Chapter 28
WOLF
Taking off my goggles, I admire my own handiwork.
I fashioned eight new fence posts and beams for the front fence from downed trees.
I didn’t do too badly either. They are pretty damn close to the width and cut that Molly’s grandfather used to build the original.
And I’m especially happy that I was able to preserve a slab of one of the originals.
The sheriff’s office hasn’t turned up any new leads on the culprit, and Molly is coping via denial, writing it off as an accident.
But I’m still inclined to think it’s that asshole land developer, trying to flush us out by using some kind of intimidation tactic.
I know a “fuck you” when I see one, and I gotta say—I’m pissed off.
In the meantime, I talked Molly into getting security cameras installed. Just a few, as she doesn’t like the idea, saying it feels like Big Brother is watching, and for the most part, I agree. But the trail cameras throughout the park have been helpful, so I want to give them a try.
Once I line up the fence portions, I turn to retrieve my tool box from the garage.
As I get closer to the house, a low ominous growl coming from just beyond the tree line gets my attention.
When I look up, there stands Velvet. Her eyes are black and narrowed at me, and she pulls her front lip up to show a grill of white teeth.
Asshole. This isn’t the first time since I moved in that she’s pulled shit like this.
Sometimes when I lock up at night, I can see her from the living room slider.
She never ventures into the yard, just stays by the trees, giving me the evil eye.
I stare back at her now, still not one hundred percent convinced she’s not going to haul off and charge at me.
At this point, I’m only pretty sure. “Mutt,” I mutter, as the front door opens.
Molly struts out on the deck in a pair of holey jeans and a flowery tank top. Her hair piled on her head completes the perfect vision of my wife walking toward me.
“Hey, what’s it like having two wolves?” I ask her.
She stops, looking confused, and then Velvet catches her eye. She smiles and gives a slow blink. “Well, let’s see… Both of them are pretty snarly,” she says.
I point a gloved finger at her. “Watch yourself.”
“One depends on me for food while the other can’t do his own laundry…” she continues.
“Shut your mouth and come hold this.” I motion to the fence beam, hell bent on hiding the smile that possesses my lips when we give each other shit.
Her face falls as she moseys over. “I still can’t believe someone did this,” she mumbles, looking more than bummed as I take off my work gloves and hand them to her.
“I know, babe, but I’m picking up those cameras tomorrow after work. So if anyone tries anything else, they’ll have me to deal with.”
Molly gives me a tight smile in appreciation as she picks up the beam and holds it against the post as instructed while I hammer in the large nails.
One portion of the fence is back up and intact when I hear the crunch of tires on gravel, announcing the arrival of an unexpected visitor.
A silver sedan I’ve never seen before pulls up, and Molly and I both turn and wait for its owner to shut off the engine and get out.
Once a paunchy bald man steps out with his sunglasses in place, I step in front of Molly, intent on being the first of us he makes contact with.
“Can I help you?” I ask, cutting straight to the chase.
“Yeah, are you the residents of this address?” he asks, holding an envelope in his hands and looking down at the front of it.
I give him a curt nod. “Yeah, Wolf and Molly Owens,” I verify for him, even though Molly hasn’t done anything about changing her last name yet.
“All right, no big deal.” He hands the envelope over to me, and I immediately start tearing off the top while giving him my attention. “It’s just to let you know of an upcoming inspection on your barn.” He tips his head in the direction of the backyard.
“Why does it need to be inspected?” Molly asks him, moving around to my side.
He shakes his head with his lips pressed in line.
“I guess this thunderstorm season has been a rough one, doing damage to some properties around here.” He holds his hands out, trying to convey that he’s unsure of what’s happening and has been instructed to do a job.
“An outside source pointed out to us at the county official’s office that certain buildings may no longer be in compliance with modern codes.
So when a building like that is damaged, it has to be fixed according to the current standards. ”
I look up from the official document that forewarns us of said upcoming inspection, due to take place in two weeks.
Molly leans over my arm to get a look at the paper, and she draws in a sharp breath.
The paper indicates that “partial repairs,” like the support beams she and I fixed, “are not allowed”’.
Options listed are “full rebuild to modern code” or “‘complete removal.’”
“Wolf,” she whispers.
I shift the paper to my other hand and immediately drape my arm around her, pulling her close. “Thanks,” I tell the man. “But if this is all you got, mind seeing yourself off our property?”
“Sure thing.” He nods, and I can sense the compassion in his delivery. Something I probably wouldn’t have picked up on before marrying Molly. “And it’s just an inspection at this point, nothing to worry about.” He backs away and turns toward his vehicle.
I wave him off before turning to console Molly, rubbing my hands up and down her arms as she takes some deep but shaky breaths.
“I have to demolish it and or completely rebuild?” she exclaims with tears in her voice.
I pull her into me. “Shhh…I think I know what this is about.”
“That’s granddad’s shop!” she exclaims. “I don’t want to change it! Even if I did, I don’t have the money for that!”
When the car is out of sight, I pull her away enough to look at her. “Baby… I think this is Riley trying to fuck with us.” I try to keep my voice calm while I look her right in her eyes.
