Chapter 6
SUTTON
Lila hasn’t exactly been a ball of fun since we moved in, but something has really been up her ass the last couple of days.
She spends most of her time with headphones on and if I ask her something, I get one word answers.
She doesn’t even bother to argue with me or react.
I probably shouldn’t care, but it makes living here kind of uncomfortable.
I wonder if it has anything to do with that night?
I never told her that I heard her, and she sure doesn’t know I got off listening to her come.
Unless she’s a mind reader, she’s also unaware of the dirty dreams that have followed or how many times I’ve replayed those sounds in my head.
She’s off limits. Not that she’d be willing anyway.
Still, I want to try to smooth things over so we can at least go back to the limited, smart assed rapport we had.
She sits with her legs tucked beneath her on the end of the couch, and I take a seat across from her in the recliner. “Isn’t this getting old?”
It takes her a second to look up. “What?”
“Pretending you don’t like me.”
She goes back to looking at her phone screen. “Is it that unbelievable that I might genuinely dislike you?”
“Hmm, it doesn’t seem probable. Statistically, I mean.”
“I suggest you crunch those numbers again.” She spares me an exasperated glance. “It’s Saturday. Don’t you have something to do?”
This isn’t going well if she’s already trying to get rid of me. “Actually, yes, but I’m waiting on Amos to wake up.”
Without looking away from her phone, she reaches down, picks up one of Amos’s boots and chucks it at his door where it hits with a loud thump. “Amos!”
“What?” His instant response means he was probably awake but I’ll bet he jumped a mile.
“Wake your ass up!” She flashes a fake smile at me. “There you go.”
“Alright, mean ass, let’s clear the air then. Why?”
“Why don’t I like you?”
I’ll admit, I’m curious. I’ve never done anything to her. When I continue to stare at her for an answer, she sets her phone aside.
“Fine. You’re a bad influence on Amos. Before he met you, he was never in trouble.”
“In high school?” I ask, incredulously.
“Yes. Once you became friends, he started ditching school, vandalizing, and shoplifting right along with you until he ended up in juvenile detention for stealing a car. I hoped when he got out he would’ve learned his lesson but years later, you’re still partners in crime while he can’t even keep a roof over his head. ”
I’m the one who has kept a roof over his head for years, not that she would know that. “I don’t have to stay here, you know. I can go. I have other options. I wouldn’t be out on the street, despite what Amos might have told you.”
She sighs and rubs her forehead. “Look, you asked me why, and I answered you. I’m not trying to kick you out or argue over it. I’ve had a bad week and I’m really trying not to take it out on anyone else.”
“Well, I don’t think it’s working.”
My words hang in the air for a moment until she cracks a smile despite herself.
Amos comes out of his room, interrupting us. “What the hell? Why did I need to be up? I work nights, you know.”
“And it’s almost one. You’ll survive,” Lila replies.
“The dumpster has been delivered. Are you helping me today? Because we need to get going.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot. Let me grab something to eat and we’ll go.” He grins at Lila. “Hey Liles, how about making me some eggs and sausage?”
“How about some leftover kibble from Dusty’s bowl?” she counters, and he laughs.
A bad influence, she called me. As if anyone could be a bad influence on Amos.
It’s true we got into a lot of trouble together when we were young, but I’m not the one who continued the behavior.
It doesn’t matter. I’m not going to defend myself because she’s right that I screwed up his life, just not that I’ve continued doing it.
Besides, why do I care what she thinks anyway?
“Are we tossing everything?” Amos asks, as I pull open the shed door.
“We can make a pile to keep or donate if there’s anything useful but it looks like mostly trash.” With all the paper in sight, I’m surprised this place didn’t go up in flames along with the house.
“Good news!” He reaches inside the door and holds up a grimy item. “You don’t have to buy a toilet brush.”
“Gross. I’m glad we brought gloves.”
It takes us an hour to put a dent in the piles and so far, everything has gone into the dumpster. Stacks of moldy old mass market paperbacks, rotting bags of clothes and blankets, and for some mystifying reason, hundreds of empty potato chip canisters.
