Page 25 of Fireworks & Forehead Kisses

What if we got back together and it was forever this time?

I kept having daydreams about him showing up on my doorstep in some grand romantic gesture.

Stop it, I chided myself. I might work at the house that looks likeThe Notebook,but I wasn’t Rachel McAdams, and Garrett definitely wasn’t Ryan Gosling.

I quickly messaged my sister and was shocked when I instantly got a response.

Skylar:That would be amazing. THX

I was sure Hank had offered the same and would have come back from whatever job site he was on, but my sister was fiercely independent. She didnotaccept help from people. The only reason she begrudgingly accepted assistance from me was because I guilted her by saying that she gave up her ‘good years’ to raise me. Even though I said it as a joke, I wasn’t kidding. She’d lost the years from eighteen to twenty-six being mom and dad to me, and then she got pregnant with Luna.

When I pulled up in front of the house, my niece was skipping down the steps. Her blonde pigtail braids were swinging from side to side as she carried her backpack that was almost the same size as her. Skylar stood in the doorway, waving. She looked a little green. I lifted my hand and waved back.

“Whoa, Auntie Lee Lee, Suzie Q is so clean!” Luna exclaimed as she hopped in, dropped her backpack on the floor, and put on her seatbelt. “And she smells like perfume!”

Last week, the morning after I received the admonishing text from Mr. Stick Up His Ass, aka Declan Wolfe, my car was waiting in front of my house. The only thing missing from it was a big red bow. It had not only been detail-level cleaned, inside and out; there were four brand-spanking new tires on it. I assumed, wrongly, that was where the improvements started and stopped. To my great surprise, after an inspection by mybrother-in-law Hank, it seemed that not only had my oil been changed, but I’d also received new brake pads and a new battery. Also, there were some other things he’d rattled off…something about suspension and fluids. To be honest, I wasn’t really paying attention. Basically, the upshot was Suzie Q was as good as new.

Actually, this was the best Suzie Q had ever been. I bought her used when I moved out here from California from another student, and she’d been a little worse for wear then. Even the steering wheel was shiny now.

I’d made a promise to myself that I would not only keep herlookinggood; I would also keep up on her maintenance. This was the clean slate, pun intended, I needed. Despite the fact that hefiredme and sent me a reprimanding/condescending text, I’d been the bigger person and sent him a thank you because even though I hadn’t asked for his assistance, I did appreciate it. I told him to take whatever the repairs cost out of my paycheck.

He’d replied, saying,Reimbursement will not be necessary. That was it. No, you’re welcome. No explanation. No, nothing. He was…jarring, to say the least.

“Lee, Lee, I’m gonna be a big sister!” Luna clapped excitedly as we rode to school.

“I know! Are you excited?” Apparently, they’d decided to tell her. When Skylar told me a week ago, she’d said the plan was to tell Luna when they told everyone else at ten weeks.

“Yes, but I’m not allowed to tell anyone at school yet. I’m only allowed to talk about it to you, Hank, and Mama.”

I loved my niece, but she was six. I doubted her ability to keep the news to herself. If I were a betting woman, I would give it till the end of the week until it slipped out at school, and Nadia was asking me about it since she was my niece’s teacher.

We sang at the top of our lungs to the musical stylings of Olivia Rodrigo as we pulled up to Firefly Elementary, and Luna grabbed her backpack off the floorboard.

“Okay, munchkin, have a good day and learn lots of stuff!”

“Love you, Lee Lee!” She hugged me around my neck.

“Love you, Lu Lu!” I hugged her back.

She hopped out and ran up next to a couple of her friends. It seemed like just yesterday Skylar was pregnant with her, and now she was in first grade. Time was a crazy thing. When I was a kid and even a teenager, time felt like it dragged on. Years felt like an eternity. Now, I was scared that I was going to blink, and Luna would be driving, going to prom, graduating, and leaving for college.

That was one of the reasons I’d left San Francisco when my sister moved across the country to Firefly. When my sister and niece lived in Seattle, they were a two-hour flight away. I could come home to visit them regularly. But, after she moved here a couple of years ago, I knew that I would be lucky to see them once a year. There was no way I could do that, so I transferred to SCAD. I’m glad I did because now she has another little one on the way.

I pulled away from the curb and turned the music back up as I drove out to the east side of the island. As I made my way onto the property, I wondered if I’d get a chance to go out and see Bonnie and Clyde today. Stella and I usually took a thirty-minute break every day to go out and say hi to them. When I glanced over, I saw that there was a man mucking out the stables. He had faded jeans, a baseball hat, and a white shirt on. He looked to be in his fifties. I didn’t recognize him.

For a moment, I wondered if it was Mr. Stick Up His Ass. From his text, he didn’t seem like the sort of man who would be mucking out stables, but then again, it was just texts.

I’d had my interview with Hannah the day before, and it had gone so well I was tempted to ask her about Mr. Stick Up His Ass, but I didn’t. It didn’t really matter if he was nice or not. This was a job. He didn’t have to be nice. I think it just confused methat he’d done so much for my car, which was nice, but then been such a prick about it. Not a prick, but just so, prick-like.

And then there were my daily progress emails. He either didn’t respond, or he pointed out what I was doing wrong or what I was missing or could be doing better. I was all for constructive criticism, but he had a way of just sounding like a dick.

Oh well. It didn’t matter. He didn’t need to be my friend, and thankfully, I worked with Stella. My interactions with him were all through email.

On the way up the steps I waved at stable man, he smiled and waved back. If it was Mr. Suha (Stick Up His Ass), then he was much friendlier in person.

When I knocked on the door, Fred opened it wearing his signature white shirt, cardigan, and khaki pants. He was the spitting image of Mr. Rogers, which was funny since Mr. Rogers’ name was Fred. I still wasn’t exactly sure what Fred’s job was. If I had to guess, I’d say that he drove for Mrs. Wolfe and did some handyman-type things around the house, and Dorothy cleaned and cooked, but I wasn’t entirely sure.

What I did know was they were married and had both worked for the family for over forty years. Fred loved crossword puzzles and mystery novels. He swore like a sailor and had been one. He was a Vietnam vet who proudly served in the Navy. He was allergic to shellfish and penicillin and had a sweet tooth. Dorothy loved to crochet and make her own candles. She didnotapprove of Fred’s swearing—but I think he only swore because he thought it was cute when she got on to him. She loved black-and-white movies and rainy nights.

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