The Rest of the Story(40)

“Be careful!” I yelled, realizing too late I’d startled him. Whoops. “You need a ladder buddy.”

He just looked at me. “A what?”

“A ladder buddy. So you don’t fall.” God, I was such a dork. I put down my spray bottle, walking toward him. “You know, to hold it. My dad . . . he has this rule.”

That was putting it mildly. If my mom had been one to throw caution to the wind, my dad had always held it close and tight. We walked with scissors. At even the smallest intersection we looked both ways. Twice. And when it came to ladders, you never went up alone.

“Ladder buddy?” Roo repeated. He looked amused. “I have never heard of that in my life.”

“Maybe it’s a dentist thing,” I suggested, assuming my normal position on the other side of the ladder, both hands gripping it tight. “Okay, you’re good. Go ahead.”

“You’re going to stop me from falling?”

“No,” I replied, a bit huffily, “but I will keep the ladder from collapsing underneath you, which would pitch you off to your death.”

“Death?”

“I’m a Payne,” I explained. “We’re a careful people.”

He considered this, and me, before saying, “Well, I’m a Price. We’re mostly known for sticking our fingers into light sockets.”

“All the more reason to make safety a habit,” I said. He snorted. “Just climb, would you?”

He laughed. “Okay, buddy.”

Up he went, while I, still gripping, contemplated when I’d escape the long shadow of my father’s safety practices. Not yet, apparently. As Roo pulled his phone from his pocket, I said, “What are you doing, exactly?”

“Mimi needs some roof work done, so Silas sent me down to grab shots of what needs repairing,” he replied, snapping one photo, then another. The ladder wobbled, and I gripped it harder.

“I thought Silas and Celeste were divorced,” I said.

“Twice,” he replied, lifting one foot to scratch it. “But he’s still family to Mimi. They take care of each other.”

“Both feet on the ladder, please,” I said before I could even stop myself.

He turned, peering down at me again. “You really are nervous about this, aren’t you?”

“I told you,” I replied. “It’s genetic.”

“Maybe,” he said, examining a shot he’d already taken on his screen, “but you are also part Calvander. And they leap off ladders. For fun.”

“Are you done?”

“Not yet,” he said cheerfully, turning the phone to landscape mode. He looked down at me. “Question: Does it make you nervous when I do this?”

Gingerly, he jumped on the ladder step once. Then twice. With both feet.

“You stop that,” I said in my sternest voice.

“What about this?” He widened his eyes, then dangled one leg off entirely. “Oopsie!”

“Roo. Just—”

“Boy!” Oxford bellowed from the porch of the main house. I jumped where I was standing. “Don’t you be acting a fool on that damn ladder, you want to crack your head open?”

Roo pulled all his limbs back on, quick, as I laughed out loud. Then he looked at me. “Some buddy you are,” he said. “What happened to support?”

“I’m supporting!” I said. “You’re the one acting a fool.”

BEEP, went the walkie suddenly. “Rubber Duck! You got the keys to the prize case? Someone just hit the jackpot on the bonus tickets and they’re getting antsy.”

“On my way,” Roo replied, taking his hands back. He signed off with a beep, then looked at me. “Duty calls. Thanks for the support, buddy.”

“You’re welcome,” I said.

“Saylor!” I turned to see Trinity, in the doorway of room four with the vacuum. “Are we working or are we flirting?”

My face went red-hot, but Roo just laughed. “Some buddy you are,” I said. “What happened to support?”

“I’m supporting,” he said, folding up the ladder. “You’re the one flirting.” Then he grinned at me, stuck it under his arm, and started toward the office. Again my face was flushed. But for different reasons, now.

“Now, what I want us all to do is to breathe together,” Kim, the leader of the birthing class, was saying from the front of the room. “Okay? Inhale on three. One, two, THREE.”

I drew in a shallow breath, not sure how me doing this would actually help this process. Trinity, who was leaning back against me, sucked in enough for both our lungs, before letting it go when instructed with a whoosh that blew her bangs sideways. Impressive.

“When the baby comes,” Kim was saying now, “there will be moments to push and moments to rest. But no matter what, you want to be breathing.”

“Seems like a good rule for anytime, really,” I muttered.

“Hush.” Trinity shifted her position, elbowing me in my stomach in the process. “You’re supposed to be the Sergeant, remember?”

“He doesn’t make jokes?” I asked.

“Not stupid ones, no.”

Originally it was Celeste who had been Trinity’s partner, as the Sergeant’s delayed homecoming meant he wasn’t around when the birthing classes began in early June. But then Celeste’s boss at the grocery had quit, so she’d had to take over running everything, and Mimi stepped in. With the season beginning and the hotel still down a housekeeper, though, soon she too had her hands full. The only other ones with free time were me and Oxford, who claimed he’d faint at even the mention of the word uterus, much less a whole class about its capabilities.