CHAPTER 5
“Watch out!” KJ yelled, snapping Kade back into his present mission of fighting off killer zombies.
He returned his attention to the screen just in time to watch Player 2 get his head blown off.
“Wow. You suck at this game,” KJ accurately assessed as he picked his soda can up off the coffee table and downed its contents.
“So how’s your aunt been doing?”
Kade still hadn’t been able to talk to her. She was avoiding him. They’d returned home from the gym an hour ago. Ali had been quiet on the ride back to the house and as soon as they hit the door, she’d mumbled something about work and headed upstairs. Ricky had gone up to his room as well to finish homework and KJ had asked Kade to play video games. Kade had been so preoccupied he’d died at least a dozen times.
“She’s cool.” KJ burped as he tossed the empty container across the room and sank it into the recycling.
“So, what’s the deal with you not wanting her to go to your classes?” Kade was fairly certain the reason had something to do with the way Keaton Mill’s face had lit up like Times Square when Ali walked in. And he’d caught Mills staring at her at least a dozen times during the ninety minutes they were there.
KJ’s only response was an indistinguishable sound as he shrugged his shoulders.
“Your coach seems like a good guy.” Other than his obvious crush on Ali, the man did seem like a great guy.
After a short conversation it was clear to Kade that Mills knew what he was doing. He’d studied under the Gracie family and was accomplished in his own right. The kids all seemed to respect him, which wasn’t an easy accomplishment when talking about pre-teens and teens these days. Not one of them pulled out their phones the entire hour and a half which was a testament to how he ran his gym.
“He’s cool,” KJ stated flatly.
Kade realized he wasn’t getting anywhere with this line of questioning so he figured he’d drop it for now.
“I really am sorry I missed your guys’ birthday.”
“It’s cool.”
Ali was cool. The coach was cool. Kade missing his birthday was cool. He had a feeling this was the teen equivalent of a woman saying, I’m fine.
“What did you guys do?” Kade followed both boys on Instagram and Snapchat, but their social media had been suspiciously quiet the weekend they became teenagers.
“Nothing.” KJ shrugged again. “Aunt Ali wanted to have a barbeque or go take out our dirt bikes, but I didn’t want to.”
From the time the boys were old enough to balance on a dirt bike, Patrick had taken them off-roading every chance he got. Since he ran the shop, his weekends were usually spent working, but he would sometimes let the boys skip school to take them out for the day.
“Why not?” It didn’t take a genius to guess the answer, but Kade wanted to give KJ the chance to talk about it.
“What’s the point? It’s a stupid birthday. It doesn’t matter. Nothing does.” KJ stared at the television and destroyed at least a dozen zombies that were trying to infiltrate the abandoned building that they were holed up in.
“KJ!” Ali’s voice rang out from the top of the stairs. “It’s almost eleven. Turn it off.”
“Ten more minutes!” KJ countered.
“No.” Ali held her ground but Kade could hear how worn down she sounded. “You still have to take a shower.”
“I’ll take one in the morning.”
“No. You won’t. You always say that and then you never get up. Turn it off. Now. Shower. Bed.” The door shut and he could hear Ali’s footsteps walking across the kitchen above them.
Kade wasn’t sure when bedtime had become a conversation. In his house, if his dad had to repeat himself, there was hell to pay. Granted, George McKnight’s parenting was nothing to emulate but Kade couldn’t remember the boys ever talking back to Patrick like it seemed KJ did to Ali every chance he got.
From the moment the boys were born, Kade had been in awe of his best friend. Patrick was only twenty-one at the time, an age when most guys were partying and living it up. But not Patrick. He was running the business that had been passed down from their grandfather, raising his little sister, and then becoming an amazing dad of twin boys.
Kade would never fill his shoes, he knew that. But he was sure as hell going to do his best to do right by the boys and Ali.
Starting now. Getting up, Kade clicked the power button on the console and the screen went black.
“What the fu—”
“Let’s go,” Kade cut off his exclamation. He didn’t give a shit if the boys cussed but he had no idea what Ali’s rule for it was.
You don’t know what Ali’s rule is for anything, his inner voice pointed out.
It was true. He didn’t. But he’d learn.
Beside him, he could see KJ was fuming and entertaining the idea of talking back to Kade, but the kid decided against it and opted instead to throw his remote control on the floor as he stood up and stomped away. Kade’s first instinct was to tell him that if that was how he was going to treat the present he wasn’t going to be allowed to play it, but he decided to let it slide.
There was going to be plenty of time to figure out his role in the boys’ lives. He didn’t need to suddenly become an authority figure.
Like Ali had, he thought.
Kade knew she’d always helped out with the boys when Patrick needed an extra hand, but his friend had talked to him about wanting Ali to have a “normal” life, something that Patrick had forfeited thanks to an alcoholic mother. He’d been responsible for Ali long before he actually became her legal guardian. Even in second grade, Patrick would rush home to check on Ali after school. He would even miss school sometimes when his mom was too wasted to take care of her.
The basement door slammed and he scrubbed his hand over his face. He sighed as he walked over to the trophies that were collecting dust on the bookshelf that ran along the far wall. Some were Patrick’s and Ali’s and some were the boys’. He traced his finger over Patrick’s name on a most valuable player trophy he’d earned their senior year.
Kade couldn’t believe that he was really gone. He’d thought that he’d accepted it but being here, in his house, was different. He kept expecting him to walk in at any moment.
But that wasn’t going to happen. He wasn’t coming back. Part of what Kade had learned over the past year was to try and accept the things that he couldn’t change, have the courage to change the things he could, and the wisdom to know the difference. He knew that he couldn’t change Patrick’s death. He would give anything, including his own life, to have Patrick back. It should’ve been him, not his best friend.
