Page 82 of Worthy

″Of course not.” I scoff. “I kept quiet because we don’t exactly boast a lot of jobs for scientists here, but since you pointed it out, I have absolutely no idea what he’s talking about when he discusses his work. It sounds like a foreign language to me and the best I’ve got to add to the conversation is the occasional head nod. I’m not foolish enough to deny at some point he’ll want to be with someone who understands what he does, so while I’m not intimidated by his intelligence, I acknowledge my lack of it might get boring to him one day.” I stand up to pace again, unable to sit still.

″Do you think I understand what your mother does?” Dad frowns, his eyes tracking me as I move.

That’s not at all what I was expecting him to say. “Don’t you?” I ask.

″Hell no. I’m a builder, same as you. I find what she does interesting, but I can’t talk to her intelligently about it. I can’t give her advice or input about her job any more than she can give those things to me, although I like to think that the questions I ask help her do her job better.” He winks. “Either way, what we do for a living doesn’t have any bearing on how we feel about each other.”

I admit I hadn’t considered my parents’ ability to make things work despite being in two wildly different fields, but the type of work Maddox does or the fact that he’s brilliant was never my major hang up. Sure, I worry he’d get bored with a guy like me, but I was more concerned with his ability to do what he loves here in Katah Vista. Mom doesn’t need a lab to do her job, she’s fine with a couple scales and microscopes. I doubt Maddox could say the same.

A car pulls into the drive, ending our conversation. Which is for the best considering I’ve thought through all this already, and I don’t need to go through it again, even with my dad. I doubt he could change my mind, anyway. Rick exits and gives the driver a tip before turning to get his first look at what we’ve done, and from the look on his face he likes what he sees. We were able to blend the new garage with the original structure in a way that makes the house seem like it still has its original footprint, but whereas before the garage faced the driveway, now it’s sort of tucked behind the house, connected by the new, oversized mudroom.

″I’m speechless, guys, it looks amazing.” He steps up to shake first Dad’s hand, then mine.

″Which part do you want to see first?” Dad beams.

″The garage. Definitely the garage.” Rick’s eyes light up as he looks at it.

Rick and Dad follow me to the first of three bay doors, where I enter a code into the keypad. The door slides upward to reveal the Subaru that’s been parked there since Madd’s departure. It’s the first time I’ve seen that car since he left, and it hits me harder than I expected to see it sitting there untouched. It makes the air leave my lungs for a minute, and I have to take a shallow breath to shake off the memories before I lead them inside, hoping they didn’t notice my hesitation.

Rick likes his toys, so we’ve set him up with storage for everything from skis to bikes and tools. The car has always been here, but once we finished the garage, we retrieved all his items from the storage locker he rented and put everything away. You wouldn’t know it given the lack of visible evidence, but this garage is holding a shit ton of gear.

″I can’t believe how clean it looks. You guys made storage for everything,” he marvels as he opens and shuts cabinets.

Dad beams at the compliment. I should too, since it’s actually my work, but I just can’t bring myself to get excited. Dad looks at me with raised eyebrows, and I reluctantly make the rounds to show Rick each and every nook and cranny he has to store stuff, first in the garage, then the mud room. When he’s explored every inch, we head to the patio so he can take that in.

Outside, I can breathe a little better, but I still can’t muster a lot of enthusiasm, even when Rick discovers the sculpture I hung on the garage. I can’t look at the copper mountain-scape mimicking the view from Madd’s favorite hike without feeling like my chest is about to cave in. I look everywhere else while he asks about it, doing my best to answer his questions without sounding like an asshole.

″I never would’ve thought to hang anything here, but the sculpture makes this feel like another room, not a patio. And I love how it’s suspended on the wall, so it looks three dimensional even though it’s flat. And you say it will change over time?” He turns to me.

″The patina will change, yeah,” I mutter.

He and my dad exchange a look, and I know I’m not doing a good job of sounding pleasant.

″It’ll become a little more weathered, but not smudged like silver gets,” I add, trying to sound informative instead of bored. It’s not Rick’s fault I can’t wait to get out of here.

″Did you get this piece locally? I’d love to put something like this over the fireplace inside too.” He turns back to admire the sculpture.

″I made that with a few copper scraps I found.” I rub the back of my neck, wishing he hadn’t asked. I don’t want to get into how I came up with the design.

″You made this? Withscraps?” He traces the edge of the mountain-scape with his finger.

I nod, wondering if his surprise means he’s disappointed or impressed.

″Wow, I never would’ve guessed. You know, this reminds me of this little flower Maddox has. It’s made out of a gear and some sort of metal pipe, I think. From a distance it looks like a symmetrical flower, but up close you can see the size of the leaves are slightly different, sort of imperfect, which he says makes it more real because nothing is perfect. But now I’m wondering if that was the intent, or if it’s just what the artist had available.” He stares at me knowingly as he finishes talking, and even though this is his uncle, I can’t help but wonder if maybe his ability to see inside me and understand me better than anyone else comes from him, because it sure feels like he knows me too well right now. It was oddly reassuring when Maddox did it, but it’s kind of intimidating coming from Rick.Shit.

I’ve always liked Rick, and I’m not going to insult him by playing dumb. But I don’t know how much Maddox has said about his summer, and I don’t feel right talking to him about us, so I’m not going to volunteer anything more than I have to.

″It’s what I had available,” I confirm evenly.

″Why does it say,Eternal?” he presses, his tone decidedly less friendly than it was when we were looking at the garage.

″Come again?” I frown, confused. It didn’t say anything the last time I saw it.

″It’s in a frame on his desk that says,Eternal.” Rick crosses his arms and stares pointedly at me.

Maddox framed it?

With the caption ‘Eternal?’

---