Page 16 of Return to You

Kade couldn’t believe that he was really gone. He’d thought that he’d accepted it but being here, in his house, was different. He kept expecting him to walk in at any moment.

But that wasn’t going to happen. He wasn’t coming back. Part of what Kade had learned over the past year was to try and accept the things that he couldn’t change, have the courage to change the things he could, and the wisdom to know the difference. He knew that he couldn’t change Patrick’s death. He would give anything, including his own life, to have Patrick back. It should’ve been him, not his best friend.

A loud crash from upstairs snapped him out of his thoughts. He took the steps two at a time and found Ali on the floor in the kitchen, surrounded by Legos.

“No, no, no, no, no,” she whispered again and again as her wild eyes scanned the floor.

“What is…what happened?” Kade bent to help her clean up.

“Don’t.” Her arm flew out, blocking him from picking anything up. “Don’t touch anything.”

Kade lifted his hands as if he were being robbed. “Okay.”

Sheer panic was written all over her pretty face as her breathing grew faster and shallower. “I have to…I need to…I can’t…”

“Slow down. Breathe. It’s okay.”

“Don’t.” Her head spun Exorcist-style toward him and there was venom in her caramel-colored eyes as she let out a long breath before speaking in a dead calm. “Do not patronize me.”

“Sorry.” The corners of his lips twitched despite his best efforts not to smile. He couldn’t help it. Ali getting all fired up had always been damn cute. And he was a little relieved that her irritation at him had blocked her impending hyperventilation. “What can I do to help?”

“Nothing.” Her head shook as she looked back at the colorful plastic scattered all over the black and white checkerboard tile of the kitchen floor. “Just leave me alone.”

“Not gonna happen.” He’d done that and he wasn’t sure he’d ever forgive himself for it. “Want to tell me why you karate chopped my arm to keep me from cleaning up this mess?”

“It’s not a mess and I need to put it back together. I don’t want you to make it worse.”

“What is it?” He’d wanted to ask what it was supposed to be but he decided against it.

“It’s Ricky’s science project.”

“It is?” Kade had never heard of a science project that used Lego’s but he’d also never attended a science fair, so he wasn’t exactly an expert.

“Yes. He did it on engineering a skyscraper and tested his theories for the best designs by using Legos to create the buildings. See?” She pointed to a trifold poster board that was on its side halfway across the room.

He tilted his head and saw pictures of three separate towers on the board.

“Oh shit,” he breathed as the scope of what was going on sank in. There had to be thousands of pieces on the ground.

“Yeah. Oh shit is right. I was finishing the laundry and I almost knocked it over so I thought I would bring it to the dining room table but I tripped over KJ’s stupid shoes that I keep telling him to pick up.” Tears were filling her eyes as her voice tinged with panic. “It’s due tomorrow and he worked so hard on it. It took him weeks to design and build. He has straight A’s and Mr. Truman is not going to care that I broke it.”

Kade cringed as he hissed through his teeth. “He’s got Truman?”

“Yes.” Despair radiated off of Ali.

“I’m guessing the old man hasn’t mellowed with age?”

“No.” She let out a forced laugh. “He’s gotten worse.”

Kade leaned forward, careful not to disturb any of the Legos strewn about and grabbed the poster board that was haphazardly leaning against the cabinets. He set back on his heels and scanned the detailed architectural plans for each building that Ricky had outlined. It wasn’t going to be easy, but he was pretty sure that they could follow them.

“Okay. I understand your instinct to try and salvage what is still intact, but that’s not going to get the job done. We need to disassemble before we can reassemble.”

She eyed him with suspicion. “I don’t know. Maybe I should just go get Ricky…”

Kade didn’t want to wake up the kid to do work he’d already done and he also liked the idea of him and Ali working on a project together. It was an excuse to force her to spend time with him.

“Trust me, we can do this.”

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