Three Days of Rain (9 page)

“Why would they need to fix you?”

When he looked up, she saw the sadness seep back into his eyes.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m always sticking my foot in my mouth. You don’t have to answer that.”

“It’s okay. I opened that one up. They just think it’s about time I moved on.”

“Well,” she said as he finished up his meal. “It looks like the deck is a good place to start. Could I help? I’ve never built anything before.”

She saw relief pass through him as he relaxed.

“Sure. Let me grab another beer. You want one?”

“Absolutely.”

For the next few hours, Jake showed Lily how to work the circular saw, how to hammer a nail, and how to use the power drill. She caught on quick and the deck was moving along double time. By the time the sun began to fall, the floor was done.

They’d talked about nothing, laughed at everything, and Jake, who’d considered himself a relative of the Tin Man for the past few years, began to soften. Lily took his mind off of everything that plagued him. He felt good, he felt loose, and he felt like his old self again.

Lily took in everything Jake told her. She learned fast and felt excited that she was a part of creating something. If she’d had a Bucket List, she’d have had to remind herself to cross this off the list. Jake was fun. They got along easily, and she felt like she did more than help him build a deck.

Standing back with a hammer in his hand, Jake took in what they’d just accomplished. “I can’t believe the floor is done.”

“I can’t either. This was so much fun, Jake. Thanks. I was gonna go home and watch the latest Lifetime movie. You rescued me from sad stories of unrequited love and tragedy. How can I ever repay you?”

His laugh was sincere. “Oh, man. Good thing we had a deck to build then. And I think we’ll call this even.”

“Good thing. I have no money. Thanks, Jake. I had a great time.”

“Me, too.”

Stretching her arms over her head, Lily felt the pull of a hard day’s work. “Well, bud, my muscles ache in places I’ve never known. I think I’m gonna go home, shower again, and pass out.”

“Yeah. Me, too. Thanks again, Lily.”

“You’re welcome.”

“No. Not just for the deck.”

“I know. See ya around.”

She grabbed her keys and Jake walked her back to her Jeep. She waved as she backed out of the driveway. He’d thought about kissing her but the idea was fleeting. It wasn’t a path he wanted to explore yet. For now, he was just happy she’d blown a tire. Were it not for that, he wasn’t sure she’d have shown up in his life like this. For now, for today, he decided he’d be happy.

He cleaned up his tools, closed the garage doors, and walked into the house. He showered and went to bed. And for the second night in a row, Maddie didn’t haunt him.

CHAPTER 11

The next morning, Jake woke up ready to start the day. His shift started at 7:30, so he had two hours to kill before he had to show up at the docks. He bolted out of bed, dressed, stretched, and jogged out the front door.

Half an hour later, Lily awoke to a knock on her window. When she pulled back the curtains and looked through the basement window, she saw Jake dressed for a morning workout. She smiled, held up a finger, got dressed, and met him outside.

He was smiling. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

“Wanna go for a run?”

“Ah, sure. Long or short?”

“Long or short what?”

She giggled at his confusion. “Run.”

“Short. I have to be at work at seven thirty.”

“Then let’s go. Follow me.”

Jake raised his eyebrows and followed her. Winding her way to the back of her uncle’s house, she started down a path through the brush. The path was narrow and Jake ran behind her instead of beside her. Not that he minded. The view was great.

He searched his brain, remembering the path and where it led. He hadn’t been back there since middle school.

Jake kept the pace Lily had set. It wasn’t a slow jog but it wasn’t the intense, leg killing run he’d subjected her to the first day they ran together either. It was quiet out there. Neither of them spoke. He was amazed at the slight sounds of nature waking up. He saw birds and squirrels and lizards scuttling across the dirt. The smell of the ocean was strong. Salt permeated the air, the humidity was beginning to rise, and the sun peaked through overhead. It was gonna be hot today.

A mile in, they were both dripping with sweat. She slowed at a clearing, and he saw where she’d taken him. It was an old saltwater pool. The tire was still there attached to a high branch on the tree next to the bank. He used to come here when he was younger. He and his friends had their first cigarettes out here, drank their first beers. A flood of happy memories overtook him. Good memories that had been suppressed by the bad. Suddenly, he pulled off his shirt and ran toward the tree. He jumped up, grabbed the tire, swung himself out into the middle of the water, and dropped. His loud “woohoo” made Lily laugh.

