12. Braydon
Ispin the sparkly teardrop shaped diamond ring around my pointer finger and thumb. It has been a week since Madison said she wanted to move to New York by herself. We made an agreement that we could still have our graduation, but we aren’t together anymore. The same day Madison broke up with me was also the same day I picked up her engagement ring. It was burning a hole in my pocket the entire time she was breaking up with me. I sold my truck the day before to buy this ring, so now I lost my truck and my girl all in the same day. In the past week I have thrown myself into work to distract myself. it may not be the healthiest option, but this is how i am coping.
It’s an unusually hot day today, which means we are able to get a lot more done on this job. I work for Ambrose Brothers’ Construction. It’s owned by Bryant, but his sons mostly run the construction side of it. Today, I am laying a foundation with Bryce, the oldest brother.
“Dude, are you good?” Bryce sets down the sandwich he was eating to look at me.
I slip the ring back into its box and tuck it in my pocket.
“Madison broke up with me.”
“What? Why? I thought you were going to propose.”
“Yeah, well she beat me to the punch. She said she wanted to go to New York and follow her own dream on her own.”
“That sucks man.” Bryce says with a mouthful of sandwich.
“I’m going to finish prepping this. Enjoy your sandwich.”
I finish prepping things to finish the foundation, when I hear a truck pull into the site. Beau hops out of the work truck, he may be the middle brother, but on the job site he likes to act like he is the oldest. Bryce is pretty chill, so he mostly just let it slide.
“Braydon, I need your help prepping for a garage in the next town over.”
“Hello to you too.” Bryce quips from beside me.
“I don’t have time Bryce.”
“Go help him before he completely freaks out. I can finish this up.”
Beau turns and walks back to the truck without another word. I follow him without hesitation because I don’t really need him to be mad at me. he is already mad that Brooks kept him up till three in the morning the other day because they were looking for me. The drive to the job site is silent. Beau is only two years older than me, but most days he likes to act like he is my dad. We pull into a driveway of a nice house with a detached garage that is fairly small. We do a lot of these. This kind of thing isn’t too hard, so I don’t really know why he needs me here with him.
“Go ahead and start prepping the garage. I will come back later and help you finish prepping.”
“Did I do something?”
Beau sighs, and I instantly regret asking. Beau is pretty quiet when it comes to his personal life, which I normally don’t mind, but if he is going to punish me for the other night, i would like to know.
“Just do the job. I will come back in two hours to finish up the prep for the day. When I get back you can go home for the day.”
I open the truck door without another protest. I have no desire to be on his bad side today. even though it looks like i already am. I begin prepping the job just like he told me to do. Focusing on this helps me forget about the weight of the ring box in my pocket. I honestly can’t believe I was stupid enough to think she would want to marry me. She has big dreams, and the entire world at her feet. The best I can give her is all my love. I should have known that that was not going to be enough. Prepping takes a lot longer than most people would expect. A floating slab may sound simple enough, and it definitely gets easier the more you do them, but a lot of work and time is still involved. The garage is also much smaller on the inside than it looked from the outside. Beau comes back early to help finish the prep work for the day, and I don’t protest. The job isn”t big, and it will probably be done by the end of the week, as long as the weather stays decent.
“I noticed your truck wasn’t at the other site, do you need a ride home?”
“Yeah, that would be great.”
The ride to my house is silent, and this time I don’t mind. We pull into my driveway, and Beau throws the work truck into park and turns to look at me.
“Braydon, where is your truck?”
“I sold it.”
“Why?” Beau seems irritated, and I can’t tell if it is directed towards me or not.
“To buy this.” I pull out the ring box and toss it to him. He doesn’t say anything at first, but I can see the shock on his face.
“Got any more questions or can I go home, detective?” He tosses back the box, and I tuck it back into my pocket.
“Does Madison know?”
“Never got a chance to tell her before she broke up with me.”
“Sorry, man. I didn’t mean to push you. You can go now.” He motions towards the door, and I take the opportunity to get out of this extremely weird situation. I don’t want to think about this anymore, I just want to forget that it even happened. But that seems to be impossible.
My mom is already cooking dinner when I walk through the door.
“Hey mom.”
“Hey sweetie. How was work?”
“Work.” I shrug as I watch her from the doorway of the kitchen.
“What are you making? It smells really good.”
“Chicken enchiladas.”
“Oh, sounds good. I’m going to go take a shower real fast before dinner.” I kiss her forehead before I head upstairs to my bathroom. my mom hasn”t tried to talk about what happened the other night, and I am honestly grateful.
I peel off my sweaty work clothes and step into the steam filled shower. Why did I think that we could work? Madison has always wanted more out of life than I could give her, but somehow, I thought that I could be more. I finish up my shower and throw on some sweats and an old hoodie. I head downstairs, and the smell of enchiladas greets me as I enter the kitchen. My mom smiles at me over her shoulder.
“Dinner’s almost done.”
“Where’s Adalynn?”
“She is staying at a friend’s house tonight.”
“Madison?”
“Sweetie.”
“I will take that as a yes.” I say pushing off the doorway and plopping down on one of our barstools with a huff.
“She didn’t want to tell you.”
I scoff, and it comes out a little sharper than I intend to. Adalynn knows about what happened, but she refuses to stop seeing Madison. I wouldn”t ask her to give up her best friend, but she can at least be honest with me.
“Braydon, would you like to talk about this?”
“Mom, I, uhm, I was going to propose.”
“I know sweetie.”
“How do you know?”
“It wasn’t very hard to tell. I saw the way you looked at each other. Quite frankly I don’t understand why it ended.”
“You and me both, mom.”
Mom walks over and places a gentle kiss on the top of my head.
“It’s going to work out sweetheart. Y’all were meant to be together.”
I smile up at my mom, not fully believing in my heart but holding on to a shred of hope.
“Can you set the table for me? Your dad should be home any minute.”
I set the table. What am I going to do now? I can’t stay in this town. Not when every square inch reminds me of Madison. I need to find a way to move out of this town. At least for a little while. An idea sparks in my brain. I hear the front door open, and my mom and dad appear in the doorway.
“Hey, Braydon.”
“How was work, Dad?”
I watch my dad squeeze mom’s hand as he passes by her to sit in his seat at the head of the table.
“It was work.” He settles into his seat.
Mom and I take our respective seats next to him.
“You two are so much alike.” Mom says motioning between my dad and me.
“I want to move to Nashville to pursue my music career.” I blurt out all in one breath, so I don’t back down. This is my genius idea that I haven’t even thought through yet, but this is what I want.