Breakup in a Small Town

by Kristina Knight

  Aiden rolled the now empty water bottle between his hands. “Cabinetry may not be all that innovative, but it’s a solid profession. Involves woodworking. I’m good at woodworking.”

  “So are most of the people who’ve had a year or so in a high-school shop class.” And then Adam realized what Aiden was doing. This wasn’t about his brother wanting to take something from Adam. It was about Aiden filling the gap Adam had left at Buchanan’s. This was more of the pity he’d grown to hate over the past few months, only in a different form. “I don’t need you taking on Buchanan’s because you feel sorry for me.”

  “I’m not.”

  “I don’t need your pity. Is this because Dad and Mom will be heading to Florida soon?”

  “It has nothing to do with our parents, and before you bring her into it, it isn’t about Jenny, either. And it’s not about your...” he paused “...diagnosis. I want a change. Buchanan’s will be a change from building sailboats.”

  “Because cabinets are so challenging when you’re coming from the world of custom-built boats.”

  “Those chairs aren’t as simple as they look. And the work you did on that table in the guest room? It’s top of the line.”

  He’d given up on the furniture aspect after the tornado, because Fate seemed obsessed with taking life away from him. He’d survived a car accident and he hadn’t complained. Not when it took football from him. He’d laughed and joked until it wasn’t hard to come up with something fun to say or do.

  Aiden had walked away from the wreck without a scratch. The tornado didn’t follow Aiden into that church or bury him in the rubble.

  Adam had thanked God every day that he wasn’t paralyzed from that wreck, but another twist of Fate had wrenched the life he’d built with Jenny out of his grasp. Had taken away his control of his body. If he tried to make another place for himself at Buchanan’s, if he could really make things work with Jenny, what else would Fate take from him?

  Jenny took the fuzzy dream he had about furniture making and turned it into a reality. Just like she’d helped him with his homework after he’d wrecked his dad’s car. Although he didn’t know how he could fit into Buchanan’s now, it gave Adam a sense of pride knowing those were his designs that had caught the Springfield distributor’s eye in the first place.

  He’d have liked to work on one of those boats with Aiden, just once. Leaving Slippery Rock had never been part of Adam’s plans, though.

  Building a life with Jenny, raising a family, taking the small cabinetry shop to the next level. Those had been Adam’s goals. He didn’t consider building furniture until Jenny described the bed she wanted, and he hadn’t been able to find anything similar. Once he’d put those designs together, other ideas came to him, and he’d begun to use the slower winter months to come up with other designs.

  “I want to come home.” Aiden’s voice was quiet in the backyard, so quiet Adam thought he had to have heard his brother wrong. That the hammers and shovels had caused some kind of sound vortex. “I was angry at you, for a long time, after Simone. But she isn’t why I left or why I didn’t visit more often. I just used her, used what happened as a way to break away from Dad’s business. See if I could build something of my own.”

  “So why come back now?”

  “Catering to the whims of the wealthy isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, I guess.” Aiden fished another bottle of water from the cooler. He glanced at Adam. “I’d been considering coming back before the tornado. Then you were diagnosed, and I couldn’t. You were my best friend until the wreck and Simone. I didn’t want those last words between us to be our last words. And I was afraid that if I did come back, you’d think it was because I was trying to take your place or something.”

  Adam had thought that, somewhere in a jealous corner of his mind. The corner of his mind that hated that things came so easily to Aiden.

  “I always wondered why things happened so easily for you. How you could latch on to a calculus theory or a new woodworking technique so easily when I had to struggle to understand it.”

  “I always wondered how you could know, at twelve, that a life in Slippery Rock was all you wanted.”

  “Because Slippery Rock made sense to me. The gossip, the pace, the work. Going into Springfield to shop or to the gulf for vacation. My favorite part of every trip was seeing the Welcome to Slippery Rock sign at the edge of town.”

  “My favorite part was watching it disappear out the back window.”

  When they were in that accident in high school, Adam had never wondered why he’d been the one injured. When he woke up in that hospital after the tornado, though, he’d wondered why it had been him. Again. Why bad things happened to him, while Aiden lived a charmed life.

  Childish. Aiden had his own problems, at least one of which had been brought on by Adam.

  “If I could find Simone, I’d apologize to her.”

  “So would I,” Aiden said. When Adam stared at him, he went on. “I could have followed her, brought her back to town. Simone was a cheater and a liar, but she wasn’t a thief. I didn’t follow her, not even after the money from Buchanan’s reappeared.”

  “I am sorry, Aiden.”

  “Me, too.”

  “I love this town.” The people, the relationships. The steady rhythm of life here. He’d nearly lost it, and still might. Adam couldn’t imagine living in Slippery Rock without Jenny. If things didn’t work out between them, he would have to pick up his life in some other place. The thought of that sent a quick hit of panic through his system. He inhaled once, twice, counting to ten between the breaths.

  “So do I. I just had to figure out where I might fit outside of it to realize how much.”

