Chapter 4 Meteor muffins
Meteor muffins
Gage
Story Lake Haven’s entrance was a wide strip of fresh asphalt between two stacked stone pillars on the northern end of town.
Phase one had begun on the rehab of the former hospital grounds and the small neighboring apartment complex that had once housed employees into a state-of-the-art assisted living facility and retirement community.
Bishop Brothers Construction was now spearheading phase two, the development of an independent living neighborhood on twenty acres of neglected farmland.
All told, there would be fifty main-floor living cottages with attached garages, zero-entry front doors, and doorways wide enough to accommodate wheelchairs.
The first dozen cottage occupants were slated to take possession in May.
I tossed a wave to the landscaping crew as they worked on the new flower beds along the drive and pulled up to the curb in front of a nearly finished bungalow with hunter-green siding.
Pride pushed aside the lingering stress from the morning.
We built this. Together. The latest generation of Bishops to leave our mark on Story Lake.
Cam’s truck was in the driveway, and Levi’s was parked across the street. Nana gave an excited shiver of anticipation. The dog loved jobsites. It was the perfect combination of people to pay attention to her and food carelessly left at golden retriever level.
We entered through the back slider, and I drew in a deep breath. Fresh paint, new carpet, and sawdust. It smelled like home, like family.
It sounded like it too.
“Fuck off. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You get fucking dumber since yesterday? How could you not remember? We spent hours on that thing.”
My brothers’ argument in the basement was loud enough to drown out the cabinet crew in the kitchen. After the appropriate number of greetings for Nana, we headed downstairs.
Cam and Levi hadn’t accomplished a hell of a lot on the change order for a Lego storage room since I’d left earlier. They were both sitting on upside-down hardware store buckets, looking at their phones.
Cam looked up. “Gigi, you remember the pinball game Dad put in the barn when we were kids. Or are you an idiot like this one?” He pointed at Levi, who shook his head at me while yawning.
“Fun House?”
“I fucking told you,” Cam said, springing to his feet to point victoriously at Levi.
Levi rolled his eyes. “I had him going. He was a minute away from driving over to Mom and Dad’s to dig through the old photo albums. I was gonna nap in my truck.”
“I knew you were fucking with me,” Cam insisted.
“You look like shit, Livvy,” I observed. He had dark circles under his eyes, and his hair was standing up in tufts.
He responded with a middle finger in my direction.
“What the hell’s your problem? You out clubbing all night?” Cam asked.
I snorted. The day Levi voluntarily socialized was the day the devil took up snowboarding.
“I was writing,” he said on another yawn.
“Great. Just what I need. Another part-time brother,” Cam complained.
“Fuck you, Cammy. I don’t wanna hear your shit when you didn’t get a damn thing done since I left,” I said, gesturing around the basement, which was exactly the same as when I’d left.
“Hey, asshole. We went across the street and swapped out the damaged tile in the laundry room,” Levi explained, scrubbing a hand over his face. “Where’s my sandwich?”
“Fuck your sandwich. Where’s my spray foam?” Cam demanded.
“Here’s your fucking spray foam and your goddamn sandwich.” I whipped their respective bags at them.
Cam fished the can out of his bag. “What took you so long?”
“Where the hell’s my mustard?” Levi asked, frowning down at his sandwich. Nana sidled closer to him, looking hopeful.
“Driving your bride and her irresponsible BFF around after an incident with Goose. And it’s in the bag, dumbass.”
Levi paused his condiment search. “Heh. You’re fucked.”
I picked up my tool belt. “Excuse me?”
He pointed the business end of his sandwich at Cam, and Nana leaned in, nose twitching. “That’s how his whole deal started. Rescuing Hazel from Goose. You playing hero to Zoey? It’s a sign.”
Cam grinned, which I found disconcerting. I still wasn’t used to my grumpy brother’s newfound happiness. “I was fucking heroic,” he announced.
I shook my head as I clipped on the belt. “Please. You can’t rewrite history. You yelled at her and accused her of trying to kill a bald eagle. You should be kissing her feet every day for putting up with your crabby ass. And when the hell did you get so superstitious, Livvy?”
Levi shrugged broad shoulders and squirted a yellow river of mustard onto his sandwich. Nana let out a low grumble, and the drool started to flow. “Maybe it’s the sleep deprivation. But it feels like a pattern,” he said.
I did not like where this conversation was going. It was bad enough I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn’t into Zoey. It would be a thousand times worse if my brothers caught on to the inconvenient, purely physical attraction.
