Chapter 7
I saw the scene and my heart sank.
It looked like chaos, with too many people wandering around, too many materials stacked up, and too many trucks parked everywhere.
I got out of my car and frowned at a few of the guys who appeared to be taking a mid-morning break and having a beer.
Or three.
“There’s no alcohol on this jobsite,” I told them flatly, and one of them grinned.
“Who are you, cutie?”
“I’m speaking for the general contractor, your boss. Coops Creek Construction doesn’t allow drinking. Pour it out and get back to work.”
They made a big show of putting their cans back into their coolers instead of emptying them, and then of sauntering over to where the barn looked like a serious wreck.
After fuming for a moment, I followed them, and I found Marc in a huge argument with another group of subs.
He was furiously telling them that none of what they’d done, none of it, had been according to the specs, and he finished by ordering them off the job and saying that he wasn’t paying them a dime.
They left, but they said a lot of ugly things as they did so.
I gave my cousin a minute to let the red settle out of his cheeks before I approached.
“Hi,” I ventured, and he took a deep breath.
“Things are great,” he responded, because he knew what I was thinking.
“Good. I’m sure you can keep all this under control.” My Lord, I hoped so.
“But, if you wanted to talk to your dad—”
“No, I don’t want to talk to my dad.” His father, my uncle Johnnie, had been a contractor himself for many years, before he’d switched careers and bought the funeral home in town to start something new.
Careers…there was that word again.
I was sure that his dad could help with the problems Marc seemed to be having, but I wasn’t doing a great job myself—obviously.
I’d tried, but he wasn’t giving me all the information I needed to schedule and order.
I wouldn’t be able to change that in the short term, because I was leaving today for Hawaii.
I’d come, in fact, to get a ride from Caleb to the airport after I’d dropped off Sir with another relative, Uncle Harry.
He had a hobby farm and had said that he was happy to help out with my dog.
His two cats, the big ladies who ruled their house, did not feel very happy about Sir’s presence, not at first. By the time I left, though, they were climbing on him and batting at his beard, and he seemed very relaxed about it.
Aunt Peggy was a runner and she said she would provide the exercise he needed.
Also, Caleb was going to check in, which definitely piqued my aunt and uncle’s interest. “He’s a friend of Sir ?” Uncle Harry asked, his eyebrows up.
He looked exactly like my dad when he’d made that face, and my dad had asked exactly the same question before, too.
They were brothers, so it made sense.
Marc also looked a lot like them except younger and currently, a lot angrier.
Except, I did remember one time when he and I had been kids and had eaten a bunch of berries in the woods.
We hadn’t known exactly what they were…
it had been a problem, our fathers got very mad, and the memory made me want to give a little more grace to my dog for the weird things that he wanted to put into his mouth.
My Lord, I was going to miss him!
I gave Marc more time but he was still looking angry and was in no mood to talk to me, and I had to get to the airport.
I’d spent a little too long settling Sir into his temporary home, so I said goodbye and reminded my cousin to please text and call if he needed me, and I hurried toward the house.
I’d be back in only a couple of days, but it felt like a lot could go wrong.
I didn’t want to say that to Caleb, since it was his barn that might have been in trouble, so instead I focused on what could have gone sideways with Sir.
“He really has to be in bed by ten. If not, he’s a mess in the morning,” I announced as we left in the truck.
I looked back over my shoulder at the jobsite, biting my lip.
“Did you give your aunt and uncle the list of instructions that you made the other night?”
“They’re more of helpful hints,” I hedged, but when I thought about what I’d written, I realized that maybe the bullet-pointed items would have read more like “commands” rather than “suggestions.” “I’ll text both of them to apologize for that. It’s so nice that they’re taking Sir.”
“I would have, too.”
“I know, but you work all the time.” Now that I was dropping by to check on the barn more frequently, I’d realized exactly how much of his life was devoted to computer stuff, online meetings, and calls.
He was at it constantly, and mostly without a break except when he went running.
He’d started to do that on a regular basis and was already going farther than Sir and I could—well, than I could.
