Chapter 19 Angelie
ANGELIE
“Alright, has everyone got their shoes on?”
I can’t help but laugh as I catch sight of the answer to my own question—Chuck and Chrissie are leaning on each other, attempting to pull on their shoes with the utmost focus, while Stephanie has already given up and fallen over, in a ball on the ground with her tongue pinched between her teeth as she attempts to do up the Velcro strap of her shoe.
Only Jake stands there fully dressed and ready to go, a grin on his face half a mile wide as though he’s utterly proud of himself for being the only one to have actually done what he was asked to.
“Good boy,” I murmur, ruffling his hair as I go to tend to the rest of his siblings in turn. Getting them all ready for a walk together is never easy, but on a beautiful day like today, there isn’t a chance in hell that I’m going to sit around the house doing nothing.
And besides, it’s not like I have much else to do with my time right now. I try not to let the sadness show in my eyes as I help Stephanie with her shoe, letting her lean her little hand on my shoulder for balance as she straightens up.
It’s been nearly a week since the school has officially been shut down, given that there’s nothing of it even left to open up anymore.
I managed to pluck up the courage to go by and see it for myself a few days ago, and the shock of seeing the place that I poured so much of my time and energy and love into in ashes on the ground…
I’m not ashamed to admit that I cried all the way home, only pulling myself together as I approached the door so my sister and my kids wouldn’t see me in tears.
I don’t know what happens now. I mean, sure, I guess that the kids who would have been taught at Devin Ridge Elementary will just be spread out over the surrounding towns, given places to study that scatter them across the county. But that doesn’t sit right with me, as silly as I know it is.
Because…because the school was a centerpiece of this town.
A place that everyone had in common, a place that everyone passed through, at some point or another.
And the thought of everyone in this town suddenly being split off like that, it causes a pang in my chest. Will my kids have to go to some school across the county, far away from me?
Will I have to go find another job out there, far removed from the comfortable little kingdom I’ve found in Devin Ridge?
I can’t imagine it, but I guess I’m going to have to contend with the possibility sooner rather than later, if I want to get back to work and start bringing in money again…
Because it’s not like I’ll have the guys to rely on for much longer.
It feels like a ticking clock has been hanging over my head from the moment the fires were dealt with, a warning that they will be moving on as soon as they get the chance.
Which, of course, I expect, on some level.
They haven’t gone to all this effort just to sequester themselves in a small town like this one when they could be helping people across the state, right?
With summer in full swing, it’s probably going to be forest fire central for the next few months, so I should wrap my head around them moving on.
But the mere thought of it, no matter how much I try to rationalize it, stabs like a knife into my gut in a way I can’t ignore.
It’s not like the last time, when I came back to Devin Ridge and found them gone.
Back then, they had no idea that I was pregnant, after all, no reason to think I was carrying their children.
But if they leave now, after everything that’s happened, I know that they’re choosing something other than me, other than our family, other than the life that I’ve made for myself here.
I have no right to claim them, to force them to give up on what they’ve worked so hard to establish, but I don’t know if my heart can take losing them on top of everything else that has slipped through my fingers in the last few days.
“Alright, everyone ready?”
I cast my eye over the quads, who, despite a few runny noses and coats buttoned up wrong, look about as good as they’re going to for this walk.
I extend my hands, taking Chrissie’s and Chuck’s, who then grab Jake’s and Stephanie’s—a practiced setup for us, one that reminds me of when I was pushing them around in a giant four-wide stroller.
Sometimes, when I look back on those days, I have no damn idea how I was able to keep up with taking care of them at the same time, but maybe I need to give myself a little more credit.
I was capable of stuff that I would never have imagined—even if the men leave again, I’m not going to forget that, right?
“Morning, Miss Brown!”
I smile and wave at a couple of kids playing in their front garden—Nora and Nathan, both of whom came through my class a couple of years ago.
I guess, for them, this just seems like a fantastic opportunity to take a few days off school.
I suppose it hasn’t really struck them yet how much their lives are going to change in the coming months.
I wonder if they’ll all be placed in the same school together, or if they’ll be split up, all those little friend groups divided as they settle them into various classrooms miles away from each other.
I know it’s silly to get sad over little things like that, but it’s hard not to let it bother me.
I’ve seen these kids grow up, form friendships, fall out and make up again.
The thought of them losing all of that feels wrong.
“You see this?” I explain to my kids, as we stop at the edge of the town square where a few trees have been scorched from the fire that reached over from the town hall.
“This leaf, it’s black because of a fire that came through here.
That’s why you had to go to the motel to stay with your grandparents for a while… ”
“Can I see?” Jake asks, a little nervously, and I reach down to scoop him into my arms, lifting him so he can touch the leaf where it still clings to the branch.
It crumbles underneath his touch in an instant, giving way and falling to the ground below us.
He frowns, and I smile at him, trying not to let the sadness show in my face.
“Don’t worry,” I promise him. “It just has to fall to make way for the new leaves, right?”
He rubs the ash between his fingers for a moment, inspecting it with a forensic focus like he’s trying to figure out exactly what it means.
But then he nods, and I plant him back down again, praying that I’ve told him the truth—that there is a chance something will grow from this place again, no matter how hard it might be to believe it.
Suddenly, a voice catches my attention, and my head whips around to see where it’s coming from. To my surprise, Nathalie is rushing down from the diner, a big grin on her face, waving her arms in the air as though she’s somehow worried that I might not notice her coming right for me.