She looks back into mine for a moment, searching; like she’s trying to believe what I’m saying.
But another moment ticks by before she slowly closes them and sinks down to the grass.
Lying back, she brings her hand, cloaked in my giant work glove, to rest across her face while I lower myself into a crouch next to her.
I give her a couple minutes, just offering silent support, resting a hand on her stomach and waiting for her to speak when she’s ready.
“I knew…when Mima got sick that I wouldn’t be able to have both…” The thickness in her voice means she’s holding back tears, even with the warm grass beneath her and the brilliant sun shining above her.
“Both what babe?” I ask her to clarify.
“Keeping Clover Hill and finishing college and vet school,” she answers through a slight hiccup.
For the first time, the reality of her hardships fall over me like a thin shroud. “Are you talking about money or upkeep?” I tilt my head down at her. “Because you know I can help with both. It’s not just you living here and taking care of the place—it’s us. And your income shouldn’t be the only?—”
“I can’t ask you to pay anything,” she cuts me off, letting the words coast out on a long breath.
“You’re not asking,” I firmly clarify. “I’m stepping up because this is my home now too.”
“Yeah, but you’ve already done so much. You got married to a stranger for God’s sake.”
“No, I got married to you,” I correct her, trying to pull her hand off her face so I can look into her eyes and show her how serious I am.
“I know, but I’ve done hardly any of the hard stuff, and you?—”
“Stop with the idea that I’ve already done enough by marrying you,” I say, cutting her off this time. “We’re not there anymore. We’re married. This is our home, and it’s our responsibility.”
She pulls the hand off her eyes, huffs heavily, and sits up in one swift sequence of movements. “Wolf! What I hate is how one-sided it’s been. You’re the one who had to change his life?—”
“Uh, so did you.”
“But it was for my benefit.”
“Maybe, but it also keeps this land and this town from turning into a commercial, billionaire retreat.”
“And now you’re the one fixing things and offering to open your wallet. What have I done?” Her shoulders slump, and her head tilts to the side as her eyes search mine, pleading with me to see what she’s trying to say.
I shift my weight to my ass, fully sitting on the ground to face her and take a breath as I fold my arms over my knees. “So are you trying to say you feel like a damsel?”
“Sort of.” She flops back on the grass and resumes her look of despair, draping her arm over her face again. “More like a deadbeat housewife.”
“You could start your own reality show. Ironvale Ridge edition?—”
Her free arms sweeps out blindly to smack my leg. “I just don’t like that you’re the one doing all the heavy lifting.”
I let out a sigh and allow the quiet spring breeze to soothe our mutual silence. I was thirteen when my parents passed. But I remember plenty about their relationship. “You know, sometimes being married means being a team, and sometimes it means taking turns,” I muse out loud finally.
Molly doesn’t move her arm away from her face, but her body stills, as if she’s listening for me to go on.
“You’ve had a long turn by yourself. During that time, I’ve had it easy. I went to work and lived on my family compound for a low expense that included a cook and housekeeper while I got to store the majority of my income away.”
Molly finally removes her arm and squints up at me past the sun in her eyes. A few strands of hair have come loose from her messy bun, one of them blowing across her forehead and driving me wild.
“Now, the way I see it,” I continue as I shift over and drape my body across hers, letting my elbow support me.
“You can keep scrambling, trying to do any little part you can while getting down on yourself that it’s not enough.
Or you can let me take what I can of the load so that you have enough energy and support beneath you to step up the way you want to. ”
She squints at me a little longer, and when she finally speaks, she says, “How are you all of a sudden a marriage expert?”
I blow out a rattled breath. “Believe me, I’m no expert. I just had to call up a couple memories of watching my parents’ dynamic when I was younger. I had to dig real deep.”
She lets out an airy chuckle. “Need an ice pack and a cocktail for your inner empath?”
“Yup.”
“So your parents had a pretty good marriage then?”
I nod.
“Do you still miss them?”
I give her another nod before looking away as I feel myself stiffen a little.
Gazing out past the meadow at the trees, I stay still and listen to the breeze, both willing her not to ask anymore questions and steeling myself in case she does.
Opening up to her seems to get easier but very little at a time.
I’m not looking at her face to read it but when enough seconds tick by, take us back to the topic at hand.
“Now are you going to let yourself be taken care of by your husband, or do I need to throw you over my shoulder and dump you in the pond out back to reset your system?” I’m being a little snarky, but I’m hoping to lead her away from memory lane.
Emotions are complex and overwhelming at times.
“I will, so long as you’re not an asshole caveman about it,” she concedes, lifting an eyebrow up at me.
There’s my tough girl. I lean back to take her in, wondering how I got so lucky, then notice a purple clover in the grass just above her head. I pluck it from the ground and hand it to her. “Maybe this will help…”
She takes the flower from me and holds it far from her face, gazing at it before smiling softly.
“You know, for a place called Clover Hill, there’s not a whole lot of those around,” I say.
“It’s what makes them special,” she schools me and closes her hand around the little flower.