“Uncle Harry is semi-retired and Aunt Peggy gets done with school pretty early. Anyway, it’s good for Sir to meet new people, and I think he would get in the way of the construction.” I looked back over my shoulder again, but the house and barn were well out of sight.
He glanced back, too, at where my suitcase now rode in the bed of his truck.
“What do you have in that bag?” he asked me.
“It’s huge. Is it all wedding related?”
“I have a lot of different products and a lot of different wardrobe options. Cassidy wanted me and Aria to bring all kinds of stuff for her, too.” Aria and I were supposed to have gone shopping to pick out our bridesmaid gowns together, but at the last minute, something had come up with one of her kids so I had gone with both our moms. In the end, they’d had fun together and I had liked it too, but—anyway, I’d found a dress and I had bought it for myself.
All by myself, which I made clear to Aunt Amber so that she could spread it around to the rest of the family.
“I’m taking care of things,” I’d said.
I’d cleared my throat and pointed at my credit card so she would be sure to see me paying.
She still might not have noticed because she was so upset at not getting to attend the wedding herself, which she had voiced frequently that day.
My mom and I had exchanged glances and explained the situation again and again, but it didn’t satisfy Aunt Amber—probably nothing would have, but she was also very happy for Cassidy and Jack…
and also mad. She’d feel better once she realized that a baby was on the way, though, because she was crazy for them.
In the meantime, I’d told her pretty sternly that Cass’s wedding was hers, and nobody else’s.
“We didn’t say a word about your plans when you married Uncle Jed,” I reminded her.
“We only said it looked perfect, because it did.” It wasn’t like her to admit when she was wrong, but she had smiled and hugged me.
Then she’d smoothed my hair and remarked that she could help me figure out a way to wear it for Cassidy’s big day, because I couldn’t let it go as I had been lately.
It didn’t take that long to get to the airport in Chattanooga, and Caleb pulled to the curb to let me out.
“Maybe I should park to help you with this,” he mentioned, frowning at my suitcase.
“No, I have it. And I know my aunt and uncle will take good care of Sir, and you’re here. You wouldn’t let anything happen to him.”
“No, I wouldn’t. Kayleigh, are—uh, ok,” he broke off, because I’d hugged him.
“I was going to ask if you were all right, but I think you’re upset? Remember that I’m not good at this kind of thing. Uh…” He patted my back with one hand.
“This is a time when an affirmation would be great,” I told him.
“For example, ‘New experiences can be amazing, so even if you’re pretty worried, keep your chin up.’ Or, ‘This trip is going to be long and will give me a lot of time to come to terms with everything.’My hair is going to look bad at the end of it, though.”
“Are you worried about your hair? It always looks pretty. Or, is it about flying? Statistically, it’s a very safe mode of travel.” He patted me more.
“I don’t want you to worry about anything.”
I pulled away and tried to smile at him.
“I’m really fine,” I answered.
“Bye.” And I was on my way.
It did take just about forever to get from Tennessee to Hawaii, and it wasn’t exactly like I thought it would be when we finally arrived.
For some reason, I’d pictured landing in the ocean, like a sea plane—although I knew that I wasn’t riding in one, so it hadn’t made sense.
In my mind, I’d also pictured that everyone here would be on vacation, but of course regular people lived and worked on this island, too.
My previous knowledge of Hawaii had come from a four-part series that Sir and I had watched together on the archipelago’s history (Caleb had seen parts one and three, also).
In addition to that, my cousin Cassidy had worn an island-inspired outfit in a pageant.
She had won Junior Miss Rhythm “She Can Shake It!” Southeast Region title at the age of eleven by dancing in a coconut bra and a skirt that circled out around her, with a flowered bikini bottom underneath.
That had not been an accurate representation of this place and I felt ignorant.
“Sorry,” I told Hawaii through the window of the car that was taking us to the resort.
I rode with Cassidy’s parents, Aria, Cain, and their two kids, and we had all been on the flights together, too.
I really loved those babies but they did not feel the same way about flying, and there had been a lot of tears.
We were all a little stressed but especially my cousin and her husband, even in this beautiful place.
