Only One (Reed Brothers)(18)

They get busy with no help from me, and they move Mom’s bed over, making enough room in the bedroom for a hospital bed and equipment. It doesn’t take them long, but they do have to rearrange the whole room.

They leave the same way they arrived, with absolutely no help from me. The two that look just alike high-five one another, and one kisses Seth on the cheek. Seth shoves him back and grabs him in a headlock, until Paul barks at them to knock it off. He runs them out the door with apologies to me.

“We’ll see you later,” Matt says. He goes out, but then he pokes his head back in the door. “You okay?” His brow furrows.

Suddenly, I remember that I don’t know what happened to Nick. “Do you know where Nick is?” I ask.

He grins. “Oh, your dad rolled him off the couch this morning and told him to go home. He said he’d see you tonight.”

I scratch my head. “Dad rolled him off the couch?”

He laughs. “You should ask him about it.” He waves again. “See you later!” Then he disappears.

Now I need to find Nick and ask him what happened between him and Dad. But Mom will be home soon.





Nick

My mind isn’t on work at all. It’s on Carrie. Last night, I slept in her bed until her father came home. Holding her next to me felt…right. It’s the only thing that has felt right for me in a really long time. I feel like my days are all work. My nights are more work. And all so I can hold on to my parents’ place at the beach.

I remember when they bought it. They were so excited. They paid for it in full and we were supposed to stay there only while they worked to get something a little larger. But that day never happened. We were happy anyway. I’d be happy there forever, but now the property taxes and insurance are killing me.

When I look at Carrie, I see possibilities. I see a future I forgot I might be able to have. I see college and dating and marriage. I might even see kids one day. But right now, I’ll never have the future I want because I’m working too damn hard.

I toss a can of tuna onto the shelf just a little too hard and the store manager scowls at me. “You dent it, you buy it,” he says.

I look down at it. I could actually use a can of tuna because my cupboards are bare. I live mostly on favors. There are so many people who owe me favors that I always have enough to eat, but not much else. Just like when I took the firewood to the Reeds—I do that all the time. I get from one person to give to another, building up favors. Then I sometimes collect. The rest I keep on account. For the firewood, I helped a guy clean fish he caught after a day on his boat. I smelled like fish for what seemed like a week, but he gave me some fish to take home, and I got the firewood from him when I needed it.

That’s the way my life works. Sometimes I feel like I’m robbing Peter to pay Paul. I’m tired. So tired.

Speaking of Pete and Paul, I see two of the Reeds walking through the aisles of the store. Each one has a kid on his hip, and there are three little girls at their feet. “Hey Nick,” Paul says, and he high-fives me as he walks by. He sets one of the kids down so he can look at some buckets, and the kid toddles across the floor faster than anything I ever saw. Paul jumps up and scoops him into his arms right before he can up-end a display of goldfish crackers. Paul tickles his belly and he scrunches up, his little face breaking into a grin.

“Can I help you find something?” I ask them, getting to my feet.

Paul holds the kid out to me, his feet flailing. “Hold this for a second,” he says. I take him and settle him on my hip. He jams his fingers into his mouth, and then he reaches up and jams them into my mouth. Yuck.

“Does it have a name?” I ask around the kid’s fingers.

“That one is Matty,” Pete says. He holds the other one out. “Hold this one for a sec, too.” He settles the little girl on my hip. “Behave, Hoppy,” he says with a shake of his finger. He follows Paul and the three little girls to the other aisle.

This one doesn’t like me nearly as much as the other one does and her eyes fill with tears. “Um, guys,” I call. But they have gone around the corner. Crap. I have no idea what to do with babies. “Hey,” I call.

“Hey,” the little girl echoes, and she grins.

“Oh, you can talk,” I say and she jumps in my arms, flopping her hands around. She’s wearing a bathing suit and a little sun hat, and they must have just put sunscreen on her because she smells like coconuts and she’s a little slippery. Particularly when she does that jumping thing she’s doing.

Matty still has his fingers jammed in my mouth, and I realize he tastes a little like peanut butter. And jelly? Yep. Definitely jelly. I guess it could be worse.

Paul comes around the corner with a bucket and holds it up. “Blue okay, Hop?” he asks.

She swings her arms a little harder and he puts the handle of the plastic bucket in her fingers. She immediately flops again and hits me over the head with it. Paul laughs and walks back around the corner. He comes back with a yellow one. I run around to the other aisle before he can give it to Matty. One kid beating me over the head is bad enough.

When I round the corner, I run into Carrie.

“Oh my God,” she breathes. But she immediately breaks out with a laugh.

“I’m dying here,” I say.

“You want some help?”