Page 44 of In Hiding

Then again, they’d never had a handyman before. Who knew what the rules were? Who cared? He was strong and reliable and did whatever was asked of him. Best part was he didn’t ask too many questions.

Tugging on his gloves, William descended the stone stairs to the rock ledge where Jake worked. It was hard to think he’d never spent time in the snow before coming to work here. William remembered the first time it had snowed. Jake went racing outside to try and catch the flakes, but they melted on his hands and nose.

“Hey.”

Jake’s head lifted. “Hey, Will. Can you go over there and tighten the tension on this guywire?”

“Sure.” He moved to position then looked to Jake. “What do I do?”

Jake held up a device that looked like a hooked screw. “See this?” He pointed at the fencing wire by William. “Grab a wrench and turn it so that it pulls the wire tight.”

William rummaged through the toolbox for a wrench and returned to the post. He adjusted the gap between the pincers of the wrench until they fit snug against the screw. “What’s this thing called?”

“Turnbuckle screw. Turn it to the right.”

William attempted to follow the instructions but only managed the turn the entire device. Nothing happened. He frowned and held one end of the screw with his left hand and used his right hand to rotate the wrench. Success. He smiled and put his back into it.

“Good. Can you do the bottom one as well?”

William shifted his position, kicking snow over the edge of the cliff. Seeing it fall reminded him of the day Mama fell and he sucked in a breath of cold air. He closed his eyes to stop himself from imagining her body following the clumps of snow. She’d come so close. Too close. It would’ve been just him, then.

“Hey. You okay?”

Opening his eyes, he found Jake beside him. “Y-yeah. Sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Jake smiled. “Do you want to share?”

William felt the weight of the wrench in his hands. “I was just remembering that day. If the tree hadn’t caught her, she would’ve gone over the edge. With this fence, I won’t have to worry.”

“We were lucky,” Jake agreed.

We? William wondered why he included himself. “You like her, don’t you?”

Jake coughed. “She’s my boss and she’s a nice lady.”

Yeah, he’d seen the way Jake looked at her and while it hadn’t bothered him before, it did now. “I like you, Jake, but she told me that you’ve been in prison.”

“I made some mistakes. What do you want to know?”

William shrugged. “Was it scary?”

With a smile, Jake went back to the other end of the barrier and worked on tightening other wires. “Yep. It’s not a place for the faint hearted.”

“What did you do?”

“To get thrown in jail?” Jake shook his head. “I stole stuff. I beat some people up. I helped a man do some bad things. I’m not proud of what I did, Will, but I can’t take them back. I paid by going to prison for a while.”

“Did you beat up anyone in jail?”

Jake shook his head.

“Did anyone beat you up?”

“Once, but I had a guardian angel. A guy so big no one had the guts to take him on. I probably owe him my life or something.”

Even though Jake tried to be casual, William could hear the truth in his voice. “Would you ever beat up anyone else?”

Jake straightened and looked him in the eye. “Never say never, kid.”

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