“Oh my God, there you are,” she gasps as she finally reaches us.
She’s still wearing her work apron, and she wipes off her hands as she catches me by the arm.
“Have you seen?” she demands, her eyes a little wild as she stares at me.
The quads are all looking up at me with utter bafflement, and I’m as nonplussed as they are.
“Seen what?” I reply. “Nathalie, I have no idea what you’re talking about, I’m sorry—”
“Come on,” she insists, and she hooks her arm through mine and drags me off down the street, around the corner—toward the school. My hearts sinks. This is the last place that I want to be right now, and my feet slouch slightly as she tries to pull me along, the quads trailing behind.
“Shouldn’t you be at work?” I ask her, and she rolls her eyes.
“Trust me, work can wait,” she replies, waving a hand. “When you see what’s going on, you’ll understand.”
I know when there’s no point in arguing with my sister, and this is one of those occasions.
I do my best to keep the kids rushing alongside us, hoping that I won’t get too emotional at the sight of the school all over again.
I know Nathalie doesn’t mean anything by it, but it hurts just to look at what might have—
And then, as we turn the corner, my feet falter to a stop beneath me.
Sure enough, we’re standing outside the school, or what’s left of it.
But it’s not the rubble and ash that I had come down to see the other day, no—it’s alive with activity, vehicles moving this way and that, men yelling to each other as they direct the deposit of various materials on what looks to be an active building site.
“What the hell is…?”
“I know!” Nathalie exclaims, her voice practically bubbling over with excitement.
“I can’t believe it either. I came past it this morning, and I thought it must have just been people moving the rubble, you know, clearing it so they can clean it properly.
But then I spoke to one of the guys on the site, and he told me—he told me that they’re building a new school! ”
My jaw drops, my legs growing a little wobbly underneath me.
A new school? No way. No freaking way. I thought it would be years before we so much as got the funding from the state to put together anything resembling a school again, but now, it looks like they’re working overtime to get it back up and running.
I just stand there for a moment, feeling stupid, eyes wide as I try to make sense of it, though I’m not sure I can string any of these pieces together in a way that makes sense. Who could have…?
A figure I recognize pops up from amidst the activity—Carlisle.
My heart skips a beat when I lock eyes with him, and he raises a hand, gesturing for me to come over.
I glance back at Nathalie, and she nods at me to go to him, already managing the kids for me so I can figure out what’s happening here.
“What on earth is going on here?” I demand as I finally reach him, too shocked to bother with a greeting or anything close to it.
He chuckles, leaning on a spade that’s dug into the earth below. “Well, that’s no way to greet the guy who’s getting your school rebuilt,” he teases me lightly, though there’s no edge of actual malice in his voice.
“You…you’re the one behind this?”
He nods. “Seemed like the least I could do,” he replies with a shrug. “Given that I had all of that money from my father and nothing to do with it—”
“I thought you were using it to fund you and the guys, the firefighting stuff—”
“Well, that too,” he agrees. “But sometimes it good to have a bigger project to focus on for a while, right? Something you can really pour all of your energy into.”
He draws his arm across his forehead, where sweat glistens to show the amount of work he’s been doing all morning.
“Should be up and ready to open by the end of the summer,” he explains. “Rush job, but I made sure that we got the best of the best for it. You don’t have to worry about anyone skimping on the important stuff, you have my word. That’s why I’m down here—wanted to oversee it myself.”
“Do I hear you taking all the credit?”
Another voice drifts out from the building site, and I look past Carlisle to see Dylan stepping toward us, followed by Callum and then Joe.
I bite my lip, hardly able to contain my smile.
All of them, here, working on this school—putting in the hard labor to get it off the ground once more and make certain that this town is served with a place of education once more.
It’s a gesture bigger than any anyone has made for me in my entire life—one that I’m not sure I can entirely wrap my head around. At least, not yet.
“You’re all here…?”
“We needed something to do, now that the fires are out,” Joe replies, flashing me a grin. I clasp a hand to my chest, not sure I can even begin to put into words how much this means to me.
“I…I…” I feel tears spring to my eyes, and I blink them back at once.
It’s not just that they’ve done this for me, it’s the certainty that they’ll be sticking around long enough to make sure that this work is done.
A few months, at least, and the legacy this school will leave behind is enough to make their mark on the town for good.
“Hey, you alright?” Callum asks, frowning, as he steps forward and takes my hand. I can already imagine the gossip that will explode from even that brief little touch, but honestly, it’s hard to give much of a damn about it. I look between the four of them, my heart pulsing in my chest, and I nod.
“Yeah, I am. Better than alright,” I assure him. “I just can’t believe that you would do this for me. I mean, not just me, but the whole town. The kids…”
I glance back toward my own little ones, who are staring on in confusion, no doubt wondering what has gotten me so emotional all of a sudden.
I don’t know if I can communicate the enormity of what’s going through my head right now, but I just lift a hand and wave at them, a silent assurance that everything is going to be alright.
“You know, this isn’t the only building site we’re working on right now,” Dylan adds, cocking an eyebrow. “You think I could borrow you for an hour? Show you what else we have planned?”
I bite my lip, heart fluttering at the thought of being alone with him, with any of them.
“Let me just check that it’s okay with Nathalie,” I reply. “And then you can take me anywhere you want.”
He chuckles. “Hey, now, don’t start giving me ideas…”
But even as he lets the suggestion hang in the air, I find it hard to care about anything other than finding out exactly what they’ve done for me—and exactly what it means that they intend to stay for at least a little while longer.