Shuddering, I checked inside my beer bottle before taking a gulp from it. “That was one of the worst moments of my life. I just felt something hard in my mouth—” I ignored the chuckle from him “—and thought it was a leaf or something. When I saw that damn spider…”
Both of us went silent after I stopped talking. I couldn’t say for sure what Logan was thinking about, but I was remembering some of the funny moments we’d had together now.
I jumped slightly when he burst out laughing at something. “Do you remember when we got stuck on the roof?”
“Oh yeah, it was during a thunder and lightning storm as well. Thanks for that.”
What had we been doing on the roof—this roof, to be precise—during a thunder and lightning storm? Honestly, we were doing our homework. I was late with a project on the universe and stars, and he was testing gravity because he had a paper to write on Isaac Newton.
Neither of us had bothered to pay attention to the warnings of the storm, and roughly ten minutes after we left the adults talking about politics after dinner to climb onto the roof, the shit had hit the fan. We’d scrambled to get back in again, but the tiles were too wet for us to get to the window.
What was worse was that the lightning was close to us, and when the thunder shook the ground, we slid down the tiles and closer to the edge of the roof. We’d even screamed our heads off for help, but they couldn’t hear us over the noise of the rain and thunder.
“Yeah, I don’t want to repeat that ever again. I still have nightmares about it,” Logan cringed. “If Dad hadn’t gone to the bathroom, we probably would’ve fallen.”
“One day maybe we’ll be able to laugh about it properly.”
Raising an eyebrow, he looked over at me. “I doubt it. I can laugh at it slightly, but the full weight of what could have happened is way too real for me now.”
“I get you on that.”
“So,” he sighed. “I think we should move you in this weekend. You’ll get more of a feel for what you want done while you’re in it. Plus, if anything is faulty, you’ll find out sooner rather than later and can get it fixed.”
Looking over at Pops’ chair, I knew what to do to protect it. “I want to put his chair in his room and then lock the door for a while. I’m not ready to touch his stuff or change it in there, and I want to keep the chair safe. He was the only one who ever sat on it, and I don’t want anyone to ruin it.”
Not even waiting a beat, he stood up and moved over to it. “Let’s do it now, so you’ve got that weight off your shoulders. We’ll lock his room up tight, keep it all safe, and then you only have to focus on the rest of the place.”
Knowing he was right, I got up and took one side of it. There really wasn’t any need for me to do it because I knew full well he probably could’ve carried it himself up the stairs, but still.
When we got to Pops’ room, though, I took a step back. “Can you do it? Just put it in a corner or wherever there’s space.”
He didn’t even bat an eyelid at the request and took it inside, locking the door with the key when he was done.
As we walked back downstairs, he bumped my shoulder. “What are you going to do with the yard?”
I didn’t have green fingers. In fact, if I misbehaved when I was little, that’s what my punishment was. All the kids at school moaned about being grounded and having their phones taken away. Me, I’d moaned about mowing the lawn, weeding, pruning, and the hell that was gardening.
And the one that I now owned was fucking massive.
“Burn it all,” I muttered. “Get a flame thrower and just let rip.”
Bursting out laughing, he threw his arm around my shoulders and moved us to look out the window at it. The mean shit!
“Why don’t you think about what you’d like that’s easy maintenance, write it down or find photos, and give them to the dads to work on? They love gardening and yard work, so they’ll be all over that.”
Tipping my head to the side while I mulled it over, I knew he was right. And that meant I didn’t have to do it.
“I can’t believe I’m really doing this. It feels surreal.”
Squeezing me, he gave me silent support while it all hit home, and I was even more grateful for his presence.
By the time we threw our bottles out and locked up, I’d resolved myself to the fact I was moving home and was going to be living in the house. In a way, it was beautiful because I’d have my pops with me, seeing as how it was a part of him. But in more ways, it was heartbreaking. I had so many memories of him in that house, and I wanted more.
Death was final, though, and life didn’t always go how we wanted it to. You just had to make the most of it so you had no regrets.
I was just getting into my car when Logan called my name. “I heard from DB that there’s an opening for an English teacher going at the high school. There’s an application form online, so all you have to do is complete it and send it back.”
Chewing my lip, I thought about it. That was my passion. I loved being an English teacher and had dreamed about being one since I was a kid, so this position coming up right now felt like kismet.
Pops, if that’s you making sure I’m staying, I’m going to resurface your chair with bright