  “You think you can step into my place at the business?” The thought filled Adam with sadness. He didn’t want anyone taking his place, not at Buchanan’s, not with Jenny, not in his town. More than that, he didn’t want Aiden to think he had to somehow become someone he wasn’t because a tornado had wreaked havoc not only on their town, but on Adam’s health.

  “Why don’t we just say I think I could do a good job? I like building things. I’ve designed a few things on my own. Smaller scale, because boats aren’t as big as houses, but I think some of the elements I’ve worked in could be used in home construction.”

  “Jenny does the hiring.”

  “I know. Already talked to her, told her I’d like to stay on.”

  “And she wanted you to run this by me first?” He exhaled a sigh of relief. Jenny wanted his opinion, trusted him to make a business decision. That felt good.

  Aiden shook his head. “She said the job was mine. Running it by you, that’s just on me. I don’t want to step on your toes.”

  And just like that, the stress of the unknown was back. Jenny didn’t need his approval or his input to run the business. Maybe she never had.

  Maybe she never would. Where did that leave him?

  Working with his brother. They’d made a good team as kids, both on the football field and working for their father during summer breaks. Adam had made a mess of things for Aiden before, and regretted it. Having him around now would give him the chance to make things right between them.

  “You’re not stepping on any toes. Buchanan’s is a family business. Always has been, always will be.” As long as he was turning over this new, it’s-not-all-about-me leaf, he might as well do it fully. He held his hand out. “Welcome home, brother.”

  Aiden took his hand and shook.

  “Have any suggestions for the business? Maybe we can incorporate some California cool into Buchanan’s.”

  Aiden chuckled. “I feel like my first suggestion is that you not finish the back wall of the fence. It’s going to kill your view.”

  Adam considered the materials stacked up in the backyard, at the guys finishing the last of the p
ostholes. He took another swig of water. “It’ll be a short fence, more decorative than compound-like. Besides, Jenny wants it.”

  “And Jenny gets what Jenny wants?”

  Adam smiled. “Something like that.”

  * * *

  JENNY WATCHED OUT the window, anxiously waiting to see the truck with the dog trainer’s logo on the side. She’d been prepared to drive Adam to the trainer’s, but the man insisted it would be better if he delivered the dog to them.

  Something about handing off, letting the dog know Adam was her new master.

  How bringing the dog here rather than them picking it up would clarify the whole master thing didn’t make sense to Jenny. At least, though, the dog would be here for a couple hours before the boys were home from school. And the fence would soon be completed.

  When the crew showed up the day before, she’d been shocked. Pleased. She loved living with the lake as part of their backyard, but it made her nervous not to have some kind of barrier between the boys and the water. The four-foot-high fence would have a gate, and the boys knew how to open gates, but she hoped the symbolism of it would at least slow them down when they played outside next summer.

  If not, at least the symbolism might work for her.

  The sound of saws and hammers and shovels in the backyard rang out through the quiet afternoon. And now that they would have a dog, that fence would be even more important. Service dogs were well-trained, but she had yet to meet any dog that didn’t run straight to the water at the first opportunity.

  Aiden walked into the living room, Adam close on his heels. She’d never had trouble telling the two apart, but the differences between them were so striking now that it was unsettling. Adam was still regaining his strength, and his shoulders were a bit stooped. There was the walking stick, of course. New lines around his eyes and mouth that hadn’t been there before the tornado and his injuries.

  She wished the lines on his face were from a lifetime of laughing, but although she knew the cause was more likely pain and stress, she still found them sexy.

  Which just went to show what a warped individual she was. Finding a cane and wrinkles on her twenty-eight-year-old husband sexy had to mean she was seriously deranged.

  “How’s the construction going?”

  “They’ll be finished in another couple hours,” Adam said. He leaned on the cane and tilted his head toward Aiden. “He tells me he’s staying.”

  “We could use the help.”

  “Trying to get rid of me already?”

  A week ago, those words from Adam would have made her mad. Or scared. Now, she heard the teasing note in his voice. Remembered how he’d been with her in the RV a couple nights before.

  “You’ve been a little hard to work with lately,” she returned.

  “I can see the two of you have some weird thing going on right now. I’ll see you at work tomorrow, Jen,” Aiden said, and disappeared through the front door.

  “We scared him,” Adam said, and she thought she detected a note of pride in his voice. She had no idea why the thought of Aiden being afraid would make Adam proud, though.

  “Your parents leave for Florida after Thanksgiving. We could use the help, and not just with the building.”

  “I know. I’m glad you hired him.”

  Jenny nodded, unsure what else to say. She folded her arms over her chest and turned to watch out the window again.

  “It’s Wednesday.”

  “I know. The trainer should be here with the dog anytime.”

  “I was thinking, if Sadie could watch the boys, you could come with me.”

  “Come with you where?” Adam didn’t have any appointments; she would have known if he did. Calendars were part of her job description.

  “It’s Wednesday.”

  “We’ve been over that. You don’t have to be anywhere.”

  “Darts. Collin, Levi, James. Aiden’s back. The gang will all be there.”

  And Adam had avoided Wednesday night darts since his release from the hospital. She’d forced him to go, once, and that had been a disaster. They’d fought in the middle of the Slope, in front of his friends and what felt like the entire town.

