Brody (31 page)

I thought about just driving past and moving on. I needed to get back to Alex anyway, but another car was there in the drive. I parked, getting a closer look, and knew right away it was Ann’s, as I’d seen it the night we all had dinner at my grams.

I checked the number on the dash, blinking at the hour. So late, it would be morning soon.

So Ann stayed the night…

That surprised me at first, but definitely not in a bad way.

I smiled a little, reaching to put the truck in gear, but some lights froze my hand. They were the lights lining the walkway leading up to the porch.

And they lit up like an airport runway as they turned on.

The lamp outside the door came on next and my heart jumped with it. The door opened and out came a large man, his jeans and flannel t-shirt on and his eyes crinkled no doubt with sleep. Stepping down the porch steps, he approached, and I swallowed, pushing down the passenger side window to speak to my pop.

He stared into my truck when he got there, his eyes everywhere but me at first. They lifted and when they did, he said few words. “You gonna come in?”

I’d been in this place a few times, my pop’s new house. He finally decided to make the big move after fighting my brother, Griffin, on it for months. Griffin offered to pay for the two-story home in full of course, but Pop wouldn’t have it. I didn’t blame him. We made our own way around here. We always did, and well, Pop had been the one to teach us that. In the end, he ended up getting financing himself and that actually coincided with that first big order that came down from Miami from what I heard. More of Griffin Chandler’s doing of course.

The bum always got his way in the end, didn’t he? It was enough to get Pop out of the trailer we’d all called home for years, though. I was glad the bum always got his way.

Pop settled into his favorite arm chair. That thing had made its way over here, too, and he put it right in front of a brick-laid fireplace. He had it off now, but I could still smell the job it did to the home. A woodsy smell filled the whole place. It reminded me so much of Gram’s.

I took my place on the couch, but my back went straight when a feminine face rounded the corner. Ann. In a flannel and jeans herself, she was silent, but Pop didn’t even flinch when she placed a hand on his shoulder. He simply settled into it and I’d never seen such a thing. She smiled at me. “Morning, Brody.” And she was right. It was getting there. I confirmed that out in my truck.

I nodded, feeling guilty about that. “Morning and sorry about that. It being so early and all that.”

She wouldn’t hear of it, shaking her head. “You being here is only good. Can I get you something to drink? Water or…”

“Uh, nah. I’m okay.”

Bending, she got Pop to face her when she tilted her head at him, a dark brown curly strand from her bun moving over her face. “You, Blake?”

She only got a smile from him, a
smile
and Pop didn’t do that. At least, he didn’t used to anyway. At Gram’s, he had been all smiles. He’d been all kinds of happy and this nice woman made him this way.

He declined her offer, but did so only politely, a calm shake of his head and that pleasant lift of his lips behind his whiskers. Ann left us to our peace after that, leaving a smell of soft flowers in her wake and for a moment, I let the thought flash that I just might be watching my future stepmom leaving the room. I never had much experience with one of those, a mom, but this woman seemed like she’d be a pretty good one.

I smiled a little more. She’d have her hands full with us. No matter how grown we were. I let the thought marinate, but then it fell from my head when I realized she’d left me and Pop alone. The tone went different with her gone and I became well aware of the hour—and the fact my pop caught me sitting outside his home in the dark.

“It’s early, Brody,” he said simply.

I nodded, knowing that. I pushed my hair out of my face. “Sorry. I hope I didn’t scare Ann.”

Her name brought something out on my old man’s face. He shook blond hair with subtle stands of silver. “That woman don’t scare easy.”

She didn’t seem like she had. She was with my pop and he could be a bit rough around the edges. Rough, but good. My pop was a good man. I rubbed my legs. “I didn’t really want anything. I… I was just driving through and…”

He got up before I could finish and I instinctually followed him, moving behind his wide frame through the large house. He stopped in the kitchen and got us both drinks despite both me and himself turning down Ann. I had a feeling he just didn’t want to inconvenience her. Again, we made our own way around here. I accepted the bottle of water, cracking it opened as we moved down the hall. Pictures of me and my brothers littered the hallways. He’d taken the best ones to surround himself with. On the windows, curtains were placed with what could have only been a feminine hand. The decorations sprinkled around the house only confirmed it.

