molly and Tammy walked around the outside of Danny Schaefer’s house. Tomorrow, the contractor and the crew that Rolling Thunder put together would be adding an addition to his house. Molly wanted ‘before’ pictures so a photo montage could be put together for the Veteran’s Ride DVDs that Joci was going to burn. The DVDs would be sold for ten bucks each to raise additional money for next year. It was a great cause, and it was a labor of love for Jeremiah.
The sun was low in the sky and the lighting was phenomenal. Molly was capturing the sun setting and the light peeking through the trees in Danny’s yard. There was a gorgeous flower garden. The summer flowers have long since died, but these fall flowers, Mums, in burgundy and dark orange, as well as different varieties of kale, were so lovely. Molly stopped taking pictures of the house long enough to snap a few flower pictures with the setting sun in the background. Some of these shots were destined to make great screen savers. Molly was lying on the ground on her belly, to get a close-up shot of the flowers.
“Can I help you?”
Molly spun her head around to see a handsome man, leaning on crutches, looking at her from the front door. At a closer glance, she saw that he had a leg missing from the knee down. Molly stood up, hung her camera around her neck, and walked over to him.
“Hi, I’m Molly. I’m not sure if you remember me from the Veteran’s Ride. This is my friend, Tammy. I’m the photographer hired to take pictures of the build tomorrow. I wanted to snap some ‘before’ pictures and thought I would do it today in case I didn’t get here before the workers do in the morning. I’m sorry if I bothered you.”
Molly was watching him closely. He looked annoyed and stiff. And who could blame him? He didn’t know who she was or what she was doing wandering around on his property.
“You think they’re going to trample on my flowers?”
Molly looked into his dark brown eyes. They were sad eyes but nice to look at.
Her voice shaky, she said, “No. Sorry, I walked through your flowers. They are so beautiful with the sun setting…I couldn’t help myself.” Lowering her voice, Molly said, “Sorry. I shouldn’t have.”
Danny’s shoulders relaxed a little. “May I see?”
Tammy smiled at Danny. She had been nervous when he walked out. It occurred to her then that it probably wasn’t a good idea to trespass on a soldier’s property. Especially one who had been injured, and he probably had guns in his house. Geez, they were stupid girls sometimes.
Danny swung his gaze over to Tammy and then back to Molly. Molly pulled her camera up and turned it on. She hit a few buttons and brought up the pictures she had been taking. She smiled at Danny and turned the camera around so he could see them.
“You can scroll through the pictures by pushing this button.”
Molly pointed to the button Danny needed to touch to move through the pictures. Danny leaned into his crutches and scrolled through the camera. He smiled a few times and looked up at Molly and Tammy.
“You have a good eye for this. I guess I haven’t taken the time to enjoy those flowers at all. My mom planted them to make my house feel ‘cheery’ or something. Thank you for pointing out that I have beauty at my house.”
Danny was quiet a little while. Both women were looking at him and wondering what to do next. Danny cleared his throat.
“Name’s Danny. Would you like to come in and take ‘before’ pictures of the inside?”
Molly raised her eyebrows and smiled. She looked back at Tammy, who was smiling at Danny.
“We don’t want to put you out, but it would be nice to get some before pictures of the house on the inside. Thank you.”
Danny turned and walked into the house, leaving Molly and Tammy to follow. They walked in behind him and closed the door
Danny pointed toward the wall on the west side of the house. “They’re going to knock that wall out and put the addition there.”
Molly walked over and started taking ‘before’ pictures of the room. She knew it would look much different in a few days.
“I do remember you. I thought you looked familiar, but I couldn’t place where I’d seen you,” Danny said.
Tammy observed Danny as he started to relax. His hair was short, military style and sandy brown in color. He wore a day’s worth of growth on his jaw that made him look rugged and sexy. He was thin and ripped…and hot. As if he could tell she was looking at him, Danny turned his head and looked at Tammy. Their eyes met for a few beats. Tammy blushed and looked down. Danny chuckled.
“How does this happen, Danny? Will you have to go and stay somewhere else for a while or can you stay here?”
Danny turned and looked at Molly. “I can stay here. They’ll frame the addition up first. They’ll put the windows in and insulate and then they’ll knock the wall out to allow the access. I have the plans on the table in the dining room. Do you want to see them?”
Both women nodded and Danny walked them into the dining room. They looked at the plans and he pointed out where they were standing and where the additional bedroom and bathroom would be. Molly immediately started snapping pictures of the plans; some up close, some from farther away. She snapped pictures of Danny and Tammy looking at the plans. She walked around and snapped pictures of the living room from this view. The constant click of her camera was all that was heard for a while.
“Does she always do that?” Danny asked, in a lowered voice to Tammy.
Tammy smirked. “Yeah. It’s her thing. You’ll get used to her. She does have a good eye and she just loves this stuff.”