  Now he wanted to go? The change made her heart stutter in her chest. Adam had never asked her to darts before the accident. He’d gone and she’d stayed home with the boys. She had no idea if Sadie was available, but there was no chance Jenny would pass up this opportunity.

  She’d offered the first olive branch when she asked Adam to dinner. The olive branch he was now offering her was so much bigger because it involved not just the two of them, but friends. An actual gathering, a social occasion. A couple’s occasion.

  Dinner led to sex, and you’re still not sure sex is the best idea, Jenny reminded herself.

  “I’ll text Sadie to see if she’s available.” And this time, we won’t have sex, Jenny vowed.

  This time, she would keep her physical attraction to him to herself.

  * * *

  IT FELT WEIRD to be walking with a dog beside him. The cane hadn’t seemed as awkward, maybe because Adam immediately felt some pain relief in his hip. The dog, however, didn’t offer pain relief. The dog was a reminder of all the things that were now wrong with him. Like the wheelchair had been.

  Sheba was a nice dog, though. She didn’t bark, didn’t growl at the kids. Hadn’t tried to run around the backyard with them when they arrived home with Jenny a few minutes before.

  “You’ve got the basic commands, and I’ll leave a pamphlet for you in the house,” the trainer was saying. He wore jeans, a Kansas City Royals T-shirt and hat, along with a denim jacket. “And if you want additional training, I can come to you or you and your wife can come up to the house. Anytime,” he said.

  “What about the boys?”

  The man had already explained that Sheba was trained not to expect playtime. As a working dog, her focus had to be on Adam at all times. “In my experience, kids want to play, especially with bigger dogs like Sheba. She won’t unless you give her permission, so don’t give her permission. You’re the one in control here.”

  Yeah. He was in such control that he needed a service dog to tell him when a seizure was coming. Adam shook off the gloomy thought. It wasn’t the trainer’s fault, and having the dog would give him a bit more freedom. Sheba couldn’t stop a seizure, but she might detect one so that Adam could ready himself. That returned a measure of control the epilepsy had taken from him. That was what he would focus on.

  “Work, home, restaurants. She goes where I go?”

  “That’s the objective. People will ask questions at first, but they’ll get used to her quicker than you might imagine.” The trainer took a pamphlet from his back pocket. “I’d like to get back before dark. I’ll just leave this on the table.”

  “Sure, through the door, straight down the hallway.”

  When the trainer had gone inside, Adam turned to the yellow lab sitting beside him. “Hello,” he said. The dog didn’t reply. “I’m Adam. You’re Sheba.”

  Talking to an animal that couldn’t return the gesture was just awkward. Adam didn’t know of a better way to get acquainted, though.

  “You want a beer? We’re going to the Slope tonight. I’ll bet Merle would give you one.”

  Sheba tilted her head to the side, as if curious what a beer or a Merle might be. Laughter from the yard caught Adam’s attention, and he turned. Jenny was running around with the boys, whooping and hollering as they chased her. He’d played this game with them before, and he missed not being able to capture them. He sat in the chair on the patio, and Sheba joined him.

  “That’s Frankie and Garrett. And Jenny is the silly one pretending to be a moose. At least, I think she’s being a moose. It’s kind of hard to tell.” Sheba focused her attention on the yard. Adam
sat back in his chair, resting his forearms on the smooth wood.

  Hand dangling over the side, he watched his family playing a version of capture the flag he’d never before witnessed. He grinned when Jenny cornered Frankie at the fence. Their older son beetled his eyebrows and crossed his arms over his chest.

  “No fair! I can’t get around the fence.”

  Jenny took a step back, giving him a little space, and Adam could practically see his son’s mind going over the possibilities for escape. So he wasn’t out there with them. At least he could watch them. Maybe, one day soon, he would be the one capturing them.

  Sheba moved closer, fitting her head against his palm. Adam rubbed the dog’s ears. “No offense to you, Sheba, and you’re welcome to stay as long as you like it here, but I really hope I never have to put your particular skills to work.”

  * * *

  “BUT I THOUGHT we were just going to the Slope.”

  “We are, just a quick stop first.”

  Jenny shook her head, but got into the Mustang and turned on the ignition. Adam moved the passenger seat so Sheba could jump into the back, then settled in himself.

  “Fine. Where are we going?”

  “Make a left at the stop sign.”

  Jenny blew out a breath. “I don’t need turn-by-turn directions, thank you. This is Slippery Rock, not Springfield. Just tell me where we’re going.”

  “You’ll see.”

  She cut her gaze to him. Adam sat in the passenger seat looking like the proverbial cat that ate the canary, and she couldn’t read anything past that I-know-something-you-don’t-know expression. She had no idea what he was up to now, but the possibilities sent excitement pulsing through her veins. He’d asked her to go with him to the Slope this evening. They’d had an actual date a few nights ago. This was the Adam she remembered from long before the tornado. The one who wanted to spend time with her. This Adam was dangerously close to making her ignore all the reasons she had for asking him to move out.