Pieces of You (5 page)

"Anytime now," I reply as I pull the new pipe and the coffees from my truck and follow behind her into the house.

Holding a warm cup of coffee out to her, I lean the pipe up against the door frame and wipe my shoes.

"Why do you do that?" she asks as she takes the coffee from my hand and looks at my feet.

"Habit. Mrs. Crawley was very strict about clean shoes in her home. When I come in here, I'm seven years old again."

"I see. You do realize that she doesn't own the house any longer right?" Riley asks as she walks into the kitchen.

"I do. But I think I will still do it until it's renoed. You know, when she is out of here completely." I follow behind her. "Are you seriously going to make a pie?"

"Yeah, but I don't have an oven, so I was thinking we could do dinner again next week and I could use your oven to bake. I'll take care of dinner this time."

"Well ... if you're going to use the apples, you need to use the fresh veggies from the patch too."

"You and those veggies." She smirks bringing the cup to her mouth.

"WOW! This place looks so..." Princess states as he enters the home. "Wow."

"'Bout time you showed up!" I taunt him. "We've got work to do, you slacker."

He yawns and stretches. You're lucky I'm here at all. Big fight broke out last night, and I'm stiff from breaking it up." He leans against the wall and shakes his head. He looks as though he wants to cross his arms, but his biceps are so huge, his arms couldn't cross in front of his body if he tried.

"That so? Who was it this time?" Once in a while one of the high school buddies comes in and tries to hustle someone in pool or hits on someone's lady. They are all pretty stupid, but they try. "One of the boys from the high school?"

Princess closes his eyes and shakes his head. "No, man, damned Sasha and Tammy. Those chicks went after each other. It was crazy!" I start laughing.

"Why were they fighting?"

"It was Sasha. Why do you think they were fighting?" he asks and rolls his shoulder before offering his hand to Riley. "Hey, I know you from the other night! I'm Danny."

"Hi, Danny. I'm Riley."

"You own this place now?"

"You could say I own it for now. I'm renoing it and selling it."

"That's cool." He nods and looks around. "So where's this tub?"

"Follow me, Princess." Riley teases and walks past him to head upstairs. I stay behind purposefully covering my mouth to hide my laughter while the curtain of confusion takes over his features. His head snaps to look at me, and I cough to change the expression.

"You told her?" He accuses sharply. Well, as sharply as Princess can get. He couldn't be intimidating to me if he tried. I've known him far too long.

I shrug without committing an answer. "Damn, Ty ... that's not cool."

"Girls, girls. You're both pretty,” Riley calls out. “Thanks to you, I call him Turtle so you guys are even. Are you guys coming or what?"

"You got it, boss lady," I call out in response and lightly punch Princess in the shoulder. "Let's go, buddy. Got some heavy lifting to do."

"Damn. You seriously have issues, Ty. Telling a super hot chick, with amazing legs my stupid-ass high school nickname." He lumbers behind me. Taking the stairs slowly, I continue walking ahead of him without turning around.

"I do. You are so lucky to have a friend like me."

"If this is lucky..." He mumbles to himself as we reach the hallway at the top of the stairs. Ignoring him, I continue down the hall until I meet Riley, who is waiting for us in the bathroom with her arms crossed in front of her chest and shaking her head.

"If you girls are done bickering, we have a task here." She teases.

"Yes, ma'am," I reply and Princess dips his head.

"Sorry, Riley."

"Boys." She shakes her head smiling brightly. "What do we need? I can run and get it."

I drop to the floor and take a look below the tub. "Okay, I have to turn off the water, and then I'll need a pipe wrench to unlock the pipes. Once that's done, Princess and I will haul it out of the area and fix the broken one. Won't take long once we get this tub out."

"What can I do in the mean time?" She crouches beside me, and I get a smell of her perfume. She smells amazing and it momentarily makes me lose my train of thought. "Ty?"

Shaking my head, I clear my throat and apologize. Pulling my hammer from my tool belt, I hand it to her. "You can go beat up some innocent cupboards downstairs."

"Now THAT sounds like it could be fun! Call me if you guys need me," she replies and leaves the room. Pulling the monkey wrench from my belt, I loosen the nuts so I can move the pipes. In no time, I hear her banging on the cupboards, and I smirk as I wrench the final nut loose before standing.

Together Princess and I manage to lift the tub out of its resting place so we can attack the pipes.

Using the hacksaw, I cut out the broken portion of the plastic pipe and surround the inside with adhesive. I slide the new portion inside and lock it in place with the plastic lock. It takes fifteen minutes but Princess and I manage to get the placing just right as we put it back.

