Stars & Stripes

Ty huffed and followed. “What are you doing outside so late?” he repeated.



“Helping your daddy,” Mara shot over her shoulder.



Zane held out a hand toward Ty. “Want me to take the bags upstairs?”



“No. Wait, what? Hey, Ma!” Ty trailed after his mother, bag still over his shoulder. “What is he doing?”



“Cutting up the four-by-fours we got for the roof.”



“Oh hell,” Zane said under his breath as he followed the crazy train out the back door, reaching for the strap of Ty’s bag. Ty shrugged it off with a glance back at Zane, but his attention was on his mother.



They thumped down the steps in the dark and followed Mara around the corner of the house, where a pole stood in the middle of the yard. In the pool of light at its base were several stacks of tin roofing, wooden planks, crates, and Earl Grady with a large electric saw.



“Earl, the boys are here,” Mara announced.



“Boys,” Earl greeted without looking up.



“Hello, sir,” Ty and Deuce responded at the same time.



“Dad?” Ty knelt down so he could look his father in the eye.



“It wasn’t the whole finger,” Earl said before Ty could even ask. He held up his hand and displayed the heavy wrapping that was keeping his reattached pinkie connected.



“It’s dirty!” Mara said. “That’s it. We’re going inside.”



“But Mara—”



“That was the deal! Inside. Now!” Mara shouted, pointing at the house.



“How did you cut off your finger?” Deuce asked.



“I didn’t cut off anything,” Earl answered with a look at his wife.



“He’ll tell you when he gets inside.”



“But Ma,” Ty said, sounding almost exactly like Earl had a moment earlier.



“Inside!”



Grumbling, Ty turned, and the procession tromped into the house. They headed for the living room, and Ty threw himself onto the couch. Zane sat next to him with a little more dignity, but Ty could tell he was tense. Zane and Earl hadn’t hit it off the first time they’d met.



Mara pointed for Earl to sit in the nearby recliner, and he did so without protest.



“I’ll get the disinfectant and the gauze,” she announced as she left the room.



Deuce sat on the table in front of Earl, and he and Ty both watched their father out of the corner of their eyes, either trying to judge his mood or waiting for him to speak.



“So, Dad,” Ty finally tried, drawing the words out as he turned his shoulders toward Earl.



“It was an accident.”



“I certainly hope so.”



“Don’t be a smartass.”



“Can’t help it, runs in the family. What happened?”



“Your mother cut my finger off with a set of garden shears. That’s what happened,” Earl answered, his tone neutral. Although, he did manage to make the word “mother” sound like a curse.



“Did you . . . deserve it?” Deuce asked shakily. Either he was afraid of asking the question, or he was trying not to laugh. Ty was inclined to think the latter.



“A little bit,” Earl said. “She was out there pruning that big ol’ gardenia bush, and I was trying to get the mulch under it just right as she did it.”



“So, you . . .”



“She told me to wait, that I was going to lose a finger.” Earl looked toward the kitchen and then back at Ty and Deuce. He snorted. “I asked her, did she think I was stupid? Then a couple snips later, whack. Off went the finger. And you know what that woman said to me? I said, ‘Mara, you cut my finger off.’ And your mother said to me, ‘Well, Earl, who’s stupid now?’”



Ty laughed out loud before he could stop himself. Deuce snorted and cleared his throat before giving up and grinning. Ty could picture the scene as if he had witnessed it himself, and he couldn’t seem to stop giggling.



“It’s not really all that funny,” Earl said, offended. Ty’s only response was to lower his head into both hands and laugh more. The more Earl protested, the harder Ty laughed. Soon he fell to his side against Zane’s arm and covered his face as he cackled.



“If it makes you feel better, Dad, we were worried,” Deuce said, though his voice wavered.



“Yeah, he looks it,” Earl said. He was watching Ty with what might have been affection, though.



“He does have personal experience with finger injuries.”



“That’s ’cause he’s a dumbass,” Earl said.



Ty howled as he pointed at his father. “That must run in the family too!”