“What time is it here?” Cain grouched, and muttered something about having a drink.
Then he shot a glance at me.
“No, thank you,” I said.
That, right there, was a big problem.
Yes, drinking was a temptation, but the harder part now was how people thought that I wouldn’t be able to resist. They thought that the presence of alcohol would lead me to totally lose control…
well, in the past? I had lost control.
I shouldn’t have blamed them for their concern but I wished that they didn’t feel the need to monitor me so closely.
We had pulled up to the hotel by this time, which looked like it had to be from someone’s imagination rather than a real place where I was standing, feeling a warm breeze and the sun beaming down, with beautiful flowers waving in the breeze.
“Aria! KayKay!” a voice called, and Cassidy came running across the resort lobby.
It really was like imagination, except I couldn’t have come up with any of it.
We changed and went to the beach to lie on chairs set on white sand overlooking an ocean of all shades of blue and turquoise.
“This is real,” I remarked to Jack, my cousin’s fiancé.
His eyes were on Cass, where she was playing in the sand with Aria’s kids.
“I can’t believe it either,” he told me.
“I can’t believe the turn my life has taken, and I’m so glad for it.”
We spent the next two days much the same way: being together, eating delicious food, and relaxing.
Everyone was extremely excited about the baby, and we talked about that topic a lot.
A real lot. Cassidy and Jack wanted to know a ton and of course, her parents and Aria and Cain had practical, legit knowledge to share.
I listened and nodded, and kept my mouth shut until my aunt looked over at me once.
“You must be bored by this, KayKay,” she said.
“No, not at all,” I answered, but I realized what she thought.
All the discussion about babies didn’t apply to me at the moment, of course, but she didn’t really think that it ever would.
She might have been right.
But the beach was beautiful, the ocean was clear, and the resort was just about perfect.
I would have liked to see more of the island, but the wedding was fast approaching.
There were some details to be ironed out, because—shock!
—it was hard to plan a wedding in two weeks, even if you had minimum guests and were loose with everything except that you wanted those guests to have fun, which was all the bride and groom cared about.
Soon enough, the actual day came.
Aria, Cass’s mom, and I flitted around her suite, helping her get into the dress that she’d found when they’d stopped in Chicago on Jack’s tour.
It was lovely and she was absolutely breathtaking.
It was hard to get our makeup done when we kept crying from happiness.
“We have to stop,” Cassidy said.
She drank water from a straw so she could at least keep her lipstick straight.
“Why don’t you girls give us a moment?” her mom suggested, and Aria went to go check on her kids and make sure that her husband had them dressed, and that he’d had time to change himself.
I went to my room, which was huge, lovely, and free to me—Cass and Jack had picked up the tab for everything, including all the non-alcoholic drinks we were enjoying.
They sipped theirs and watched me over the rims of the glasses, like they were checking to see if I was secretly spiking my pineapple juice with rum.
Or maybe it was my imagination and, in the words of my cousin Marc to his angry fiancée, I was being too sensitive.
It certainly wasn’t something that I needed to focus on now, when it was my best friend’s wedding—how selfish was I?
No, I wasn’t going to act this way.
I checked my hair and makeup in the mirror to make sure that Cassidy would be happy with how the pictures turned out, and I practiced my smile as Aunt Amber had forced us to do when we were kids.
“Happy and joyful, KayKay,” I told my reflection.
I did feel that way for Cassidy, and I would make sure that it showed.
I went back to join my friends with the smile on my face, and I kept it there.
The ceremony was beautiful because they had written their own vows that were sweet and rang true, especially when they said how much they would love and care for each other.
And Jack put his hand on her stomach as he said his (which made Cass’s mom lose it—we all did).
The party was also perfect, low-key but with a great band for just the little group of us.
Cassidy loved to dance, although her new husband didn’t really…
ok, he was terrible, but he tried.
“How are you at dancing?” I texted Caleb.
I’d been doing that throughout this vacation, just keeping him informed about what was happening here in this beautiful place.
In turn, he filled me in on the progress with the barn (he didn’t seem to notice that anything was wrong) and with Sir.
