Page 10 of The Billionaire Benefactor

Matt spoke up. “I think we have wood already for the fence. My dad got it a while ago, but he never, uh—” Halfway through, Matt seemed to remember about his dad and stopped, closing his mouth and clenching his jaw.

Roman swallowed a lump in his throat. Losing his dad hit him at surprising moments too. He was much older and had more time to process and it was still hard. He wanted to reach out, to say something, but he felt frozen, his own grief rolling around in his gut.

Tony grabbed Matt around the shoulders and smiled. “That’s great, man! Show me where. Maybe you and Roman can start on fence duty. Unless you want to ride with us to pick up sod?”

Matt looked to Roman and smiled a goofy-big grin. “I’ll stay and help Roman.”

Roman smiled and gave Matt a friendly pat on the back. “Why don’t you show me where all the supplies are, and we can knock this fence out. Between the two of us, I bet we can get it done before these two clowns get back with the sod.”

“Oh, are we betting now?” Blake said.

Roman shrugged. “What do you think, Matt?”

Matt looked between all the guys, not able to hide his excitement. “Yeah, I think we can do that. They look pretty slow to me.”

All three of the guys laughed and Roman pulled Matt close. “I like this guy. He tells it like it is. Let’s get started before they can figure out a way to cheat.”

Blake and Tony, still laughing, headed off in Blake’s truck while Matt showed Roman the lumber behind the garage. It was covered, so the stack of fence boards still looked pretty good. A few on top looked more weather-beaten, so Roman set those aside and he and Matt hauled the rest over to the front area of the fence where the posts were crooked and rotten. He gave Matt a hammer and showed him how to hit the boards to get them off, while saving the posts.

“The posts look pretty good, so we’ll just replace these boards. And if we’ve got a screwdriver, we’ll use screws, not nails. They last better over time,” Roman said.

Matt nodded. For ten, he was a pretty quick study. “How’d you learn all this? I thought football kept you pretty busy.”

Roman grinned. “It does. I’ve just picked up things here and there. Mostly on mission trips that I’ve been on, building houses and fences and things for people.”

“Our church has mission trips. I haven’t been, but probably when I’m in middle school I can.”

“Your mom ever go?”

“Nah. I don’t know if she’d want to, but my dad was always working and she takes care of us, so she’s too busy.”

“You and your sister a lot of trouble?” Roman teased.

“My sister is a pain,” Matt said.

“Hey, you’re lucky,” Roman said. “I don’t have any brothers or sisters. It’s pretty lonely. I’m sure it’s not easy being the oldest. That’s a lot of responsibility. But you seem like you’d be a good leader.”

Matt’s cheeks flushed and he tried to formulate a response. “I was captain of my football team last season.”

“Oh, you play? We’ll have to throw the ball around when we get done with the work.”

“Really? Yeah! I just do flag for now. Mom won’t let me do tackle yet. She said maybe next year. Dad was going to let me. He said flag was for sissies.”

Roman paused, hammering out another board before answering. This was tricky. You didn’t want to get in the middle of mom and dad conflict, especially now that dad was gone. “Tackle can be rough. Nothing wrong with holding off a bit. I think the research shows that it’s better for your head and neck to wait until middle or even high school to play tackle. Flag will give you a feel for the game and plays. You’ll be ready for the full thing when it’s time. Trust your mom. She seems smart.”

He hoped this was the right thing to say. He didn’t want to throw Matt’s dad under the bus. What kind of dad tells their eight-year-old that flag football is for sissies? The thought made him uncomfortable. He wondered about Matt’s dad. He thought about saying something to Matt about the fact that he’d lost his dad recently too, but Matt seemed focused on hammering out the boards. Maybe later he’d get a chance. Didn’t want to get too heavy, but it might be nice for Matt to know that he understood, at least a little bit.

By the time Blake and Tony got back with a truck bed full of sod, Matt and Roman had the fence boards down and were just starting to screw in the new ones. Roman showed Matt how to use the drill and where to put the screws for the best support.

“This fence will be much better than what was here before and last longer too.”

Matt’s face fell. “Too bad we won’t be here.”

“Not excited about moving?”

Matt shook his head. “I don’t see why we have to go, but mom says.”

Roman wondered if it was a money thing or wanting a fresh start somewhere that Jenny didn’t have to face so many memories. He was glad when Blake and Tony joined them.

---