Page 32 of Roads Behind Us
I choked on spit. “What?”
“Rubbers, contraception, raincoat, dick wrapper, etcetera.”
“Why would I need that to go to a business meetin’?”
Devo snorted. “Business meetin’. Right.” The silence after her acknowledgement of my true intentions was awkward as fuck, but finally, she said, “I like Bea. She’s pretty cool.”
“Mm.”
Yeah, I agreed with that statement. What other woman would show up at her boss’s brother’s house and start helping out like she’d lived there her whole life? Especially if that brother had made a seriously rude comment about her ass when he was drunk two years ago.
“Abey says you haven’t dated since Candy passed.”
“I haven’t.”
“How come?”
“Dunno.”
She looked at me as she took the turn onto the dirt road that, in the near future, would be called Bear Lane. We even had street signs made and ready to go up.
“If you wanted to start now, no one would judge you.”
Right. My mama would. Brand would.
Athena might.
I’d judge me.
When I didn’t respond, she shrugged. “All I’m sayin’ is you could do worse. That’s all.”
“Thanks for the ride,” I said when she pulled up outside Bea’s cabin, next to her truck. I was right; they both drove old Chevy Colorados.
“Welcome. Want me to come back for you later?”
“Naw. I’ll figure it out.”
“’Kay.”
After Devo had driven further down the lane and turned around in the mini roundabout Rye plowed clear for us, I made my way to the cabin’s porch and opened the door. It then occurred to me I should’ve knocked, but I’d already gotten used to going in and out of the cabins to check their progress.
Inside, a small fire had been lit in the fireplace, loud pop music played from Bea’s phone on the small kitchen table, and I saw piles of papers and rolls of blueprints stacked next to it. I smelled food cooking, but Bea was hidden behind the refrigerator.
Suddenly, she jumped around the fridge door with a cordless nail gun in her hands. “Ha!” she hollered as she stuck her landing, her bare feet shoulder-width apart and planted on the floor.
My hands jerked up to cover my face, my crutches fell out from under my armpits and clacked loudly on the hardwood floor a second later, and I crumpled like a dropped accordion right after. “Don’t fuckin’ shoot me! Goddamn, girl.”
My ass hit the ground, and pain shot up my tailbone.
“Sorry! I thought you were a bear.” She grabbed her phone and rushed to me, hands flapping in front of her, trying to find a way to help. “I’m makin’ soup, and I thought the delicious aroma of roasted butternut squash had lured him in.”
She turned off the music as I lay flat on my back on the cold floor, looking up at her and thinking, She keeps a nail gun in the kitchen? And didn’t Brand install radiant floor heaters?
I also had the thought that maybe Devo and Rye were right. Maybe I could… date. Would that be such a bad thing? I mean, it wasn’t like I was contemplating marrying anyone.
Would it hurt?
“You okay?” Bea asked. “You didn’t break any other bones, did you?”
