Brody (11 page)

The very man who’d brought me up surprised me when I went to open the side door of the ranch house. Stepping away from the door, I caught my pop’s burly frame. He was flipping some meats with a spatula over a large grill, thick smoke rising up above his dark Stetson hat.

Now or never was my thought as I redirected, heading that way to say “hi” to him. I hadn’t seen my pop as often as I should. Lately, it had just seemed easier that way. He, like most, had assumed I didn’t want to be a part of his new business, the one he started alongside my brother Griffin. A loan from my pro-athlete brother created a means for my pop to leave his previous job in construction and start his own just last year, a small crafting business. Right in the heart of the city,
Chandler & Sons Furniture Co.
would soon take a small piece of the business pie. They’d open this fall, but they would be minus one son in tow.

Bracing myself for battle, I approached the man behind the business, knowing good and well we’d have words here. We had in the past over my decision.

He turned slightly, a phone in his hand, and my pace slowed. He was on a call, his voice low into the phone, and I decided to delay the inevitable for just a bit longer.

“Uncle Brody!”

Closing the side door, I grabbed my niece Sarah off the floor before she could crash into me. She had a habit of running. Spinning her upside down, I smashed a kiss on her face. That elicited a giggle and when I pulled away, I noticed the half eaten cookie in her hand, as well as a ring of smeared chocolate around her mouth.

“Didn’t know you were growing out a goatee, kid,” I said, pointing at that chocolate ‘stache. I leaned in. “You sneak that or somethin’?”

She knew good and well she couldn’t have cookies before dinner. And though, I could smell the warm chili moving through the air, my gram had a strict “no eating until everyone is here” policy.

Sarah lifted her little finger, giving the
shh
sound and I could only laugh at her. I brought her on my hip; the girl getting way too big too fast. It seemed to be just yesterday she was in diapers.

“Where’s Grammy and your mama?” I asked her.

“Kitchen,” she said, nibbling on her cookie. “They’re makin’ pecan pie.”

Damn, was it good to be home. Sarah pointed the way, her cookie gone before we could even hit the kitchen. The room was a heaven of warm smells and hard working women, the back bone of my family. To my surprise, my cousin Marlene was in town from college, cooking away beside her own mama, my Aunt Robin.

I set Sarah down, letting her lead the rest of the way. She tackled Karen’s leg, slamming her face into her thigh and begging if she could finally have a cookie. She was an ornery little thing. Karen said no and Sarah left the room pouting. The exit sent the entire kitchen looking my way as Sarah had to pass me to get out. And so, the tsunami of hugs and kisses began. I got told everything from I was looking too thin to asking where my laundry was so they could do it. Always trying to take care of somebody, these women.

I gathered my aunt under my arm as she’d been the one who asked about my laundry. I lowered, kissing her cheek. “I can handle it.” They didn’t raise me to be independent for nothing.

She patted my chest and I made way for Gram. She got to me and I squeezed her with both arms, having to squat just to do it.

“I swear, Brody. You’re gonna break this old woman,” she said, laughing as she warmed my back with her hands.

She was wrong about that; me breaking her. This woman could never be broken. That wouldn’t be possible.

I went to pull away from the hug, but she didn’t let me at first, holding on for what seemed like just a moment longer. I let her, not minding, but it did worry me a little. My gram… nothing really could get past her, and that… yeah that did have me worrying. She let me go eventually, looking none the wiser, and I thought maybe the extra long hug had been in my head. By the time the hugs wrapped up and initial hellos passed, Sarah had made her way back into the kitchen. I gathered her up and took her out, knowing the women were working in there. We got into the living room and I set her down, letting her run away and another member of my kin appeared in the next room; Sarah doing a good job of announcing my arrival. My older brother Hayden sat on the couch by himself, turning his head.

I pulled off my ball cap, tossing it on a table behind the sofa, and slapped his hand. I had to do so kind of quiet as he had a sleeping baby in his hands. Crissy was only a few months old now, Karen giving birth to her over the summer.

He fist bumped me after. “So you do exist.”

I’d call him a fucker if he didn’t hold an infant. I let that one slide and crossed in front of the couch to sit beside him.