“Try it!” he yelled to her, laughing as his head broke through the surface.

“What?”

“The swing. You need a running start. It’s high. Grab it and jump!”

“You’re crazy!”

“I know. Isn’t it great?”

The admission was just what Lily needed. She stripped off her shirt so she was wearing only her sports bra and shorts. She kicked off her sneakers and pulled off her socks. Smiling wickedly at him, she crouched and took off, grabbing the tire on the first try. As she swung out to the middle of the pool and splashed in next to him, she heard his laugh. The water was cold but neither of them minded.

Jake was as giddy as he’d been when he first discovered the pool. “Holy crap, Lily! I haven’t been here in years! How did you know it was here?”

“I found it the morning after I got here. I woke up early and decided to go for a walk. I was itching to take some pictures. I had noticed the path so I decided to see where it led. This is great, isn’t it?”

“You have no idea. Years, I am telling you. Man, I have the greatest memories of this place. Unbelievable.”

“I hadn’t tried the swing when I was here before. That was fun.”

“Wanna do it again?”

With the excitement in his voice, she couldn’t say no. They jumped a few more times before climbing out of the water and sitting on the bank.

“Thanks, Lily. That was fun. I can’t believe I haven’t been here in so long. I guess kid stuff doesn’t matter so much when you’re a grown-up.”

“Sure it does. If you don’t stop and let go once in a while, the grown-up stuff can suffocate you. And besides, when’s the last time that tire saw a twenty-eight year-old man? And that last flip was a nice touch.”

“It was, wasn’t it?”

Jake sat for a few minutes reveling in how good he felt. It was like he’d woken up that morning for the first time in a long time. “Hey, I have an idea.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Lily looked at him with interest. “Oh yeah? What’s that?”

“How about I call out of work today and we go back to my place and finish the deck?”

“Can you do that? You aren’t giving much notice.”

He frowned a minute then smiled. “True, but I haven’t taken a day off in two years. I even went in once with a broken wrist.”

“You broke your wrist?”

“Yeah. But listen. They won’t mind. Mr. Olsen has been telling me I need some time off.”

His smile was contagious. “Has he now?” she asked.

“Yeah. So what do you say?”

“Well, Uncle Billy did give me the day off, and I had nothing planned other than taking some pictures.”

“So you will?” When she nodded, he yelled, “Awesome! Come on. Let’s see if we can’t knock this thing out today. Maybe I’ll take tomorrow off, too. The house needs painting and the shutters need to be fixed.”

“Hold on, slugger! Take it one day at a time. Work through today and then think about tomorrow. Come on. Let’s get back. I’ll shower and get dressed. I’ll meet you at your house in an hour.”

“Good. I’ll pick up some bagels or something. Maybe I’ll make sandwiches for lunch. This feels great!”

“Okay, okay. You are crazy, Jacob Morgan. Let’s go.”

They ran back like they were running toward something. Within an hour, Lily was at Jake’s house, hammer in one hand, bagel in the other.

“So,” she said between bites, “where do you want to start?”

“The floor is done, so I figure we’ll knock out the steps then work on the railings.”

“Sounds good. Now what should I do?”

“Let’s measure out the steps then go back and cut the wood. I figure we’ll have a small space over there for the steps.”

“Why small? If you make the steps small then the railings will take up the rest of the space and when you sit out here, you won’t be able to see anything.”

“What would I need to see?”

“Jake, look around you. The trees, the dunes, the grass. It’s beautiful out here. You should make the deck an extension of that beauty.”

She was right. He’d never thought of that. He’d never thought about the deck as a place to really hang out. He’d used the old one mostly to hold his grill and a lawn chair. He liked the idea of creating a space he could use for more than a few minutes at a time. “That’s a good idea. I never thought of it that way. I’ve just been so preoccupied, I never really noticed. So what do you think we should do?”

She liked the “we” when he said it. It made her feel like he appreciated her input. She walked the perimeter of what they’d built. It was twelve by twelve on the main deck with a step down to a second level about a foot off the ground.

