Page 36 of Avenged

“That’s because Mr. Dick isn’t my father, and Mom would wonder why I bothered to put a ring on anyone’s finger when nothing lasts.”

“But you didn’t put a ring on her finger, right? I mean, neither of you have rings.”

“It was metaphorical, dipshit.”

“You’ve been hanging around Jersey more than I thought. All those big words.”

I rolled my eyes. I hadn’t seen her in two weeks, but if I said that, he’d just comment on the fact I knew how many days it had been since I’d seen her. It also made me realize my brother was pretty damn astute, because he’d caught on to Jersey’s big words sooner than I had. I wondered how many more things I’d find I didn’t know about my own brother, and the guilt hit me like a sledgehammer.

We took the plywood and nails back into the house.

“Bob and Yevette canceled, but Randy said he would come over as soon as he could this morning. So, I guess we can eat,” Leena said. Some of her enthusiasm from earlier was gone. She seemed almost deflated. “Don’t nail it down yet. I want Randy to be able to see everything going on. I feel like he should have known about this when he did the kitchen remodel.”

“It’s going to be okay,” I said, trying to cheer her up, regardless of how bad the hole looked.

Randy showed up as we were finishing eating. He went under the house and came back out with a grim face. I was washing dishes with Jersey, the two of us working silently, shoulder to shoulder, as our more energetic siblings engaged in a battle of wits over who knew more about termites and damage. I was pretty sure Violet was going to win, but when I looked over at Dawson, I could tell he already knew that, but he had a look on his face as if he couldn’t believe the wonder that was Violet.

I dried my hands and turned to watch as Randy gave the bad news to Mandy and Leena.

“Termites for sure. They’ve made their way through a lot of the foundation and some of the floor.”

“Why didn’t you catch this before?” I asked, because I wasn’t sure Mandy or Leena would.

But he was nodding, “I agree. My men absolutely should have caught it. You pay for the termite removal, and we’ll pay for the repair.”

“Oh, no, Randy, I’m sure we have insurance for this sort of thing,” Leena said.

He was shaking his head as soon as she started talking. “Unfortunately, Miss Leena, most insurances don’t pay for termite damage, but we should have caught it when we were here redoing the kitchen floors.”

“How long is this all going to take?” Mandy asked.

“The exterminator should be done in a couple days. They’ll tent the place and then go back through and fan out the toxic gas. But I’m really concerned about the state of the foundation and the floors. I don’t think you should stay here while we fix it.”

Leena and Mandy stared at him. “You’re telling us we have to move out. For how long?” Mandy asked.

He scratched his neck and his beard, pulling on his shirt collar. “You’ll probably need to be out for the better part of a month. The termite guys I can have here tomorrow, but it’s gonna take quite a bit of finagling on my part because I’m in the middle of another job.”

“That’s it. I’m done with this old place. Let’s just sell it and move.” Leena pounded her hand on the table, and Randy grimaced as if he expected the pounding to cause the whole floor to cave in. That’s when my concern ratcheted up about ten notches.

“You’d have to fix it before you sold, anyway,” Randy said. “Otherwise, you’d never get what you deserve for the place.”

“Leena, this home has been in your family since it was built. This isn’t the time to abandon ship. We’ve already put so much into it,” Mandy said, rubbing her arm.

Leena didn’t respond, but she seemed devastated.

“You’re saying it isn’t safe for anyone to stay here until it’s fixed?” I asked to make sure.

Randy looked like he was going to turn green and throw up, but he nodded.

“We have to move out for a whole month?” Leena was still having a hard time with it all. I could tell she wanted to cry and was trying her best to put on a good face.

“We’ll go see Ava, Eli, and the baby,” Mandy said. “They’ve been bugging us to come see them, anyway.” Just thinking about Eli’s little rascal was enough to put a smile on Leena’s face.

“But for a month? They’ll be sick of us.”

“Nah,” I jumped in. “Ava and Eli would love having you both there. Besides, they could take that trip to Nashville to see Brady like they’ve been wanting to do but didn’t want to take the baby with them.”

Mandy was nodding. “Just think how much we’ll get to spoil him before they get home.”

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