“Just lay off with that, Hay,” I said, settling in. I knew my job kept me away for weeks at a time. Gram reminded me of that every time I talked to her. I moved my hand behind the couch. “You ain’t ever handling Griff like this.” He was younger than us, a couple years behind me.

Hayden smirked, watching what I could now see was a ball game, basketball. My family was really into the game. Especially, since Griffin went pro and all that. He was in Miami getting at his game while the youngest of us, Colton, was training to do the same at Texas State.

Hayden turned my way. “Last I checked, Griffin has to be where he is. If he had it his way, he’d be here.”

He didn’t have to voice it because we both knew that. Griffin had a place for home, family, like the rest of us and his wife, Roxie, seemed to really love being here too when the pair of them came back home to visit. Shit, they’d even had their wedding here on Gram’s property in the end. But the thing about Hayden’s statement was I saw it for what it really was. He wasn’t getting on me for not being home, not really. He was doing it because of the reason he felt I wasn’t, that being my denial of the family business.

I wished it were that simple.

I ran my fingers through my mop of hair, resting my arm on the top when I realized I was doing it. “I didn’t come here for all this,” I told him.

He nodded. “But Pop’s here and you’re going to have to—deal that is.”

I sighed, knowing he wouldn’t lay off with this. He hadn’t in the last few months of the development, since my decline. I had still been working at
Carter’s Construction
then, the company me, him, and my pop used to work for before the business came along. That, in itself had confused them all, working for someone else instead of helping with development of the family business, and even more when I left
Carter’s
abruptly, deciding to branch out on my own.

“He’s out back if you’re wondering,” Hayden said. “Cooking on the barbecue.”

I folded my arms over my chest. “I know. I saw him, but he was on the phone.”

Hayden acknowledged that, lifting his chin. He laid a hand on Crissy’s head, placing it on blonde hair so thick already. Hers was curly though, much like Colton’s in that way. Hayden turned to me. “Do what you want. You know I don’t care and Pop… he’ll be okay. But just don’t distance yourself from the family. Gram won’t say, but I know it scares her, you being gone. I think it reminds her of mom. You remember how dismissive she was in the end, right? Just before?”

God, how could I forget? She made up any excuse, anything she could to be away from my brothers and me; my dad. And when she was around, she wouldn’t even hug us or show any kind of affection toward us. I remember that being weird, even then, despite being so young. Then she was gone. Just like that. Not even a goodbye. I only remembered the thought of her now. She’d been gone so long.

I didn’t want my gram feeling that way or any way close because I chose a different path. I would have to talk to her about it, set her mind at ease. Me not being around had nothing to do with not wanting to be here. It was just something I needed to do for me.

Something I had a feeling they wouldn’t understand.

“Soups on, fellas!” came Aunt Robin’s voice from the kitchen and I smiled. She always said that.

Bracing himself, Hayden rose with my niece, his hand on her back.

“I’ll handle it,” I said to him and he turned around, nodding in understanding. I’d make sure Gram knew what was up, all of them eventually, but for now, I would have dinner.

I had my hands on my knees, getting up myself, when the doorbell rang. Hayden went to turn that way with Crissy, but I told him I would get it, heading toward the door. A woman stood behind it, pretty with dark skin and a large hat blocking the sun. She also had a white casserole dish in her hands. The clear lid on it let me know it was some kind of dumplings.

I widened the door. “Can I help you with something, ma’am?”

She slid off her hat, revealing large curls that swayed wildly in the wind, and gave me the largest of smiles. “Yes. Are you Brody? Or maybe Hayden?”

My brow rose. “Uh, Brody. I’m sorry, but I don’t think I know—”

“Ann?”

Pop came from behind me, out of nowhere really, and approached the woman. He drew forward with his hat off, lowered in his hands, and when he arrived, he touched her shoulder, guiding her in for one of those friendly hugs, which said something in itself. My old man? He wasn’t a hugger really. He never had been.

“Blake.” This woman grinned, pulling away. My pop still had his hand on her shoulder from when he brought her in, but he didn’t take it back. He simply redirected to her forearm, holding underneath it and cupping it.

