Page 70 of Mess With Me
Zach shoved his shoulder. “Peggy’s giving you the look from heaven right now.”
He reluctantly smiled. Peggy never raised her voice. When she was displeased, she’d just shoot you this quelling look that made you stand up straighter. He carefully put the ring back in the plastic bag and stuck it in his pocket.
Zach put his hands on his hips and looked around. “You want this place?”
Ethan considered. “No. It’s too much her.”
“Yeah, I get that. I want Carrie to pick the house she wants. So we agreed on selling? Split the profits?”
“Yeah. We can run an estate sale for the furniture, donate whatever’s left.”
“I think Peggy would be okay with that. She’d want us to have a good start for our own homes.” He rubbed his beard. “I’ll take the pictures of me, you take the pictures of you.”
Ethan nodded. “What about the pictures of her husband and son?”
“We’ll divvy them up.” Zach clasped his hand and then pulled him in for a hug.
Ethan, who normally wouldn’t hug his brother more than a quick around-the-neck squeeze, returned the hug, wrapping his arms around Zach and clapping him on the back. “She made us a family and I didn’t know it until now.”
Zach pulled back and gave him a watery smile. “She loved us.”
“Yeah,” he choked out. “She did.” And he felt that all the way through, the knowledge warming him, making his heart open, his chest expanding like he could breathe a full breath for the first time in his life. Like he was a new man. One who’d been wanted and loved as a kid.
Zach squeezed Ethan’s shoulder. “I’ll gather up the stuff in the envelope and we’ll go.”
Ethan nodded and just stood there alone in the kitchen, memories of Peggy cooking and serving up dinner flooding him. He could practically taste his favorite mac ’n cheese. Peggy washing dishes in her apron with the little red ruffle around the edges. The rectangular Formica table full of kids, talking and shoveling in food, Peggy quietly presiding at one end of it. He hadn’t been paying attention. Hadn’t noticed the love she showed through her actions, her quiet patience, her competent care. She’d given him the foundation he’d needed. She’d given him love. He’d been longing for what he’d had all along.
Her death had been a wake-up call, making him try to be more open, but he hadn’t quite gotten there. He’d frozen up when Ally had said she loved him. And what about everyone else? Peggy, Joe, his honorary brothers and sister.
His heart thundered in his chest. “I love you, Peggy,” he whispered, the words strange on his tongue. A rush of warmth ran through him. For a moment he swore he felt the soft touch of a hand on his back.
Zach appeared in the living room with the envelope. “Ready?”
He swallowed hard. “L—” He coughed, his cheeks burning, but he forced the words out anyway. “Love you, bro.”
Zach smiled widely. “Love you too.”
Ethan nodded once, patted the ring in his pocket, and followed Zach out the door with a lightness in his step.
16
Ethan finished raking Peggy’s yard, drove home, tucked the ring and pictures in a drawer, and then walked right back out, too keyed up to be confined. Instead he walked across town to Joe’s house. He needed to talk to him about Peggy.
Joe answered the door with a sympathetic look. “Thought it would be you. Zach coming too?”
“No, he’s too hooked on Carrie to leave her for long.”
Joe clapped him on the shoulder. “You want a drink?”
“Sure.” They often sat around the kitchen table, having a drink and talking. As a kid, it was water, milk or, for big talks, something more enticing like lemonade. Nowadays, it was beer.
He sat at the table and waited for Joe to join him with the beers. They clinked bottles and each took a sip.
Joe let out a breath. “You made her proud. She always told me that.”
“You guys talk about me a lot?”
“We had regular talks about you and Zach. She considered me a partner in raising you. She’d say, who needs a village to raise a child when the Campbell family is just a few blocks away?”