We walk down the stairs, both of us wiping our foreheads free of sweat and dead tired. Riley has two big glasses of lemonade waiting for us. "Is it all done?" she asks cheerily as she passes us each a glass.

"Sure is, that was a lot easier than I thought it would be." I take the glass from her hand.

“That was easy?” Princess questions before drinking down half of his beverage. Pulling the half empty glass from his mouth, he looks at Riley and promptly thanks her for the drink.

With her hands tucked into her front pockets, she leans back against the old yellow refrigerator in the middle of the room. The old appliances need to be taken out to the waiting truck the team agreed that everything is going to a reuse center in the city, someone might want them even if they have to gut the stove to make it work again.

"Thank you, Ty and Danny. You guys are amazing." Reaching into her back pocket, she pulls an envelope out and passes it to Princess. "You earned every penny today. Having to deal with Turtle here." She winks. "Think I could call on you again if we need you?"

"Of course you can, Riley. I would be happy to work with you." He punches me in the shoulder. "Thanks again, Ty. You guys coming to The Shake this weekend?"

"I'm going home this weekend. Maybe next week," Riley answers Princess, and I just shrug.

"One never knows for sure, my friend," I say as he walks out the front door, leaving Riley and me alone in the kitchen.

"What are you doing this weekend, Ty?" she asks after throwing a towel in my direction.

"Probably just laying on my couch and drinking beer. Maybe eat a steak or two. Avoid Sasha ... typical things." I honestly have no plans. I don't know how to tell her that I will probably just sit at home and miss Mel, but that makes me sound pathetic. I don't want to be pathetic. I want to be normal.

"Come with me to the city. We can play pool and you can see some of the other houses I've flipped," she offers excitedly.

"You don't even know me, Riley," I admit as I furrow my brow.

"You're a good man, Ty. I trust you. Besides, I may need your help with something."

"I don't know." I cross my feet at the ankles and lean against the wall.

"Well, you have until noon tomorrow. That's when I'm leaving. I'll be back on Tuesday next week, maybe Wednesday. So if you want to come, you are more than welcome."

"Thanks. I'll think about it." I nod my head once in appreciation. Her stomach growls across the room causing us both to laugh. "Let's go get some lunch. The diner actually makes some amazing food."

"That's probably a good idea," she says as her stomach rumbles some more.

I pull out my keyring and spin it on my finger. "Let's go."

Chapter 5

Tim hits the cue ball with a crack. Sending it across the felt and into the eight ball, which in turn gently rolls into the corner pocket.

"BOOM! Rack 'em up!" He bellows following a fist pump. Walking over to our high top table, he pours another beer from the jug, only to swear when he fills his mug mostly with foam. I laugh as he shakes the foamy liquid from his fingers and then dips them in his glass, popping all the bubbles in its path. I finish collecting all the balls from the pockets and rack them, in order, nice and tight. It takes a couple of tries of rocking back and forth to get them tight enough, but finally they sit perfectly on the felt. "Winner breaks," I announce and take my pool cue from its resting position near the corner pocket.

We've been coming to this pool hall since we were teens and skipping school. Which was crazy because our town only had one senior class and everyone knew everyone. Tim approaches the table and leans down mockingly eyeing the rack, ensuring it's to his standard. This makes me roll my eyes as his racks are far worse than any of mine have ever been. He places the cue ball on the dot just off the center and lines up his pool cue on his knuckles. Pulling back, he pushes it forward and cracks the triangle on the table with a loud CRACK, sending balls flying in every direction, sinking only two. One low and one high.

"Nice break." I offer as I try to line up my next move in my head. I know which one he's going to go for and it will allow me to play because he just can't get anything in those side pockets.

"Thanks. Nine ball side pocket," he calls out as if he were reading my mind. As he hits the ball, he doesn't give it enough back spin and the white ball follows the nine into the pocket. "Dammit." He hisses and shakes his head.

Taking the cue ball out of the pocket, I toss it in the air while I round the table and place it on the felt, lining up my next shot. Bending over I take my time lining up the cue. "Fourteen corner off the rag," I call and follow through with my right arm, giving the ball just enough spin to tap the fourteen into the corner. "Yesssss."

"Nice shot." Tim expresses from behind his mug. "So hey, that chick from The Shake the other night."

"Riley," I offer. "Her name is Riley." I line up my next shot and snap the cue forward sending another ball into the pocket.

"Riley. Where did you meet her and why wasn't I there before you?" he asks, throwing me off guard and causing me to miss my next shot, giving him the opportunity to step up to the table.

"I'm low ball?" he asks resting his hands on the rail.

