Page 20 of Roads Behind Us
“Alright, well, it’s just you and me today, so text me if you need me. My to-do list is on the table in the tack room next to my laptop, and I wrote down all the stuff we need from the feed store on there too.”
I nodded and shuffled back to lean against a stall door as he turned Blue in the aisle and headed out.
The weight of my happiness?
How much did happiness weigh exactly?
Chapter Seven
Bea
“It’s takin’ forever,” Devo said as we stood half an acre away and looked at her framed and soon-to-be-drywalled house. The roof was next to go up, and the windows and doors would be delivered later in the week.
“I know it may seem like a long, chaotic process,” I said, “but this is what Brand’s really good at. He can manage the shit out of simultaneous builds. Actually, I think he thrives on the chaos.”
“Oh, I know he’s bustin’ his butt for us. I didn’t mean it that way. It’s just that this will be my home with my wife, after we tie the knot anyway, and I’m so ready to live out here with her.”
“Home is where the heart is,” I said.
“Yeah.”
Devo gazed out at the view as we took in the land and the blue morning sky high above us. An eagle soared in the distance. It screeched, and then we watched it dip and descend into the trees, probably to eat a mouse or something.
“So,” she said, “if Brand’s the chaos coordinator, what’s your job?”
“I’m the dipshit director.”
She laughed. “Huh?”
“I boss the crews around, make sure they’re doin’ what they’re supposed to. I take all the supplies Brand brings us and direct my guys so all those supplies turn into houses.”
“That sounds kinda fun.”
“I love it.”
She turned to face me, shading her eyes with her hand and squinting against the sun’s glare. “You single?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Just curious. You seem like a pretty rad person. I was just wonderin’ if anybody’s figured that out yet.”
“Ha!”
“What?” she asked when I barked my laugh in her face.
“No, I don’t think so. I used to have a husband, but he never got wise.”
“That why he’s not your husband anymore?”
“No, it’s ’cause I murdered him in his sleep.”
I fixed my hands on my hips and cocked my head to the side. Devo squeaked and covered her mouth with her hand.
“Kiddin’! Jeez. Do I look like a murderer?”
She scanned me up and down. “I’m not sure. I think you’re too short to do any real damage, but I like you.” She laughed. “Where you from? Your twang is a little twangier than we usually hear around here.”
“Appalachia. The mountains and valleys of the majestic state of North Carolina.”