Molly heard them and blushed a little. “I’ll make sure you get the digitals. You can do what you like with them, but it’ll be pretty cool to see the ‘before’ and ‘after.’ Sometimes after a while, you forget what things looked like before. I’ve painted and worked on my house, not to this degree, but, months and years later when I come across the pictures, I’m still amazed at what it looked like. It’s what hooked me on photography in the first place. It’s a beautiful way to memorialize the past.”
Danny nodded. “Yeah, I was just looking at pictures of myself graduating from boot camp. Back when I had two legs. It’s bittersweet.”
Tammy looked at Danny. Yeah, she supposed that would be bittersweet. Poor guy.
“Sometimes it can be. We can’t always control it, but change happens every day. By the way, thank you for your service. It’s appreciated more than you’ll ever know.” Tammy smiled at Danny.
Danny nodded.
“Hey, we’re going to head out and grab a bite to eat. Would you like to join us?�
�� Tammy asked.
Danny looked into Tammy’s beautiful brown eyes. She was petite with long, sandy-brown hair, and she was HOT. He hadn’t dated since he had lost his leg. He didn’t think any woman would want to have anything to do with him with only one leg. But…Tammy seemed interested.
He swallowed. “Nah. Thanks, but I think this’ll be a very full weekend. I have a few things to do around here before tomorrow. I appreciate the offer.”
“If you change your mind, we’re going to Nicki’s in De Pere. Please feel free to stop in. I’ll buy you a beer.” Tammy flashed her brightest smile. Danny swallowed again and cocked his head at her. She was flirting with him! That hadn’t happened in months.
They left Danny’s house and headed to Nicki’s to eat.
“So? What did you think?” Tammy was looking at Molly with a huge grin on her face.
“About?”
“About Danny. Pretty hot, isn’t he?”
Molly started laughing. “Do you have a crush on Danny? You so have to come to the build tomorrow. You can help me out by moving my stuff around and you can see him again. I think Joci and her sisters-in-law are bringing food and helping out where needed as well. Jeremiah won’t let Joci do much so, if nothing else, you can talk to her so she doesn’t get bored.”
“Okay. He seems sad… But, did you see the arms on him? His body? I bet he works out like crazy. He looks delicious.” Tammy fanned herself with her hand as they laughed and ordered their food. They ate as their friends wandered in to join them. They sat and talked and caught up on last weekend and Molly told them about her night at Ryder’s and the next day going for a bike ride with the group.
“There…see? You fretted over nothing and he was into you all the time, just shy.”
“Well, I haven’t heard from him all week. He did say he had a busy week, but I hoped for a call at least. Besides, I don’t want to be like my mom and, well, you know. So, I’m going to sit back and wait and see what happens. We do have a date tomorrow night.”
“God, Molly. Stop saying that. You’re nothing like your mom. Your mom was weak and needed someone with her all the time. You’re nothing like that. And the rest was not your fault. Stop thinking that way.”
Tammy could walk right up to Molly’s mom and slap her for what she had done to Molly. Poor girl. Her mom really was a crappy mom. All she cared about was herself and being with a man. She never thought about Molly’s needs or wants. Molly had been on her own, in more ways than one, her whole life.
“In my head, I know this. But, I never want to be like that.”
Cara patted Molly’s hand. “Darlin’, you are nothing like your mom. Now…to the important stuff. I want to see pictures of these hot guys you two are mooning over. Gimme.”
Molly laughed as she pulled out her camera to show the girls the pictures she had taken of Danny and Ryder.
Saturday morning came early. Pulling into Danny’s driveway with a steaming cup of coffee, the boys each looked at the yard to see the activity had already begun at six-thirty in the morning. Due to the neighborhood covenants, power tools and hammering wouldn’t start until eight o’clock, but preliminaries and unloading were in progress at the moment.
“Okay, let’s get rolling.” Gunnar jumped out of the driver’s seat of the truck and grabbed his tool belt from the back seat. Ryder and JT did the same on the other side. They had decided to ride together to keep the number of vehicles down to a minimum. They walked over to Jeremiah, who was speaking with the contractor, Steve, about the day’s events.
“Hey, Dad.”
“Hi guys. Steve, these are my sons, JT, Ryder, and Gunnar. Boys, you remember Steve? We were just discussing the events for today.”
Just then, Danny walked out of his house. He was wearing a prosthetic leg today, covered up by his jeans. If it weren’t for a slight limp, you wouldn’t know anything was different about him. Danny walked up to Jeremiah and gave him a hug.
“I don’t know how to thank you, Dog. I’m overwhelmed, actually.”
Jeremiah shook his head. “No need to thank me, Danny. Just enjoy your home, we’ll be good.”
“Hey guys, how are you today? Thanks for helping on this.” Danny looked at the boys.
“Happy to help Danny,” JT said as he shook Danny’s hand. Each in turn greeted Danny and they turned to Jeremiah to see what they needed to start with. Danny looked over and saw some guys walking with boards over by the flowers.