"Pay attention will ya? Yes, you're low." I step past him and pick up my own mug, taking a drink of warm beer from the tap. "She's the new owner of Widow Crawley's house. She's flipping it, which still confuses me."

"Flipping it?" he asks while circling the table for his next shot. "People really do that, huh?"

"I guess." I shrug and tip my beer back again. "I thought it was only on TV."

In his next three shots, he clears the table. "Eight ball corner pocket." He's got this one in the bag. I watch his mini celebration as he places his stick on the table and joins me. "So she just happened to show up at The Shake, and you just happened to see her and take her under your wing at our watering hole." He swallows "Sounds fishy to me."

"Think whatever you want to think. It just so happens that I was there on the night she decided to come out and I am the only person in town she knows. She liked your set, by the way." This causes my best friend to smile with pride.

"Why wouldn't she? We're amazing." He laughs. "I'm done playin', you?"

"Yeah Yeah. Let's just finish off the beer and head out. I'm beat." He takes both cue sticks and hangs them up where they belong, returning to our table he finishes off the beer in his mug. Looking across the hall, I see the old timers drinking their beers and smoking their filterless cigarettes near the window. Plumes of smoke circle their heads. I watch them momentarily banter back and forth with drunken movements. I'm sure they've been here for most of the day and will most likely be here until the owner kicks them out.

"What do you think about this Riley chick?" Tim pulls me from my thoughts.

"She's my boss. I think she can make me work." I laugh trying to avoid the question he's really asking of me, and I am not going to go there.

"Dude, it's been over a year. I mean, Mel would be okay with you moving on." He treads lightly around the topic of Mel. He always has, unlike others who just forget she ever existed and meant everything to me.

"Don't." I warn him.

"I'm just saying, don't be afraid to move on. It's okay if you're attracted to Riley. Hell, I am attracted to Riley, and I will bet every guy that saw her in The Shake the other night is attracted to her too. You're not doing anything wrong. You're living and that's all that damn well matters," he states to me while picking up his car keys from the table and spinning them on his finger.

I lift my ballcap and place it snugly back on my head before walking away from Tim, and towards my truck parked in the quiet parking lot outside. He doesn't understand at all. Hell, I barely understand myself. I throw the truck into reverse and back out of my stall, kicking up gravel and dust behind me. I shift into drive and pull away from the pool hall. It doesn't take longer than a few minutes to get home, there's one set of street lights between my house and the hall and luckily it was green.

Arriving at my house, I slam the door of my truck and storm inside of the house and drop onto the sofa. I realize that in all actuality, I am more angry at myself than I am at Tim, and it angers me further.

Taking off my cap, I toss it on the table and turn on the television. Randomly flipping the channels I hope that one channel will have something to watch, but it never does. I settle on
Wheel of Fortune
and call out the answers to Pat Sayjak along with the contestants. I haven't done this since I lived at home with my parents. It was our dinner time ritual. We would all sit in front of the television, with dinners on our laps, shouting the answers at the TV.”

With a sigh, I take my phone from my pocket and start scrolling through old messages from Mel. Yes, I still have them. All of them. Smiling, I read the thread starting with the first text I sent her when I got home.

"Hi. This is Ty. So, I really enjoyed your company in Mexico and I really hope to hear from you when you get home. Even if you just tell me to go to hell."

Scrolling through the thread, I see that she responded a week later when she got home. I remember thinking she just kept me in Mexico. Not bringing our connection home, and I was okay with it. Then she replied, and it changed everything. Turned my world upside down.

"I am so glad you texted! I just got home this morning and really just need to sleep for a month. Can I call you tomorrow? I'd like to hear your voice again. Oh! And I don't think I would ever tell you to go to hell."

I cover my mouth with my fingers and lean forward on the sofa. Elbows on my knees and my phone held with both hands between them. After scrolling through all the messages, I take a deep breath and allow my finger to hover over the select all box. Chewing on the inside of my lip, I take a deep breath and press the home key. I'm not ready to delete Mel from my life, and I just pray that the next person in my life can understand.

I come to the realization that I have to talk about her. I have to tell Riley about Mel, about how we met and fell in love and how she was ripped from me. How her parents blamed me and denied my access to her funeral, not that I could go anyways since I was laid up in that hospital bed for the longest time. And how I haven't really talked about her. Maybe, just maybe I can get some closure.

Picking up my phone I shoot Riley a text.

Me:
Hey. When you get back to town, can we get a beer or something?

I'm nervous just pressing send. She doesn't respond right away, and that's fine. The only person who ever answered me instantaneously was Mel, and I don't expect anyone to be like her.

Riley:
I'll be back in 45 minutes. You okay?

