Page 86 of Can't Get Over You
But there was only one answer to that question:You make him feel safe.
Jude stretched out beside him. He didn’t want to wake him, but at the same time, he couldn’t sit there and do nothing while the boy twitched and made scared little noises. So he wrapped an arm around him and held him close. “It’s all right. I got you.”
The boy startled and rolled onto his back. “Mister?”
“Yeah, I’m here.”
“How come?” Cody blinked as if trying to wake up.
“You were having a bad dream. I wanted to make sure you’re okay.” Maybe he found the quiet unsettling. At the bike club, the lights were always on, and there was laughter, conversation, and music. In this house, he might hear creaking or his neighbors talking or the idling of cars.
“Is my grandpa better yet?” Cody asked.
“I don’t know. But we can call him tomorrow and ask. You want to do that?”
“Yeah.” The boy stared at the ceiling. “Tomorrow, I’m getting a Christmas tree. And the competition starts. I have to bring a shovel.” His head shifted on the pillow to look at Jude. “Do you have one?”
“Yep.” His brothers might be excited about Snowfest, but it just wasn’t on his radar. But it seemed it was on Cody’s, and that was all that mattered. “Do you know what we’re making?”
He nodded with enthusiasm. “They were gonna make a wolf and a polar bear in a canoe, but I said I wanted a house. Big enough to walk into.”
Huh. Each team worked with a twenty-five-ton block of snow. He wasn’t sure how big a house they could make that would allow people to enter it. And what would they put inside? A couch and chairs, or something more elaborate like a family watching a movie together, with a big bucket of popcorn on the son’s lap?
Whatever his family designed, it would be over-the-top good. The McKennas were competitive fuckers. “So that’s what we’re going with? A house?”
“Yeah. And I get to help with the stomping.”
Everyone loved that first part of the process. The town delivered a giant mountain of snow in the center of the square. Using wheelbarrows and buckets, each team filled a giant wooden frame and then got on top to pack it down, adding more until they reached the rim of the box.
He’d text his brothers and get in on the plan. Whatever they did, it had to be special for Cody. “Tomorrow, at the stomping, you and I can take a look at the design.” Wyatt and his dad would have schematics, a list of tools, and a plan. “And you can add any last-minute touches. But for now, we need a good night’s sleep. Got to be rested for the event. It takes three whole days.”
Cody settled down, but his eyes were wide open.
And that brought Jude back to his original concern. “You okay in this room?”
“Yeah. I like it here.”
“I’m glad. I like it here, too.” Curious, Jude asked, “Where’d you sleep at the club?”
“With my grandpa. In a bag.”
“A what? Oh, you mean a sleeping bag? On the floor?”
“Yeah.”
“So it must be weird sleeping in a big ole bed like this.”
“Yeah, it’s big. I never slept in a bed like this before.”
“It works for me because I like spreading out,” Jude said. “But that’s because I sleep like a starfish.”
“What’s a starfish?”
“Here. Look.” Jude flipped onto his stomach, spreading out his arms and legs.
“You take up the whole bed.”
“I know, right? It feels good. Try it.” He shifted to the edge of the mattress to give the boy space. “Go on.”