“Let the record show that Goose is not a matchmaker. He’s a bald eagle with asshole tendencies. He dropped a snake on Zoey. She ran out in the road and right into me,” I explained.
That wiped the smile off Cam’s face as he ruffled Nana’s fur, distracting her from deli meat. “She okay?”
“She’s fine.” I would be too after a beer, a shower, and a good night’s sleep so I could stop picturing her lying there motionless on the road.
“Then why do you look like someone pissed in your beer?” Cam asked.
“Maybe it’s your imagination.” I made a show of picking up a two-by-four and slinging it across the second pair of sawhorses.
“Liv?” Cam said, pointing at me.
“He’s right,” Levi said around a mouthful of turkey and cheese. “You look morose and shit.”
“Maybe it’s because I’m stuck working with my two idiot brothers on a nice spring day.
” Most days, at least one of us wanted to punch another one of us in the face.
There was the occasion when we did throw a punch or two, but those were few and far between, usually settled with a cold beer, and involved a pact not to tell Mom.
“Bullshit,” they said in unison.
I sighed. “Fine. I almost didn’t see her in time. She got knocked down. I nearly had a fucking heart attack. Scared the shit out of me. There. Happy?”
The image of Zoey lying on the road, eyes closed, surfaced again, and my heart sped up.
“Why would that make us happy?” Levi asked, appalled.
Cam was already pulling his phone out of his pocket and dialing.
“Haze,” he said into the phone. “Why didn’t I get a call the second my brother tried to run down your best friend?”
“I didn’t try to run anyone down,” I said loud enough for Hazel and everyone upstairs to hear.
Cam held up his middle finger and stomped over to the far corner of the basement to continue his interrogation.
“That sucks,” Levi said.
“She’s fine,” I insisted.
“Probably brought up some Laura-related shit,” he guessed.
I shrugged. “Maybe.” Our sister’s life had changed when she and her husband had been out for an early morning run and a driver hadn’t seen them. Laura was in a wheelchair now, and Miller… Miller was gone.
Were we all really one mistake away from ruining someone else’s life?
It was a thought I didn’t want to sit with. I was careful. I was responsible. I made plans, set goals, took action. I didn’t make mistakes that carelessly destroyed families.
Levi nodded sagely, then took another bite of his sandwich.
“Good talk,” I said.
He grunted.
Cam returned. “They’re fine. So you gonna go into some ‘reminded of Larry’s accident downward spiral’ shit? Because that would be stupid. And we’re not equipped to deal with that, so we’d probably have to call in Mom, and she’d just kick your ass.”
“He is,” Levi said, ratting me out.
“I’m fine.”
“Probably easier to believe him than to get Mom involved,” Levi observed.
“Good point. Talk over. Problem solved.” Cam glared at Levi. “Great. Now I want a damn sandwich.”
Nana perked up and swiveled on her butt to eye her other uncle, who had said one of her favorite words.
I pointed to the third bag I’d deposited on the sawhorses. “There’s two more in there. Plus chips.”
“You’re my favorite,” Cam said, pouncing on the bag.
“Great. Now can we please accomplish something with this closet before I have to leave?”
“After sandwiches,” Cam promised. “So back to the wedding. Picture this. Open bar with whiskey flights.”
“You trying to get someone to puke on the bride?” Levi asked.
I checked my watch and swore as I hurried through the front door of the building. We’d finally gotten the Lego room framed out before being called down the street to mediate a dispute between the plumbers and electricians vying over schedules in another bungalow.
“You have fourteen minutes,” my paralegal stated from the first-floor doorway.
Declan had fiery red hair and made adventurous fashion choices.
I’d assumed that both factors would reflect a charismatic personality.
However, after two months of working together, I had yet to see any evidence of a personality.
At least the kid was efficient. Sometimes too efficient.
I was glad business was picking up, because on days he caught up with his work, he listened to epic fantasy audiobooks and acted out the swordplay with a cardboard tube.
“I’ll be on time,” I assured him as I yanked my shirt over my head and charged for the door to the stairway with Nana galloping at my heels.
The building I’d bought for my law office five years ago came with a small one-bedroom apartment on the second floor that I’d at one time intended to rent out, but instead it had defaulted to storage and shower facilities.
“You also have a report from the process server on your desk, and the mediator for client 1107 rescheduled tomorrow’s meeting,” he said, following me to the door.