“I’m glad you could come,” he told her and then I froze in place when he turned to me.

Forgetting myself for a moment, I removed the slouch from my back. I made sure I carried myself well when he was around. Still, I didn’t think that would omit my recent history with him though. He wasn’t really talking to me as of late, since my decision.

I braced myself for that. “Hey, Pop.”

I prepared for the worst, even in front of this stranger at the door. What I didn’t prepare for? Was a damn pat on the back.

He passed me, squeezing once, while he brought this woman inside, his hand still on her arm. “Hey, son. How’ve been? All right?”

I blinked. “Yeah?” I couldn’t help the question really. Who was this fella I thought was my old man?

He nodded, then faced the woman. Ann, I believed her name was as he said it before. “This is Ann, Brody,” he said, not looking at me. Only at her. “Ann, this is one of my boys. Second in the line of age. Brody, Ann was one of my nurses when I was in the hospital.”

And then her face appeared in my mind, the one who checked in the most, who’d been there when Pop had gone through the rough with his heart attack last year. Reaching over, I shook her hand, wishing I could do more. “I remember. Thank you for everything you did.”

This seemed to please her, her hand slipping from mine but only to slide on top of Pop’s still on her arm. “This one had all the fight. I only helped him find his way.”

He smiled at her. “Let me take you to meet the rest of the family. Brody, can you take Ann’s hat?”

I ended up getting that, her wrap, and my pop’s hat when he gave to me. Hurrying, I placed them in the closet, trying to get to the kitchen. Pop brought a woman, a real woman to my gram’s house. Hell, this was crazy. But when I got in, I seemed to be the only one surprised. This Ann was greeted with hugs and even a cheek kiss from Gram. They took her in, took her dish, and the Chandler ladies brought her under their wings. The whole scene reminded me of the day Griffin’s wife, Roxie, had been introduced and Karen before that. The difference was, we all felt like we knew them before they even came. Griffin and Hayden wouldn’t stop going on about the women they were dating prior to them being introduced. We were all close that way. But I didn’t know this Ann.

I felt like the only one.

Even Hayden gave her a hug, sliding Crissy into her arms when she asked to meet her, and Pop stood close to her side, his hand settled on her lower back while she cooed. Hayden stepped back and I grabbed him, walking out of the fray a bit. I just tipped my chin toward the scene, wondering what was up, and he shrugged, not understanding.

I decided to break it down. “You know her? You know Pop and… her?”

To this, he crossed his arms, looking up at me slightly, me taller despite being younger. He frowned. “Maybe you should start existing more,” he simply said, before rejoining the group.

And I stood there, taking in the scene, the scene I wasn’t a part of. I agreed with him all the way about that, what he’d said. I should exist more, be here more.

But maybe, at least right now anyway, I couldn’t be.

Chapter Twelve

Alexa

“Please. I’m only twenty minutes late,” I said, shrugging my bag up my shoulder. My chest rising and falling, I tried to catch my breath from the sprint over several blocks, but the woman in front of me kept me from reaching that goal. It was her eyes. Her eyes told me all I needed to know about my answer.

Please. I have nowhere else to go.

The woman at the shelter’s door sighed, leaning against it. She had just seen me coming when she went to close up and lock down for the night per the shelter’s protocol. I stayed at many who’d had the same policy. She shifted her weight on her hip. “I’m sorry, sweetie. But you’re going to have to find another place to stay tonight.”

Swallowing, I looked away.

“We have rules here,” she continued. “You’re here by eight or you don’t get in.”

“But it’s 8:20,” I said, showing her my watch. “Can’t you just make an exception? It’s my job. I had to stay late or I wouldn’t get paid.” A decision I decided to make for a little extra cushion, but now seemed like the most foolish thing. I picked up three jobs today, odd ones in cleaning that I’d found posted at the library. Brody’s money allowed me to get a decent outfit and some tennis shoes. Each job paid between fifty to seventy-five dollars a pop. I figured I would need that. It would get me a one-way ticket back home with a little left over to help with my family. But now, it was costing me a warm place to sleep tonight. I knew that as the woman in the shelter went to close the door.