Earl eased back into his chair and shook his head as Ty finally wound down and tried to catch his breath. “Good thing it wasn’t the whole hand. You’d ’a’ been in hysterics.”



That caused another peal of laughter. Deuce bit his lip and looked away so Earl wouldn’t see him grinning, and Ty could feel Zane chuckling against him.



Mara walked into the room carrying a basket of first aid gear and frowned at them. “He told you how it happened, huh?”



“Yes, ma’am,” Zane managed to say.



Ty cleared his throat and sat back up, fighting for a little decorum as he wiped at his eyes.



Mara sat down on the end of the couch near Earl and placed her basket on the floor, then gestured for Earl to give her his hand.



“Why don’t you let one of the boys do that?” Earl suggested as he held his hand away from her.



“You think I can’t doctor you after thirty-seven years of marriage?”



“You’re the one that cut it off in the first place!”



They were all still chuckling as they headed for the kitchen to eat the late dinner Mara had promised, leaving Mara and Earl to discuss things without an audience.



The building they were here to repair had served as storage for as long as Ty could remember. It had been built into a rocky outcropping on the property, using the side of the mountain as one of its walls. Because of that, it stayed cool almost year-round, but it also had a tendency toward being dark, damp, and full of creepy-crawlies. Ty mostly stayed away from it.



The other three walls were made of two-by-fours and sheet metal, with some scrap siding and cinder blocks to give it that tetanus feeling that kept strangers away from it and its contents.



Ty licked his lips as he examined the failing roof from the front of the building. The tin was rusted through in places, jagged and reddened and full of holes where rain and runoff from the hill had eaten through it. It was possible they could replace a few sheets of the corrugated tin, but more likely they’d need to do the whole thing. The earthen portion of the building had insinuated itself into the structure over the years, and it would be a real bitch to get the tin of the roof out of the soil. It appeared they would have to dig into it.



Of course, if they were going to do it right, that’s what they’d have to do. Mara and Earl had other ideas.



“I think if we just spread this tarp over it, it’ll last a few more years,” Mara said as she dropped the bundle of blue tarp she’d hauled out of the back of her old SUV.



“Tarp?” Deuce said with a frown.



“It’s not like we live in it,” Mara told him. “It’ll keep it dry.”



“Yeah, until the first snow,” Ty said. “Then you’ll be calling me and Deuce, all, ‘Honey, your daddy’s buried under ten feet of snow, can you bring your shovel?’”



“Yeah, I didn’t drive from Philly to help you lay out a tarp.”



“Oh hush, both of you,” Mara said with a wave of her hand.



Earl and Chester both chuckled.



“Really, Ma, you’ve got all the stuff, you’ve got us all here to help, why not just rebuild it now?” Deuce said.



“All right, all right. Earl and Zane stay on the ground. Ty and Deacon can handle the stuff up top.”



“Why does Zane get to stay on the ground?” Ty asked with an accusatory point at his able-bodied partner.



“Because he’s a guest, and we don’t ask guests to risk life and limb.” She thrust a hammer and a plastic container full of nails into Earl’s arms. Then she clapped her hands. “Get to it, boys. We’re burning daylight! And when we take a break later, I’ve got some furniture needs moving.”



Ty and Deuce both groaned as they headed for the rocky slope acting as one of the building’s walls. They’d used the hill to access the roof many times in their youth, when they weren’t supposed to be playing up there but had done so anyway. As Ty scrambled up the incline, it didn’t seem as high as he remembered from when he was ten, but the roof looked much more foreboding.



“Ah, for the fearlessness of youth,” Deuce muttered from the other side of the building. Ty snorted. They sat on the hill above the roof, fighting gravity and erosion as they tried to keep their weight off the perilous-looking tin.



“Just keep to the two-by-fours and you shouldn’t fall through,” Mara called up to them.



Ty and Deuce shared a look.



