Chapter 2 #3
Again, I followed them because what the fuck else was I going to do? Pink backpack high on my shoulder, I climbed the gentle hill while Gennie regaled Shay with stories of the chickens’ misdeeds.
When they reached the coop, Gennie went right to work collecting eggs. As was her habit, she insulted the chickens as she opened each box. “Don’t peck me, you nasty old wench!”
Shay turned to me, her eyes wide. I realized she looked tired, the type of tired that edged into weariness. She hid it well. All those bright smiles and the boundless enthusiasm she had for Gennie. You’d have to really look to see it. “Just wait. It gets more colorful.”
“Get away from me,” Gennie grumbled. “Stupid asshat.”
I motioned to the henhouse. “Like that.”
“Gimme the egg, shithead.”
I nodded while Shay clapped a hand over her mouth. “And that.”
“Fucking chores. Hate this dumb shit.”
I rocked back on my heels. “Mmm. That one too.”
“Noah,” Shay whispered. “What is going on right now?”
Gennie emerged, the basket full of fresh eggs and her expression murderous as usual. “Here,” she said, setting the basket down halfway between us. That was her way of making it clear how much she hated coop patrol. “I’m going to find my kitties.”
I snapped my fingers, pointing to the house. “Not before you wash your hands.”
Gennie trudged toward the white farmhouse on the other side of the gravel drive, still muttering about the chickens. Once the door banged shut behind her, I said to Shay, “She’s working through some stuff. She’s had a tough few years.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” She tucked her hair over her ear.
“She’s my sister’s kid,” I said because I was fully incapable of keeping anything to myself when I had Shay’s attention trained on me. “Eva is Gennie’s mother but Gennie lives here now. With me. I adopted her last fall.”
Shay gave a slow nod. She didn’t ask any of the follow-up questions that everyone else liked to harp on, like where was Gennie’s mom and why wasn’t she with her child and what about the father? She just met my gaze without an ounce of judgment and asked, “Is she okay? Eva?”
My shoulders sagged before I could stop myself. “No. She’s not. But Gennie’s here now and things are getting better. Slowly. If you ignore everything you just heard from her.”
My sister was a little more than two years older than me and Shay, and she’d already left home when Shay came to town. If it was possible, Eva had been even more motivated to get the hell out of Friendship than anyone else.
Shay gave another slow nod. “That’s a lot of stuff. For both of you.”
The problem with Shay was there was no way to resist her.
Even with all the resentment in the world fortifying me, I was defenseless against a few kind words and a sympathetic smile.
She’d always had an ability to make people feel special.
More than special— chosen . For once, I knew better than to fall into that trap.
“Yeah,” I managed. “The profanity is part of the package.”
She gave a quick bob of her head as if this was completely expected. “Is Gennie getting help to work through it?”
I barked out a laugh. “Oh, yeah. Tons of therapy. We go to Providence twice a week to see a therapist and she works with some specialists during school hours too.” Despite my better judgment, I added, “School is difficult for her. She missed a lot during”—I glanced at the house, shrugged—“everything that happened. You’ve seen how she behaves so it hasn’t been easy. They want her to repeat kindergarten.”
“Oh, shit,” she said under her breath.
“Yeah, that was Gennie’s take on it too.”
“The emotional impact would be worse than any academic deficits,” Shay said. “You can’t let that happen, Noah.”
“Trust me, I’m working on it,” I snapped, now regretting that I’d shared so much. I didn’t need input from anyone else on this. I already had more than enough.
“Is there any possibility of her being promoted or is this a done deal?”
I lifted the shoulder carrying Gennie’s backpack. “Summer school was the last-ditch effort. She was kicked out after asking the teacher if they’d be doing boring shit again today.”
Gennie barreled out of the house then and sprinted toward the barn while screaming, “Goin’ to get the kitties now!”
“Only if they want you to get them,” I called after her.
“You will not win a fight with barn cats.” We watched her streak by, dust and gravel flying behind her.
I glanced over at Shay. “When she first came here, she wouldn’t go anywhere near the animals.
Cried her head off when she got within fifty feet of a goat.
Now she’ll grab frogs right out of the pond. Bare hands.”
Gennie emerged from the barn, her arms overflowing with annoyed cat. “This one is Brownie,” she announced, “because she’s brown. I couldn’t find Blackie but that’s okay because she’s a hunter and yesterday she had pieces of—”
“Let’s not tell Shay that story,” I interrupted. “Not everyone needs the details of Blackie’s catch of the day.”