“They aren’t going to drop stuff on my flowers are they?” Everyone looked over to where Danny was looking.
“No, they won’t do that. I’ll remind them that we aren’t destroying anything, just making it better.” Jeremiah smirked.
“Good. That hot little photographer was here yesterday taking pictures and she liked my flowers. I’ll sic her and her sexy little friend on anyone who smashes them.”
Ryder stiffened at the comment. Molly? Molly had been here yesterday? Did she know Danny? He called her ‘hot.' What the fuck did that mean? Did he want her? Gunnar and JT looked at Ryder and saw his reaction. Danny noticed it too.
Danny pointed his chin at Ryder. “She yours?”
Ryder looked at Danny and furrowed his brows.
“What?”
“The hot photographer. Little gal with dark hair and startling blue eyes, Molly I think. She yours? Everyone just looked at you when I said that. Couldn’t hammer a pin up your ass you’re so puckered up right now.”
Jeremiah didn’t want anything to start. “They’re dating, Danny.”
Danny nodded and started to say something, but they were interrupted by Bryce, Angie, Dayton, and Staci just at that moment.
“Morning everyone. Nice to see you, Danny. Ready for all of this?” Bryce said, smiling.
“Yeah. I’m ready.” Danny looked at Ryder and turned to walk over to the table that was set up outside where the plans had been laid out.
Jeremiah looked at Ryder. “You good? I don’t want problems today. If you have issues, I would rather we work them out now.”
“No, I’m good. I was just surprised that Molly was here yesterday. I didn’t know she was coming.”
“Well, if you don’t fucking call her, you aren’t going to know what she’s doing and where she is, are you?” Gunnar sniped at him.
Gunnar didn’t understand Ryder. He loved his brother with his whole heart, but he didn’t get it.
“If you want Molly, you are going to have to show her that. You can’t be mad that she was here, or anywhere for that matter, if you don’t show her you’re interested.”
Gunnar liked Molly. There was something about her that he couldn’t figure out. Sad? Wary? Something. He just really liked her and wanted Ryder to be good to her.
“Fuck you, Gunnar.” Ryder walked off to go and do something. Right now, he needed to do something physical to get rid of this frustration. Sure, he should have called her this week, but he worked late every day and then stayed at the shop with his dad and brothers afterwards to go over the plans for this week. They made phone calls to volunteers and worked out who had what skills and where they could help out. They contacted the people who were donating items to settle on the delivery day and time, etc. By the time he got home, he was exhausted each night. He knew they had a date tonight, so he didn’t think any more of it. But, she was never far from his mind.
Jeremiah walked over to Ryder and put his arm around Ryder’s shoulders. “Hey, your brothers are just teasing, that’s all.”
“I know, Dad. See, this is what I meant. I don’t know what to do. How often I’m supposed to call her. We have a date tonight and I thought that was good enough. I’m gonna fuck this up.”
“No, you aren’t. Talk to her. Let her know what you just told me. Honesty is the best policy. Yeah?”
“Yeah,” Ryder mumbled as he walked over to a pile of boards needing to be moved. Physical activity, yep, that’s what he needed right now.
***
Molly and Tammy pulled up the roa
d around seven-fifty to see the street full of parked cars on both sides and a long way from the house. They got out of the car, grabbed Molly’s gear and hoisted the bags onto their shoulders as they walked up the street to the house. There was so much activity already. As they approached the yard, they could see the siding had already been removed from the side of Danny’s house. There were tables and stations set up everywhere for measuring, sawing, cutting, etc. They spotted Joci standing by a table that held food and big coffee pots. Molly waved and walked over to Joci. They hugged, and Molly reminded Joci who Tammy was.
“I have coffee and hot chocolate. Which would you like?”
“Coffee, please,” they said in unison.
“I can get it, Joci,” Tammy said. As she was pouring their coffees Molly pulled her camera out.
“We came by yesterday and I got ‘before’ pictures. Take a look.”
They were scrolling through the pictures when Danny came walking over.
“Good morning. How are you two doing this morning?”
“Morning. Glad we came yesterday. With all of this stuff lying around, I wouldn’t have been able to get any good before pictures.”
Danny nodded and looked around.
“Yeah. I guess it’s true what they say, that it needs to get worse before it gets better.”
They all nodded. Molly looked over and saw Ryder looking their way. She waved at him, but he just scowled and looked away. Molly furrowed her brows. What the fuck was that for? Molly looked at Tammy and Tammy shrugged.
“He seemed a little pissed when I told him you were here taking pictures yesterday.”
Molly looked at Danny with her brows still furrowed. “He’s mad? Because I took pictures?”
Molly looked at Joci. Joci slowly shook her head. “I’m not aware of anyone being upset this morning. But, you can bet I’ll find out.”
Molly shook her head. “Well, I didn’t do anything wrong, so, whatever. I’m going to snap a few pictures of the progress, then we’ll come and help you here for a little while. Is that okay?”