Me:
I am. Come to my house. Have you eaten?

Riley:
No eating.

Me:
Are you driving?

Riley:
Voice to text. My eyes are on the interstate.

Me:
Good. Thank you. I'll get pizza and some beers.

Riley:
See you soon.

I take a deep breath. Baby steps. I step into the bathroom and splash cold water on my face. Looking up into the mirror, I watch myself lean on the sink and examine my thoughts. Why do I want Riley to know? I find her attractive and exciting and fun to be around, and she helps me put the sad memories at the back of my thoughts. She makes me want to move forward step out of this dark shadow I have been living in for the past year. She makes me
feel
again.

I wipe the water drops from the mirror and leave the room, picking up my keys and heading to the restaurant to order a pizza and pick up a six pack. On my way there I find myself laughing. I haven't felt this nervous in a very long time, and I honestly don't think I like it. I feel like a school boy.

***

The pizza place is Sue's restaurant. It's half diner and half take-out restaurant. Sue has been running it for quite some time, and she's always busy. I lean against the wall waiting for the pizza to be finished, and I decide to call Tim. I feel like an ass for storming out on him earlier, and his words did push me to make the call that I made. Made me realize my own thoughts of moving forward weren't crazy that they were real thoughts and real needs.

"Hey, Ty. Whatcha doin?" He slurs into the phone. I look at the beer in my hand and realize that this whole town has a problem.

"Not much. Just waiting for a pizza at Sue's."

"Why are you getting a pizza at Sue's? Come back to the pool hall and have some wings with me. Sasha is coming by. We could have a real fun night, as long as we don't cross swords." I chuckle at his
Star Wars
reference, but there is no way in hell that I would be with Sasha, or even Sasha AND Tim. That's just opening up a whole can of wrong.

"Sorry, man." I take a deep breath, and I hear him mumbling something to someone near him. "Actually, Riley is coming by tonight."

"'Bout time. This past week has been nothin' but watching you mope over her. I can see it, you're sick like a puppy over her."

I don't see it. I have no clue what he's talking about. "Whatever, man. Look. I just wanted to call and say thanks for making me realize I'm a jerk."

"You're more than a jerk. You're an…" I hang up the phone before he can continue his thought. Rolling my eyes, I tuck my phone in my pocket and continue holding the wall up with my back. Minutes tick by and finally the cashier calls me over, telling me my pizza is done and handing me a large box. Winking at her, I take the box and tuck the beers under my arm, bouncing out of the building whistling the entire time.

I pull up to my house just as Riley is getting out of her car. She grins when she sees the pizza box. Her grin grows when she sees the six pack of beer in the other hand. I'm suddenly nervous. Very nervous.

"I was starting to think that you weren't coming home, and I would have to break in."

"I told you I would be here, with pizza and beer. I promised to feed you and I keep all my promises," I express to her as I push the pizza into her hands so I can unlock my door. Taking a deep breath, I turn the knob and let her in. Riley winks as she crosses my path, and I smell her faint perfume. She smells amazing as usual.

Closing the door, I follow her in and pull out a couple of beers as she opens the box and doesn't even bother with plates. She just scoops a slice up with her hands and eats the cheese loaded slice of heaven without any utensils.

"Oh, my God." She moans with her mouthful. "I don't think I have ever had pizza this good." She sighs between bites. Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, I offer her a napkin and take my own slice. Grabbing the six pack, I take it to the living room and pass one to Riley, who now joins me on the sofa. I watch her in amusement as she powers through three more slices before falling back on the sofa full from her meal.

"Good pizza, huh?" I chuckle and swallow the last bite of my slice. She can't even answer me with more than an audible sigh. "You were pretty hungry."

"I haven't eaten since breakfast. I've been on the go all day long. Wheelin' and dealin'." She spins her pointer finger in the air. I enjoy watching her act so comfortably in my home.

"So you said something about wanting to tell me a story. Sounded kind of serious." Riley shifts on the sofa, picking at the label on her bottle. “You feed me and get me buzzed. It's gotta be something good.”

It's now or never. I turn my body and bring my leg up on the sofa so I am facing her. "Riley, I haven't been completely up front with you." I reach out and brush the straggling hair from her face, grazing her cheek as I do. Her eyes close momentarily, and I let out a low rumble in my own throat. Just by her actions, I'm sure that she would be up for it, if something were to happen.

My hand travels lightly down her shoulder, her arm, coming to rest on her hand, tenderly stroking her knuckles with my thumb. "About a year and a half ago, I went to Mexico with Tim and a few other guys to let loose. You know fun week without rules." Her eyes open and follow the direction on my fingers as they dance against her skin.