The dog was happier than a pig in poop, and he had actually been in exactly that.
My uncle Harry kept a few cows, and Sir had rolled in some of what they had left behind.
Caleb had given him a bath afterwards and I owed him big.
In answer to my question, he sent a short video of himself and I had to cover my mouth because I started laughing very hard.
I also held a cocktail napkin under my eyes to prevent any tears from ruining the makeup that Aria had worked on so diligently.
She was almost as talented at its application as her mother.
“KayKay, do you need—are you—what can I do?” My cousin was next to me suddenly, as if she might have been monitoring.
Had she been waiting for me to go to pieces?
“I’m laughing,” I told her.
I would have shown her the video, but I didn’t think that Caleb would have appreciated other people seeing what I thought was supposed to have been…
yes, that was dancing, just in an unusual way that didn’t relate to rhythm or bodily control.
“Are you sure that everything’s ok?” she persisted.
“I’m sure,” I said, but any hint of laughter was now gone.
“Can I help you with something, Aria?”
“No, of course not! I just want you to enjoy yourself.” I saw her look at my glass, though, which was now sparkling water.
There was no alcohol at this party due to the bride being pregnant and me being a wreck.
I looked over and saw Cassidy also eyeing us, or actually, also eyeing my glass.
I set it down on the table and decided that I would rather die of dehydration than raise another liquid to my lips until I got back to Tennessee and was free of their attention.
I put the smile back on, though.
“Let’s go dance!” I told Aria.
We weren’t as good as Cass, but we hadn’t struggled through Aunt Amber’s Saturday lessons for nothing.
After dinner, we were all slowing down, which was apparently what happened when one of us was pregnant, one had two kids, and one was just old.
I sat on the floor with Aria’s son Dawson, named after her father, and we played a game where I made flowers talk to him and he laughed.
Every time I looked up, I spotted Aria, her husband, or both of them watching us, and after a while I picked up the little boy and returned him to his parents.
“I think that Cass and Jack will call this party soon,” I mentioned.
They were making out in the corner, so it was a good bet.
I yawned, covering my mouth but making it big.
“I got tired from all the sun. I’ll leave when they do.” I’d go to my room by myself, no Sir for company, and where the minibar had been thoughtfully emptied of all the usual tiny bottles before I’d arrived.
No need to wave a red cape under my nose, I guessed.
Aria and her husband exchanged glances.
“We were thinking about hanging out later,” she said, but then also yawned.
“I’m really not tired,” she claimed next, and her eyes flicked to me.
“I am,” I said, and did another fake yawn to prove it.
“I’m going right to bed. I have so much packing to do tomorrow morning.” We’d be returning home while Cass and Jack spent another night here, rid of us.
The happy couple did leave soon after that and we clapped and cheered.
Although Aria, her husband, and my aunt and uncle were watching, I went up, too.
I didn’t go right to bed, though, because I sat outside on my balcony and watched clouds move over the stars.
It was a long, long way home.
Aria’s kids enjoyed the flights even less due to the disruptions in their schedules, but between five adults we managed to handle them again.
It had always seemed to me like you needed to tag-team with kids.
Finally, we straggled off the last plane and through the terminal in Chattanooga—and there was Caleb.
He stood near the top of the steps where all the passengers emerged in our airport, waiting off to the side and watching as everyone walked through the doors.
“Oh!” I exclaimed, and ran over.
“What are you doing here? I was going to get a car!” As someone with that math background, he understood about saving money on gas, but I was glad he’d wasted some to come here and obviously, I had to hug him.
“I wanted to take a break from work,” he said, and he was smiling when I stepped back.
“Did you have fun?”
“Kayleigh, who is this?” my aunt asked, and I introduced him all around, including to the little ones.
The adults were interested in digging into this situation but Aria’s children were very ready to leave, so we all went down to baggage claim.
I felt their eyes on me and Caleb and I kept a good space between us so that no one could get the wrong idea, and then spread that idea to a million and two other McCourts so that they also had it.
“I thought you might need help with this,” he said as my bag finally came out on the conveyor.