A loud crash from upstairs snapped him out of his thoughts. He took the steps two at a time and found Ali on the floor in the kitchen, surrounded by Legos.
“No, no, no, no, no,” she whispered again and again as her wild eyes scanned the floor.
“What is…what happened?” Kade bent to help her clean up.
“Don’t.” Her arm flew out, blocking him from picking anything up. “Don’t touch anything.”
Kade lifted his hands as if he were being robbed. “Okay.”
Sheer panic was written all over her pretty face as her breathing grew faster and shallower. “I have to…I need to…I can’t…”
“Slow down. Breathe. It’s okay.”
“Don’t.” Her head spun Exorcist-style toward him and there was venom in her caramel colored eyes as she let out a long breath before speaking in a dead calm. “Do not patronize me.”
“Sorry.” The corners of his lips twitched despite his best efforts not to smile. He couldn’t help it. Ali getting all fired up had always been damn cute. And he was a little relieved that her irritation at him had blocked her impending hyperventilation. “What can I do to help?”
“Nothing.” Her head shook as she looked back at the colorful plastic scattered all over the black and white checkerboard tile of the kitchen floor. “Just leave me alone.”
“Not gonna happen.” He’d done that and he wasn’t sure he’d ever forgive himself for it. “Want to tell me why you karate chopped my arm to keep me from cleaning up this mess?”
“It’s not a mess and I need to put it back together. I don’t want you to make it worse.”
“What is it?” He’d wanted to ask what it was supposed to be but he decided against it.
“It’s Ricky’s science project.”
“It is?” Kade had never heard of a science project that used Lego’s but he’d also never attended a science fair, so he wasn’t exactly an expert.
“Yes. He did it on engineering a skyscraper and tested his theories for the best designs by using Legos to create the buildings. See?” She pointed to a trifold poster board that was on its side halfway across the room.
He tilted his head and saw pictures of three separate towers on the board.
“Oh shit,” he breathed as the scope of what was going on sank in. There had to be thousands of pieces on the ground.
“Yeah. Oh shit is right. I was finishing the laundry and I almost knocked it over so I thought I would bring it to the dining room table but I tripped over KJ’s stupid shoes that I keep telling him to pick up.” Tears were filling her eyes as her voice tinged with panic. “It’s due tomorrow and he worked so hard on it. It took him weeks to design and build. He has straight A’s and Mr. Truman is not going to care that I broke it.”
Kade cringed as he hissed through his teeth. “He’s got Truman?”
“Yes.” Despair radiated off of Ali.
“I’m guessing the old man hasn’t mellowed with age?”
“No.” She let out a forced laugh. “He’s gotten worse.”
Kade leaned forward, careful not to disturb any of the Legos strewn about and grabbed the poster board that was haphazardly leaning against the cabinets. He set back on his heels and scanned the detailed architectural plans for each building that Ricky had outlined. It wasn’t going to be easy, but he was pretty sure that they could follow them.
“Okay. I understand your instinct to try and salvage what is still intact, but that’s not going to get the job done. We need to disassemble before we can reassemble.”
She eyed him with suspicion. “I don’t know. Maybe I should just go get Ricky…”
Kade didn’t want to wake up the kid to do work he’d already done and he also liked the idea of him and Ali working on a project together. It was an excuse to force her to spend time with him.
“Trust me, we can do this.”
She let out a sound that clearly communicated what a ridiculous idea she thought that was.
“Give me an hour,” he bargained. “If I don’t have things under control by then, you can wake up the kid.”
After a few moments of hesitation, she conceded. “Fine.”
Wasting no time, the two gathered each one of the pieces and carried them to the dining room table. Within no time, they’d separated the pieces and sorted them. From there it was just a matter of following Ricky’s plans.
They worked together in comfortable silence like a well-oiled machine. He’d had plenty he wanted to say but he was worried about ruining the tentative truce they’d forged. He did, however, take the opportunity to sneak glances at her every chance he got. It was adorable how she’d bite her lip and scrunch her nose while she concentrated. He loved watching her mouth words while she read silently. Being near her was his favorite place to be.
Even if she was mad at him.
The time flew by, at least to him anyway, and before they knew it they were down to the final piece.
“Would you like to do the honors?” He held the red four-pronged plastic square in the center of his palm out to Ali.
She grinned, plucked it up and clicked it into its rightful place. “Done.”
They both leaned back in their chairs and surveyed their work.
Ali’s eyes were wide as her head shook back and forth. “I can’t believe we did it.”
“I knew we could. You just had to trust me.”
Kade wasn’t used to putting his foot in his mouth. He’d always been able to talk his way out of most situations, but he was definitely tasting toe jam as he watched Ali’s smile drop and her shoulders stiffen.
“It’s already past three. I have to be up at six.” She stood and headed for the stairs. Halfway up she stopped but didn’t turn around. “Thanks.”
“It was my pleasure.” Kade’s response was sincere but he heard her let out a huff of frustration as she disappeared up the stairs.
Alone for the first time since he’d arrived, he stood and walked around the quiet house. Everything looked exactly the same as it always had, but it felt different. There was a heaviness, a sadness now. It felt empty. As natural as that was given the circumstances, he knew that this was not how Patrick would want his family to live. Ali had the weight of the world on her shoulders, KJ was angry, and Ricky was withdrawn.
Kade knew that he couldn’t fix everything overnight, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t start to fix things. He’d learned a lot over the past year and a half, and one thing that his sponsor had told him was that you don’t have to see the top of the stairs to take the first step.