Real Men Knit(42)

“You can still get it.”

Val blinked and snorted. “So, you’re saying you’re not giving up. You’re gonna teach me?”

Kerry sighed, then smiled at her friend. “Yeah, if I don’t have to beat that ass too much. You are a nerve plucker. I may just pass you on to Jesse.”

Jesse’s eyes went wide, and Val laughed. “Now I am insulted, Jesse Strong. Is this how you plan on running Strong Knits? Because I suspect you’re going to have plenty of women coming in for lessons once the word gets out.”

“Private lessons? Maybe I need to dust off my needles.” Lucas walked through the front door as he made his little declaration, and once again Val’s eyes lit up. Kerry couldn’t resist smiling. Val was like a kid in a candy store.

“What are you doing here?” Damian asked.

“Good morning to you too,” Lucas said, unfazed. Then he turned Kerry’s way. “I came to check on Kerry and see how she is after her harrowing night.” He put on a show then, flexing biceps that did not need to be flexed. “Complete with FDNY rescue and all.”

“I thought you said it was no big deal,” Damian said, deadpan.

Kerry laughed. “It wasn’t.”

“No, it definitely wasn’t,” Jesse chimed in. “And if I recall, all you were was a government messenger. It was me doing the actual rescuing.”

Kerry’s eyes shifted between the three of them, not quite knowing what they were really arguing about. Then her phone buzzed with a message, taking her attention from the strange but entertaining morning show.

Her heart dropped. “Shit!”

Like the trained rescuer he was, Lucas was immediately at her side.

“What is it?” he asked, his firm grip at her elbow and forearm.

Kerry looked at him. Then over at Jesse. Her eyes went to Val and she pushed her cell out to her friend.

Val read the text and Kerry saw the corner of her lip quirk up.

“The message is from her landlord. Turns out the building next door caused some structural damage to her building, so it is temporarily uninhabitable for the next few weeks.”

“It says maybe up to six!” Kerry wailed.

“Yes, maybe up to six,” Val said calmly, as if Kerry’s life wasn’t being completely destroyed by that damned text. “But on the upside, you are allowed to go in and get your things today between ten and one under the supervision of the FDNY”—she made a gesture toward Lucas—“and they are offering temporary apartments during the time you are out of yours.”

“Yeah, in either the Bronx or Brooklyn on a first-come, first-served basis. What do you think those odds are, and what will my commute be like getting from the community center to here to wherever me and my bags are staying?” Kerry blinked back tears and the room began to spin.

“Don’t worry, hon. It will be fine,” Val said.

“Yes, it will be fine,” Lucas said. “The damage isn’t as bad as this text implies. You may be back in sooner.”

Kerry looked at him. “You knew?”

He nodded. “I heard this morning. I was coming over to check on you and tell you that too.”

She heard Jesse let out a breath as he walked over her way. He moved to her side and pulled Lucas’s hand from her arm. “Here,” he said. “Take a seat.”

Lucas stared at Jesse for a moment but let Kerry go and took the chair next to her at the table. “I just heard and wanted to see if you knew and also how you were dealing with it. Looks like there’s more damage than initially thought from the building next door, and structurally, with the age of your building, it’s just not safe for you to go back right now. But don’t worry, it shouldn’t be for long. Just like the text said.”

Kerry let out a long sigh as she rubbed her forehead. She thought of putting her head down on the farmhouse table or, better yet, crawling under it. Thoughts of just how temporary “temporary” would really be and the commute nightmare of traveling from either the Bronx or Brooklyn while doing two part-time jobs was something she didn’t relish with the way transit had been performing lately. She let out a slight moan, affording herself that, then straightened her back. Enough of this. What was she doing wallowing? It wasn’t like she could—well, she could, but she wouldn’t—go to Virginia crying to her mother. Besides, she didn’t think she’d be a welcome third wheel there anyway.

“I guess I don’t have any choice,” she said, getting up from the chair. She looked at the time on her cell. “I need to get going and gather what I can before stopping by the management company to check out whatever this temporary housing is. I don’t know how far out they’re talking about in either. Off the top of my head I guess I’d pick the Bronx since it’s closer to here. Brooklyn is huge, and I could end up in a place closer to Staten Island than Manhattan, with my luck. It would end up with me on the subway at midnight.”

“Well then, don’t take either,” Jesse said, surprising the room.

Kerry pushed her glasses up farther on her nose and looked at Jesse like he’d grown a second head. An alien one, and so much less beautiful then the one he usually sported. “And you propose I do what exactly? This text doesn’t give me much of a choice. I see either A or B. There is no C listed.” She waved her phone in his face. “Would you care to read it?”