“Ma, we can’t see where the two-by-fours are from up here,” Ty shouted as he looked over the roof. They could see spots that were rusted through, and others where it looked as if a leaf landing on the metal would cause it to give in.



“They should be where the nails are,” Earl called back. “Just step on the nails.”



“They’ve got to be kidding,” Deuce said under his breath.



Ty slid down the hill closer to the edge of the roof, dampness from the ground seeping into the seat of his jeans. He tapped the toe of his work boot on the nearest line of nails, testing it. “Look at it this way,” he told his brother. “It’s only like an eight foot drop. And any of Dad’s tools that are sharp enough to impale you are in the other shed.”



“You’re a ray of sunshine and optimism, you know that?”



Deuce mimicked Ty’s actions, testing the roof with one foot. They made their way out onto the tin, taking great care to stay on the line of nails that indicated the supporting beams below. “Speaking of optimism, how are things going with you and Zane?”



“Too good to be true,” Ty said as he edged along the narrow line of safety.



“Did you bring him with you for a reason?”



“Stop psychoanalyzing me,” Ty said, sing-song, as he glanced up and then back down at the roof.



“That’s a yes,” Deuce replied in the same tone.



“Maybe it is, but as soon as I stepped through the door, I changed my mind.” Ty continued toward the edge of the building, being less careful than he should have been. “Dad was right, I’m a coward.”



“Bullshit, Ty. You’ll get there.”



Ty glanced at his brother and nodded.



When he reached the edge, he knelt down and smiled crookedly at Zane, giving him a quick wink. Zane returned his smile. Ty almost got lost in it, but he was distracted by his father giving them orders.



“We’re gonna tear the whole thing up and replace anything that’s rotted,” Earl said as he handed Ty a crowbar.



Ty and Deuce both groaned, but they followed with a matching, “Yes, sir.” And then they got to work, yanking up the old tin roof and tossing the pieces down to the ground.



The faster they finished this disaster waiting to happen, the faster Ty could get down there to Zane and work himself up into confessing the truth to his family.



It wasn’t until they were washing up for dinner that Zane was able to get Ty alone, cornering him in the tiny bathroom upstairs. The first thing Zane did was pull Ty to him and kiss him, long and hard, letting Ty’s scent and the feel of him wipe away all the tension he’d built up in the past few days. He pulled Ty close, appreciating every ounce of him, letting himself be turned on by the smell of sweat and damp earth clinging to Ty’s body.



When they parted, Zane’s heart was pounding and Ty was trying to catch his breath.



“I’ve been thinking,” Ty said as he pressed his nose to Zane’s cheek.



“Not your strong suit.”



“Oh, look who’s funny,” Ty said, though he was smiling against Zane’s skin. He pulled back a step to meet Zane’s eyes. “I’m serious. What would you think of telling my parents about us?”



Zane’s heart leapt into his throat. “You want to come out to your mom and dad?”



Ty licked his lips and nodded. “I want you to be part of the family. You deserve that. We deserve it.”



Zane began to smile.



“I just . . . I don’t know how. I don’t know if I have the guts to do it.”



“Baby, I think deciding you want to is a pretty big step. We’ll figure it out.” He kissed Ty languidly, breathless and distracted by the heat growing between them that wouldn’t be addressed soon enough. “Thank you.”



“What for?”



“I know what a big deal that is. I know what you’ve been through. Thank you for thinking I’m worth it.”



Ty stared at him for a long moment, then kissed him again, harder. They lingered over it, taking their time, letting themselves enjoy the brief moment.



“You better get cleaned up,” Zane finally said as he pushed Ty away and headed for the door. He didn’t look back. If he did, he and Ty would end up screwing in the shower, and that would be so very hard to explain.



He headed for the landing, meeting Deuce at the top of the stairs with a knowing grin and following him down to the kitchen. Ty wasn’t far behind them. It was a glimpse into what it might have been like to grow up here, to have a family that was so close, a mother who hugged at every opportunity, a brother who was more like an accomplice than a sibling. It made Zane’s stomach cramp to think of all the ways life could have been different.