We spend a lot of time laughing and joking over the random items. “I’m glad you came or I would’ve been here half the night,” I remark, chucking out half of an old bicycle.
“I told you I’d help. Besides, Lila is in a mood and I’m in no hurry to go back.”
“She said she had a bad week. Any idea what happened?”
“She got suspended from work for something. Leave it to her to be mad about getting to lay around for two weeks.”
That wasn’t something I expected to hear. “Really? What did she do?”
“I don’t know. Broke some policy. I wasn’t really listening. Mandy was texting me. Let’s get this done because I’m supposed to meet her later.”
I’m intrigued. What could Lila have done?
We get back to work, pulling out furniture.
It’s far beyond repair. A large, sagging cardboard box with Broken Glass scrawled across it takes both of us to maneuver.
I open it and he laughs when we see it’s piled high with shards.
“Well, it delivers what it promises,” I chuckle as we heave it into the dumpster.
When we’ve nearly reached the back wall, Amos exclaims, “Lila had a dollhouse identical to this one.” He drags the sizeable toy outside. “She loved that thing. I broke it when she was nine and I still don’t think she’s forgiven me.”
“Wait,” I call, before he can dispose of it. It isn’t in bad shape. Nothing some cleaning and maybe some paint couldn’t fix. “Set it in the donate pile. I’ll try to clean it up.”
The next thing he finds is a plastic tote that holds the tiny furniture that goes with it. When I put that alongside the dollhouse, he shakes his head. “It’s not worth anything. I doubt the thrift stores will want it. Just toss it.”
“We’ll see. Let’s get those tools out, and we’ll call it a day.” There was a workbench built into the back wall of the shed that I’m excited to restore, and quite a few tools still lying on it. At least there was something useful in that mess.
Amos chugs his water while I walk over to the cargo trailer to put the tools inside. As I’m locking it back up, the only thought in my head is a shower and a cold beer, until I’m dive bombed by a red monster.
Of all wasps, these red bastards are up there with yellow jackets on the fuck-you-up scale. They don’t only sting once, but keep coming at you, chasing you. While they also send warning signals out for all their little friends to attack.
It stings me in my face and before I realize what got me, I swat at it, and it nails me again. The sharp pain quickly turns to a burning sensation. Curses spill out of me, and I dart back toward the truck.
“Wasps!” I call out, and Amos takes off too, beating me back to the truck by a second or two.
My eye is pouring water by the time we’re safely inside. “Oh shit. Did it get you in the eye? You’ll need the emergency room,” Amos says, studying my face.
“No, under it, I think. Twice. I’m alright.” It hurts, but I’m not allergic or anything. I’ve been stung before. “There’s a nest on the trailer. I’ll have to bring some foaming spray back.”
Amos stares at me with concern. “Your face is really swelling up. Do you want me to drive?”
“No, I’m good.”
I’m not good. My face is on fire, and by the time we get back to the trailer my left eye is swollen shut. We walk inside to find the kitchen full of women. Lila and Holly sit perched at the kitchen bar while Maren, Cara, and two older women I don’t know sit at the table.
Lila’s eyebrows leap up at the sight of me. “Whoa. Were you talking when you should’ve been listening?”
“I was already attacked by one tiny demon so put your pitchfork down, Mini. It was a wasp.”
“Call me that again, and I’ll swell up your other eye.” Despite her words, she gets up to grab an icepack out of the freezer and hands it to me.
“Thank you…Delilah.”
Her eyes narrow in my direction as one of the older women speaks up. “I didn’t know Lila was short for Delilah. I love that name. I have a ferret named Delilah.”
I’m not sure if that’s meant to be a compliment, but Lila takes no offense to it. “I like it okay but nobody really calls me that. Lila has stuck since I was a baby.” She turns her attention back to me. “Are you allergic? Because that doesn’t look good.”
“No, it’s fine. Are you worried about me? That’s so sweet.”
“I don’t want you dying here. It’ll be a mess to clean up.” She looks past me to Amos. “There’s some Benadryl in the bathroom cabinet.”
