Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Nash
“ H ey, Ledger,” Brian, the foreman, cupped his hands around his mouth to call up to me, but since I was only two stories up it wasn’t necessary. He had a booming voice. “Take your afternoon break and remember to hydrate. It’s hot out here.” Also, not necessary since it was easy to notice the heat. Things had changed since I started working construction right after high school. Back then, we would have never gotten an afternoon break no matter the weather, and the word “hydrate” would never have left the foreman’s mouth. My first foreman was a guy with the nickname Tank, and it fit. I never even knew his real name, but I had a few good mental ones for him whenever he found it necessary to yell at me for doing something unavoidable like dropping nails or tracking dirt onto the plywood subfloor. Rain could have been pouring down on his crew in sheets, and he’d expect us to carry on. There were tons of accidents, but in those days most accidents were just pushed aside, and you were asked “Can you still work? If not, go home and don’t come back until you can lift a hammer.” One time I cut my thumb badly on a cardboard cutter. I wrapped an old rag around my hand and kept working because I didn’t want to lose the hours. I must have bled all over the damn site because by the time the workday ended the rag was soaked red. That would never fly nowadays. There were a lot more rules and regulations, and my eighteen-year-old self would have appreciated that.
I adjusted my tool belt and climbed down the ladder. My truck was in walking distance, and I had a jug of ice water and two bananas on the front seat. I walked toward it, opened the door and instantly regretted leaving bananas in a closed truck. It was too hot inside, so I grabbed the fruit and water and walked over to the picnic tables, where a few other workers were taking a break. I sat next to Sid, a guy who’d been working construction for thirty years and had the leathery skin to prove it. He’d been talking about retirement all day. Apparently, this was his last job and then he and the “lil’ missus” were moving to Florida, and it was going to be nothing but “golfing and pina coladas until they chuck me in a six-foot hole.”
“Hot today, eh?” Sid asked as he sipped a can of soda.
“Sure is.” He said the same thing every day as if there was some big change in weather that we’d all missed.
“How come you young kids only drink water?” he asked as I took a swig from my jug.
I sighed with satisfaction. “Cuz it’s the only thing that quenches thirst in this kind of heat. That soda would only make me thirstier.”
“No way. There’s nothin’ like a cold can of cola to quench thirst.”
“Nah, Sid,” his friend Tony said. Tony was ten years younger, and had also been pounding nails since he was a teenager. “Nash is right. You need water on days like this. Especially with that whole diabetes thing going on inside that rusty old tin can of yours.”
I half-listened to the conversation as I pulled out my phone. For safety reasons we weren’t supposed to look at our phones until we were on break. Becky hadn’t called or texted, which was a relief. It meant things were going all right at home. There were a few texts from Bosco about switching up the song list and one from Ronnie about needing a lift to the gig Wednesday night, and there was a text from Layla. I opened it and stared down at the photo. Rocky was supposed to be the center of the picture, but I was far more interested in the woman standing next to him. She was leaning her head sweetly toward my big dog as he stretched up on the trunk of a tree apparently trying to reach a squirrel far above.
“Whooee, nice dog and nice gal.” I could smell Sid’s Italian sub as he breathed over my shoulder. “Is that your girl?”
“My neighbor. She’s walking my dog.”
“Now that is what I call a fine neighbor. Lucky you.” The bench wobbled as Sid and Tony got up to return to work. I had a few more minutes, so I considered texting her, then decided it was a long, hot day and hearing her voice would be a nice boost to get me through the rest of it. I was thrilled that she picked up on the first ring but reminded myself not to read too much into it.
“I did warn you about the squirrel obsession,” I said.
Layla’s laugh sounded amazing through the phone. “You did and I’m embarrassed to admit that I thought you were exaggerating. I wasn’t quite ready for his reaction, and he broke free. He raced to the tree and stopped there. I think we’d still be standing there if I hadn’t coaxed him along.”
“Believe me, you would be. Rocky has the attention span of a fly, but when it comes to squirrels, he’s like a grandmaster chess player just waiting for the squirrel’s next move.”
“Well, other than the squirrel incident, we had a wonderful walk.”
“I feel like I should pay you something for doing this.”
“No way. I’ve been wanting a dog for a long time, but we never had the time or space to give one a proper home. This is purely for my pleasure. You’re helping me fulfill a dream.”
“I think Rocky feels the same way. I’ve got to get back to work. I really appreciate this. Maybe I could take you to dinner sometime. It’s the least I can do.” She was quiet on the other side. Real smooth, Ledger. She just got done with one stalker, and there you are trying to trick your way into a date.
“You don’t need to do that,” she said finally. Her voice didn’t sound the same. “You know, it would be great if I could bring Emily over to meet you one day. I don’t want to intrude on your privacy, but she’s absolutely dying to meet you. It would mean a lot to her … and to me. I hope you don’t mind that I mentioned you lived next door. I wasn’t going to because, again, the privacy issue, but she’s my closest friend, and I couldn’t keep such an important secret from her.”
I was feeling a little gut-punched about her response. She was making it clear that she had no interest in anything beyond being a friendly neighbor. “Uh, yeah, no problem. We’ll work out a time so I can meet Emily.” I put my jug back in the truck and slammed the door shut harder than necessary. “Thanks again for walking Rocky.”
“My pleasure. See you later.” She hung up.
“Luckiest damn dog in the world,” I muttered as I headed back to the worksite.