“The house is looking good,” I said, watching him flick a light on the wall.

He turned. “Ann helped. I’ll let her know what you thought.”

I nodded, sneaking in a sip of my water. I busied myself with it. Pop unlocked a door and opened it, going down a set of wooden stairs. I quickly found out the stairs led to his garage, but he wasn’t using it for that. The entire area was filled with woodwork crafted only by a fine hand. If Ann handled the interior, my pop definitely had his stamp out here. He had toy boxes and even a few sets of dress drawers. The best was his rocking chairs, though. He took one, giving me the other, and I ran my hand down the wood. The work was polished, fine.

“We can keep our voices down out here,” he said, and I acknowledged that with a nod, understanding.

Bracing the arms, I sat back in the rocker, testing it, and my pop smiled.

“You made all these?” I asked him, knowing the answer. Of course he did, the job too fine for anyone else.

He confirmed that when he lifted and lowered his chin. “They’re for the business. I make the originals, so the boys have something to go by.”

I was sure he did. He was probably in that shop breaking his back with guys half his age. That was just my old man, tough. He had a heart attack and he still pushed himself. That was just his way.

The thoughts had me in mine and I rocked, still busying myself and Pop watched me, not saying a word. The depth of his hard gaze I felt immensely, but didn’t dare address it and like I said, he didn’t either. I idly wondered how long the pair of us could sit there, both unspoken, and I would admit, a bit tense—at least on my end.

Why had I come here?

The urge to leave moved through my legs and made my hands fold around the rocking chair’s arms. I gripped them, giving in.

“You can keep that one,” Pop said, surprising me. He tipped his whiskered chin in the direction of the rocker. “If you want it, that is. You don’t have to if you ain’t got no place for it. It’s up to you.”

My hands moved on the chair. I looked up. “Thanks. I think I will. I’ve got room.”

A husky, “Mmhmm,” sounded from his throat with his acknowledgement. His gaze travelled away, but a buzz got his attention. His cellphone. Pop shifted his body and then proceeded to do something that blew my mind.

He texted someone.

My eyebrows raised. “Everything all right?” The question came partially from the fact it was so early and because hell, when had I ever seen Pop text, and though, he did it with a little fumbling, hunting and pecking with a single finger, he was doing it.

His eyes shown from under the wrinkle of his brow. “Eh, uh, yeah,” he said, messing with his phone more. He tapped slowly, determined to get his message out. He raised and lowered a shoulder. “Just my shop manager. Name’s Dean. Him and the boys are pulling some early hours. We’re wanting to get a big order done before the opening.”

Nothing about what he said should have surprised me. The early hours and pulling them to get things done. Like I said, Pop broke his back to get the job done, but what surprised me was he wasn’t there himself. What even surprised me more was the presence of this guy Dean and his need for him.

“Your shop manager?” I asked. I couldn’t help it. Pop was just the type of man that did all things himself. He cracked the whip himself.

Finally, he finished the labor over his phone. He reached back, slipping it into his pocket, and folded his hands over his stomach after he did. “I hired him a few months ago to oversee production in the shop. It was your grandmomma’s idea, so I wasn’t in there doing all the work myself. I really didn’t find the need at first, but Dean makes things easier. I guess it doesn’t hurt having help.”

So many things I never thought I’d hear or
see
from him today, but that? That was a new level.

After a moment, his brow lifted. “But don’t tell your gram that. I’d never hear the end of it.”

I couldn’t help it. I smiled. I lifted my hand. “Code of silence.”

His chair started to rock again, a
creak
, a
crack
, and in those sounds of soft leisure something impulsed me. Something made me.

“Did it,” I started, trying to push through. A tight ball had suddenly formed in my throat. I swallowed it. “Did it hurt you?” I asked. “Me not doing this with you? The business?”