“Good idea.”
The woman with the ferret stands up, swirling her wine glass in her hand. “Introduce us to this poor, injured man.” Through one eye, I watch her sweep her gaze over me from head to foot. “You’re all dirt and muscles, aren’t you?”
She has to be twenty-five years older than me. I’m not even sure how to answer that.
Lila is happy to jump in. “This is Sutton, Amos’s friend. Sutton, this is Louise.”
“Nice to meet you,” I mumble, holding the ice on my eye.
Amos returns and hands me a pill as Lila introduces us to everyone that we don’t already know. After saying hello, Amos rubs a hand over his chin. “Right, if you’re sure you’re okay, I’m going to shower and get ready to go.”
“I’m fine.”
“As a summer day,” Rita pipes up, and now I’m being ogled by a woman who must be in her seventies.
“Did we interrupt a party?” I ask.
“Book club,” Lila replies.
“Dirty romance book club,” Louise corrects. “I do yoga, you know. Keeps me nice and flexible.”
“They aren’t dirty,” Maren argues. “They’re romantic.”
Cara grins at her. “Girl, a stalker showing up in your bedroom is not romantic.”
“Depends on what he looks like and how well he eats pussy,” Rita argues with a shrug.
All of them crack up and a conversation begins discussing the merits of attractive stalkers. I grab a beer from the fridge and go out to sit on the porch.
My reflection in my phone’s camera kills any thought of going out tonight since I look ridiculous. Still, I’m happy with how much we got accomplished today. Tomorrow, I can finish up and get a better idea of what repairs the shed will need.
From my seat in the corner of the porch, I can see and hear Lila and her friends talking through the kitchen window, but they can’t see me in the darkness. It sounds like they’re trying to choose the next book they’re going to read. Who knew romance had so many genres and tropes?
“Can we please avoid insta love this time?” Cara asks.
“You don’t believe in love at first sight?” Rita asks. “That’s how it was for me and my late husband.”
“It’s not that. But it’s hard to take these girls seriously when they’re melting down over a guy they haven’t known for a week. I can’t imagine my life without him. Really? Think back to Thursday.”
“You have to suspend your disbelief. Most of this wouldn’t be cool in real life,” Maren says. “Like could you imagine a man ordering you to crawl to him? I think the fuck not.”
Holly slaps the table lightly, leaning over.
“Oh my god, I had a guy say something I swear he must’ve seen in a book.
We’d only been on two dates, and it was our first time sleeping together.
He put it in, stopped to stare at me and did this deep fake voice.
” She drops her tone. “Look me in the eye. You are mine.”
“No,” Maren groans. “What did you say?”
“Well, all I could think of was the pirate in that movie with Tom Hanks.” She deepens her voice again. “Look at me, I’m the captain now.” Shrugging, she picks up her glass of lemonade. “He got mad when I laughed.”
These women are brutal. Once their laughter dies down, Cara makes a suggestion. “This one looks good. It just released. It’s a brother’s best friend trope.”
“No. I veto,” Lila exclaims instantly.
“Too close to home?” Holly teases.
“Ha! I didn’t even make the connection,” Cara exclaims. “You’re living with your brother’s hot best friend! This is a romance book in the making.”
If Lila shakes her head any harder, it might fly off. “Absolutely not. First of all, I’m not living with him. He’s staying with me, temporarily. Second, I don’t like him, and he feels the same.”
Hmm, she didn’t argue that I’m hot.
“Oh, it’s an enemies to lovers story then! We know all about that,” Maren cries, and Lila looks exasperated at their laughter. I have to cover my mouth so they don’t hear me joining in. They’re riling her up way more than I do.
“He really doesn’t seem to dislike you, though,” Holly points out. “It might be more of a grumpy sunshine situation.” She grins at Lila. “You’re the grump.”
Did they just call me a sunshine? I’m not sure whether that’s an insult or not.
Before Lila can reply, Amos interrupts as he grabs his keys to leave. Once he steps out on the porch with me, I hear Louise say, “Do we know any cougar books, maybe with a friend’s brother trope?”