Shay gave me a small smile and mouthed “Thanks.”
“Just a few minutes with Brownie,” I said, watching the cat squirming in Gennie’s hold. “You’ve been all over the farm this afternoon, kid, but we need to get you fed and washed and ready for bed.”
“Bedtimes are bullshit,” she murmured to the cat. “’Specially in the summer.”
“And I should head back to Twin Tulip,” Shay said, taking a step away from us. “I haven’t unpacked yet and—wait, where am I?”
“This is our new house,” Gennie said. “It’s away from the farm stand and the old house because Noah values his privacy.”
Shay swallowed a laugh. “Hmm. Yeah.”
“We’ll walk you back,” I offered.
“Shay can have dinner with us,” Gennie said.
My gaze met Shay’s and the quick shake of her head came as a relief. I couldn’t manage a meal with her. I’d barely processed her reappearance in Friendship and the power she still held over me. I couldn’t bring her into my house and sit next to her at my kitchen table too.
“That is so sweet of you, Gennie,” she said, “though I just moved to this town and there’s nothing in my house, so—”
“So you probably don’t have anything to cook,” she said. “But we always cook so much that we have lots of leftovers.” Gennie turned her big brown eyes on me. “Remember how you said I could have a playdate this week?”
“That was before you were expelled from summer school,” I said, trying to keep my voice low. “And I don’t think you can have a playdate with an adult. Playdates are for kids.”
“Then it’s just a date?” Gennie asked. “Can I have a date with Shay?” My life was coming full circle in strange, unpleasant ways, and I didn’t get a chance to respond before Gennie added, “I can show you my room and we can go on the swings and we’ll have so much fun!
” She set Brownie on the ground and ran toward me, her hands pressed together like she was praying.
“Please, Noah. Please. No one ever wants to come over for a playdate with me.”
And that basically broke me.
I glanced at Shay, trying as best I could to silently release her from all involvement here.
As kind as she’d been to Gennie—and me too, I had to admit—I knew this was the last place in the world she wanted to be.
She could leave the way she always did and we’d be fine without her.
Gennie would take it hard but as soon as I pressed play on Pirates of the Caribbean , she’d lapse back into character and get over the total infatuation that came with meeting Shay. And I’d get over it too—all over again.
We’d be fine. We had to be.
Then Shay said, “I’d love to stay, Gennie. Thanks so much for inviting me.”
My niece and the love of my stupid teenage heart walked into my house hand in hand and I felt a hard knot of pressure form deep in the center of my chest. I rubbed my knuckles against my sternum but it didn’t help.
* * *
Dinner was a death march to the end of my endurance when it came to Shay Zucconi.
I barely remembered eating or negotiating with Gennie over finishing her vegetables.
I must’ve done both, seeing as Shay and Gennie were busy carrying dishes to the sink and loading the dishwasher.
And that left me standing in the middle of the kitchen while the entire universe tilted beneath my feet.
This couldn’t continue. It just could not. I wanted the sanctity of my house back but more than that I wanted the freedom that came from believing Shay was long gone from my life. If she was out of reach, I was okay.
“Can we have another playdate? Tomorrow?” Gennie asked her. “We can play at your house this time.”
“It’s almost time for your bath,” I said to my niece. She frowned at the clock on the stove. She wasn’t great with telling time but she knew this was at least an hour before her usual bath time. “Say good night to Shay and thank her for spending the afternoon with you.”
Gennie looked up at Shay, her dark eyes wide.
“Thank you for spending the afternoon with me,” she said.
“I don’t have to go to summer school anymore so we can play tomorrow if you want.
I can help you. I’m a really good helper.
I put things away all the time. And, Noah, you said we had to go down to the tulip farm because there’s a lot of poison ivy all over the place. So, we can do that tomorrow.”
Fuck.
Now I remembered what I’d forgotten when parking those trucks down at Twin Tulip.
“There’s poison ivy?” Shay yelped. “Where?”
“Yeah,” I said with a sigh. “On the beech trees along the main drive. Especially around the trunk of the one with the tire swings.” I met Gennie’s hopeful gaze. “I guess we’ll come down with the goats at some point this week.”
Shay laughed and I had to work at not smiling in response. “You’d like to inflict that upon the goats?”
“No. They’ll eat it,” I said, dropping a hand to Gennie’s shoulder. I steered her toward the stairs. “Get ready for that bath. I’ll be up in a minute.”