“It weighs more than Sir.”
“Thank you. How is he doing?” I asked, but before he answered, I had to say goodbye to everyone else.
I felt their eyes again as we walked out.
“Well, there was an issue,” Caleb told me when we got free of the airport, and then added quickly, “He’s fine.”
“What did he do?”
It was another problem with my uncle’s cows, but not with their poop this time.
Caleb thought that he’d been trying to play, but…
“He started a small stampede,” he told me.
“Harry said that he got it under control right quick, and I didn’t see much damage when I went over there.” He paused.
“Except for the fence. And the feeder and stock tank,” he added.
“My Lord.” I stopped on the sidewalk outside of the parking garage.
“How much am I going to owe them?”
“I’m not familiar with equipment for cattle, so Marc went to look this afternoon. I haven’t heard back from him.”
“He doesn’t have time to work on anything else! He’s already—” I stopped before saying something like, “He’s already in over his head with your barn.”
“Your uncle and I made some temporary repairs, so nothing needs to be done right away. I had to pick up the dog, though, so he’s with me.”
He was waiting in the cab of the truck and when he saw me coming, he went wild.
It was cool today but of course Caleb had left the windows down slightly for fresh air, and Sir was trying to force his battleship of a head through the opening.
“No, don’t break the glass!” I ran ahead but had to wait for Caleb to use the key to open the door, and then Sir flung himself on me.
Luckily, Caleb also stood behind me so that I didn’t hit the concrete and the dog listened when we both said no, don’t jump.
I ended up kneeling to hug and kiss him, and I was so glad to be home.
I repeated that once we were on the road.
“I’m so glad to be back.”
“Really? The trip wasn’t fun?”
“Hawaii is beautiful. You were definitely right about that.”
“Ok, but did you enjoy it?”
I petted Sir, who was leaning against me.
“Cassidy and Jack had a wonderful wedding, just what they wanted. His family didn’t come, though, not his parents or his sister. Cass told us that they said they were too busy.” She’d been plenty pissed about that, but Jack hadn’t seemed to mind their absence.
“I’m glad I was there for her. But I think I may have made it more stressful.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t do anything,” I said, just as quickly as when he’d told me that Sir was ok.
He was, and smelling very much like cedar and bay—Caleb’s shampoo, which I’d noticed when I’d hugged him at the airport before I’d left.
I’d thought about that a lot during the trip.
“You didn’t slip,” he confirmed, and I shook my head hard.
“No, but everyone was waiting for it. They were ready for it to happen,” I explained.
“Did it make you mad?”
“No, not at all. It made me feel terrible. Just terrible,” I told him.
“They had to take care of me for so many years, and they still believe that they have to. I’m sorry that I make them worry like that. They have to step out of their fun to think, ‘Oh, KayKay’s going to mess up again, and we’ll have to have her stomach pumped.’”
“You had to have your stomach pumped?”
I sighed.
That had been a very, very bad night.
“I’m ok now and I don’t want them to have to watch me.”
“I would hate the idea that everyone was waiting for me to fail. I did hate it, when it was my mother doing that.”
“Why did she think you would fail? In my case, I have a track record, but you didn’t.”
“She was angry at me,” he answered briefly, but I still didn’t understand.
“You mean, because you didn’t do what she wanted? Like how you went to the wrong college or how you picked a major that she didn’t agree with?”
“Those were some of her reasons. Have you told your family how you feel about their surveillance? They should stop that.”
“They should stop loving me and caring about my future?” I clarified.
“Ok, I see the issue,” he said, nodding.
“But it can’t help you to have that pressure from them.”
“No,” I said, sighing.
“It feels awful. It does seem like they’re waiting for me to let them down and then I start thinking, well, maybe it’s going to happen and they’re right.”
“I don’t agree.”
He’d sounded so confident.
“Why?” I asked curiously.
“Well, you were just in a high-stress environment, and you did fine. You recently dealt with an eviction and a move, which would make a lot of people nuts, and I know you’re worried about my barn.”
“What?” I leaned forward so I could see him better, out of the haze of Sir’s fur.