“What if we build the steps over by the driveway first? Then extend the deck the length of the house so it meets your bedroom? Then if you ever want to knock down a wall and put in a slider, you’d have a deck off your room?”

Jake followed her thought process. He’d never thought about opening up his wall to the outside. To be honest, he hadn’t thought much about changing anything over the past two years. He’d been stuck in the past and hadn’t moved forward.

“You know what, Lily? That’s a great idea. I’m gonna have to get some more wood but I think I might have enough to frame it out. And I think I have a couple bags of cement to start the footings. Why don’t we measure that out first then go back to the steps around the driveway and backyard? I think I’m gonna return the railings. I don’t think I want them. You’re right. I don’t want to feel closed off.”

“All right. Let’s go. What should I do first?”

He winked at her. “Grab a shovel.”

“Why do I feel like I just made more work for myself?”

“Because you did. And it’s awesome.”

It was three in the afternoon before the two took a break for lunch. As they sat eating sandwiches, they admired their handiwork. The steps around two sides of the deck were in place and the concrete footings for the rest of the deck extension were dug, poured, and setting up. Jake and Lily measured out what wood they had left and made a list of what materials Jake would pick up tomorrow.

“I gotta say, Lil, I don’t think I’d have been able to get this far so fast without your help.”

“I am the great motivator, you know. It looks great so far. I can’t wait to see what it looks like when you finish it. Tomorrow, you think?”

“Yeah, I think it’ll be done tomorrow. And what do you mean ‘when I finish it’? Aren’t you gonna help?”

“I’d love to but I promised Billy I’d work a double tomorrow. Arlene has to take the kids to the doctor’s and Marta’s off.”

Disappointment clouded his face and he was quiet.

“But I can come by after. If you need any help then, I would be glad to pitch in.”

“Oh, yeah. That would be great.”

“Good. I should be off by five or so. I can be here by six.”

They finished their sandwiches and beers. For an hour, the two sat next to each other in silence on the finished part of the deck and looked out at the trees.

Finally, Jake spoke. “This is nice.”

“It is.”

“Thanks for helping.”

“Anytime, Jake.”

Jake breathed in and closed his eyes. “She left two years ago.”

Lily looked straight ahead. “Why did she leave?”

“’Cause that’s what she always did.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m not. For the first time in a long time, I’m not.”

CHAPTER 12

Very early the next morning, Jake awoke covered in sweat. He’d dreamt of Maddie again. He dreamt of the happiness he felt when he first found out, the happiness that precluded the collapse of his world...

***

Maddie had been sick for days. Her stomach rejected everything she ate. She stayed in bed for three days and Jake was worried. The morning of the fourth day, he decided she needed to see a doctor.

“Maddie, I’m gonna take you to see Dr. Anderson.”

She didn’t say anything, just nodded her head as she sipped the water he brought her. She looked awful and he hoped she really
had
stopped using. He’d hoped she’d really given up the drugs. It wasn’t that long ago, after all, that he found her in his bathroom, high on God knows what. Whatever was wrong with her, he wanted to find out and get her better.

Once at the doctor’s office, Jake sat in the examination room with Maddie. She looked pale but at least she’d kept down the water he gave her earlier. He took that as a sign she was feeling better. This visit was more for Jake, unfortunately. He needed to know what was going on with her, and he swore to himself that if she was on drugs, he needed to make a decision. It wasn’t an easy wait for him.

After a blood test, a urine test, and an overall physical examination, Dr. Anderson walked in the room with her file.

“Well, Maddie, how are you feeling? Sorry for all the tests but we wanted to cover all our bases. And it seems there’s nothing wrong with you.”

Relief washed over Jake. “That’s terrific.”

“Nothing wrong in that, well, nothing is
wrong
. I am happy to say that you two are going to have a baby.”

The color drained even further from Maddie’s face but Jake was too busy beaming from ear to ear to take much notice. It was as if the past almost two and a half years had disappeared. In an instant, he forgot all her drama, all her bull shit, all his pain and focused on the tiny little person growing in her belly. His hand moved to her stomach and he smiled at her. She didn’t smile back.