Junk Miles (46 page)

I grinned. “Give me a little time. Let me help though. I like to keep busy.” Wow, how full of shit was I? But this place was a dump. She needed help.

“
Well,” she said carefully. “The Erikson boy was going to help do my gutters, but they had to fire a few kids, so he’s been really busy at the diner. Maybe…”

I didn’t have a damn clue how the hell to clean a gutter. But I had an iPhone and it has access to Google.

“
I’m on it.” I went outside with my phone in hand.

One ladder with rotten rungs, two near slips off the roof, three tons of fermenting leaves, and four hours later I was covered in scum, panting for breath, and smelled like I had just climbed out of a toilet bowl in a White Castle.

“
Why do leaves smell like ass?” I griped, shaking my arms off. And it would have seriously screwed up my mood for the day, except that Aunt Helene was clucking around me, worried about my filthy self and telling me how she’d baked some kind of crazy Polish cookie and that I should get right in the shower.

And it felt good to have someone give a shit about me.

I took a shower and ate some knock-you-off-your-ass fantastic cookies and took a nap, and then it was time to go. Pamela was in the driveway, waving at Aunt Helene and accepting a plastic baggie full of cookies. Jimmy was yelling thank you and Cadence was waving, and then we were off. The car was weirdly quiet with all three of them eating cookies.

“
You’re so lucky!” Jimmy said. “Your aunt is so nice and she makes the best food.”

Pamela smiled at me. “Seriously, dude. You have it made.”

Cadence glared, nibbling on a cookie, then rolled her eyes at me. “It’s not like he deserves it.”

And I might have agreed. If I didn’t have remnants of gutter sludge under my finger nails. And a mental list of shit I had to pick up from a hardware store. Because Aunt Helene needed my help, so I’d give it to her. And it hit me then, that maybe I was pretty fucking lucky.