“Marc is going to do a great job. He is, in fact, doing a great job.”
“I think so,” Caleb answered.
“But I know you’re worried. I watch you walking around the jobsite and cleaning up, and while you do that, you’re keeping track of everything.”
“You watch me?”
“I swear that I’m not—”
“I know you’re not a murderer or worse. Your office doesn’t have windows that look out that way, though.”
“I go to the kitchen sometimes,” he answered.
“I like to watch you. Uh, again, I’m not…never mind. What can you do about your family?”
“I think I can never give them reason to worry and then with time, hopefully, they’ll step away from their panic buttons. I’m also trying to make more amends. I talked to Cain, Aria’s husband, about paying him back. He footed the bill for my second rehab, the one that took, and I said that I wanted to right that wrong.”
“Did he agree?”
“No, but he seemed surprised and happy that I’d offered. So that’s a good step and I’ll just have to keep making those. Like right now, I’m also going to call my aunt and uncle and apologize for the damage to their farm.” I did that, and they were both very nice about it.
I also told them that my dog was going to obedience school, which started next week.
“Really?” Caleb asked when I hung up.
“Yes,” I said. “I had looked into it before, and I’m really going to do it now. This is another way I can show my family that I’m responsible, and it’s good for Sir.” He looked at me and I nodded.
“You need to behave yourself or no one will want to come around you, and I don’t want you to miss out. They can’t see what a sweet boy you are if you’re chasing cows and eating roasts. And personally, I’m tired of falling.”
“You mean when he knocks you down, and I don’t like that at all,” Caleb said.
“He needs the training.”
I agreed, even though I was fairly sure it would be hard for both of us.
Sir didn’t always enjoy listening, and I didn’t enjoy being tough—but I had been, recently.
I’d told Marc a thing or two about his relationship with Taygen, and I’d told the guys at the jobsite to knock off the drinking.
They hadn’t, but I’d sounded strict and serious, right?
I’d even stood up to my aunt Amber when she’d been criticizing Cassidy’s choice to have a tiny, destination wedding.
“He also ran away from your aunt while she had him out for his exercise,” he commented.
“I didn’t want to tell you because I got him back fairly quickly.”
“Oh, no! You did that?” I asked Sir.
He huffed through his nose.
“How often were you over at their house?” I next questioned Caleb.
“We got to know each other fairly well. Did you know that they’re hosting the get-together after church next Sunday? I’m invited. I’m strongly encouraged to go to the service, too.”
“You don’t have to do either of those things.”
“I’m all about a buffet,” he told me, and held up his fist to hide his smile.
“I’d like to come, but I told them that I’d have to check with you.”
“With me?Why?”
“I don’t know,” he confessed.
“I told you I don’t know how to do any of this stuff.”
“Relationship stuff? Is that what you’re talking about right now?” Or was I reading way too much into his desire to get more of my aunt’s spoon bread?
“Uh, yeah. Aren’t we—you and I are—you know,” he said.
I didn’t really know what he meant, but it sounded like he needed encouragement.
“I count you as a friend,” I told him.
“A good one, because not too many people would bathe a girl’s dog after he rolled in cow pies. You’re the person who took me to the airport, too. That’s a big thing that’s only reserved for people who are close.”
“Is it?”
I nodded.
“We have dinner together all the time and hang out. I really like being with you. I like you a lot.”
“Hell.You do?”
“Why else would I spend so much time with you? Did you think it was just to get a job for my cousin? Or for you to help with my dog, or to get a cheap house? My Lord, you really do a lot for me. I hadn’t realized how much!”
“I don’t,” he disagreed.
“I, uh, like you a lot, too.”
“Good,” I said, and I felt better than I had since I’d left for Hawaii.
“Oh, this is one of Jack’s songs!” I reached to turn up the radio and sang along with my new cousin-in-law.
“Doesn’t he have a nice voice?”
“I can mainly hear you.”
“I’ll be quiet so you can listen to the real thing,” I said, but Caleb shook his head.
“No, keep singing. I like that better.”
So I did.
The trip home went much too quickly.