He glanced around at all the pieces in the room, to the craftsmanship. His jaw ticked a little and I thought I might have pissed him off, but not by what I’d asked. I might have upset him by addressing it and making him voice his opinion. My pop wasn’t really a sharing guy and really, I wasn’t either, but a conversation not too long ago hadn’t been sitting well. It was the one with Hayden, the day Alex’s sister left.

He blew out a breath and I didn’t think he’d answer until, well, he did.

“It didn’t hurt me,” he said, his voice low, concentrated as if he was choosing them carefully. It was as if he was trying to find them. He stopped rocking. “I think it more so confused me and I guess it did disappoint me a little.”

It disappointed him.

Why did that tug at my chest more?

“You know I never mind what y’all boys are into,” he said. “I’d never stop you from doing what you want to do.”

I did know that. He’d been real supportive with Griffin and Colton. He even put in the extra hours to send Hayden through school until my brother left, realizing it wasn’t for him.

His thick fingers tapped the chair. “But you,” he said, and when he did, he smiled a little. “You and I have always been on the same wavelength and I couldn’t get you to veer off of it for nothing. I send y’all off to summer camp and you’re wanting to stay home, worried about the trailer and how everything is going to get done while you’re gone. You get off the bus from school, the first thing you do is the chores, and then make sure the others are doing their homework before you even start on yours.”

He shook his head after that. “It was something else. You worked just as many hours as me when we all worked
Carter’s
if not more, and the only way you were able to keep any money for yourself instead of putting it all towards the bills was because I
made
you. I guess with the business taking off, I assumed you’d be there, too, pushing it with the rest of the boys in the shop.”

He was right. I would have been. I still wanted to.

I just couldn’t.

“And maybe, that had been my mistake,” he went on. “I assumed you were like me and maybe you felt some pressure because of that.”

Every word made me want to rage out of myself, crush something, curse or something, but I couldn’t. I had to keep it together, so I fought the urge. I fought the explosion racing within me.

My hands shaking, I clasped them, staring down.

“You should tell your family… Because not doing so is keeping you away from them…”

Pop leaning forward took me out of my head and his own hands came into his lap, his own hands clasping themselves. “If I made you feel that way, I’m sorry and I apologize for everyone else, too.”

His voice cracked, cutting off a little on the end and he sat back. He faced away from me and I almost said something then. I almost admitted everything in one sweep. I wanted to tell him how much I wanted to be there. I wanted to tell him I’d do anything,
anything
just to have a chance to do that. But most of all, I wanted to tell him I was scared. I was scared not for my health, but with what I was limited to now, I was scared I’d never be able to help my family in ways I always had before. I didn’t have money like Griffin. I wasn’t creative like Colton, and definitely didn’t have what Hayden had. He was real smart, my brother, and didn’t even need a college degree to tell him that. Those things about my brothers, I just didn’t have and never would and
that
was my greatest fear. That I added no value to any of them anymore.

That I couldn’t take care of them like I used to.

Pop’s hand moved over his face and I knew the moment had passed. The time for all those words had evaporated. I let what I knew to be pride get me again.

He pressed his hands on his legs, standing. “Let me help you get that chair out.”

And so we did, together. Pop had the tethers and tossed them to me, the two of us working alongside each other like we used to. It only took us a few minutes, but outside of my time with Alex, it had been the most content I’d been in a long time.

I let that pass and got in the truck. Pop hit the passenger door, bidding me off, but came back when I rolled the window down.

I breathed. “You weren’t wrong, you know?” I said nodding. “You weren’t wrong about me. I am just like you. I am and I’m proud of that.”

That small smile he had before, reappeared and broadened. He put a hand on the velvet of the window. “You do what you need to do, boy, and we all trust in that. We’ll all be at peace with that.”

He pushed off the side of my truck and headed toward his house. The door opened before he did and he went back to that kind woman waiting in the doorframe for him.

Chapter Thirty