Her All Along

“A month is nothing,” Elise pointed out.

“I’ve never needed that long to get over someone,” Darius retorted.

Christ. “I don’t even know where to begin,” I drawled.

“I do,” Elise said. Then she began ticking things off her fingers. “For one, a milk carton in your fridge is likely to last longer than the women you date. Two, they were together over fifteen years—they grew up together. Three, you’re an asshole sometimes.”

Darius frowned. “You’re not that pleasant right now either, El.”

“I’m more pleasant than you are,” Elise shot back and shut the door in her brother’s face. “God. One day, fuck, I hope someone will knock him on his ass.”

I kept my amusement to myself and followed her out into the kitchen.

While Elise sat down next to Lias at the table, I got us some coffee.

It was a mystery, though. Lias and Evelina had been together since junior high. No one had thought they’d make it past high school. But when they remained solid throughout college too, it was assumed they’d get married and start a family. Then, out of the blue, Evelina broke up with him last month. Not only that, but she left town.

I didn’t get it. And frankly, I was irritated with her. She didn’t have much of a family of her own, so the Quinns had taken her in, much like they’d been there for me. Now she was gone, without a word to us.

We’d waited. Willow and Elise had speculated for a little while; maybe something had been wrong that we didn’t know about. Ryan and Angel had gotten married. Elise and I had gotten married. In other words, Mary had attended two weddings that always came with the question, “When is it your turn?” And Lias and Evie had been somewhat evasive, though not shown any signs that something was actually wrong. To that degree. Besides, not everyone got married. Not everyone wanted children. Nothing weird with that. Except, Lias wasn’t one of those people. He was family-oriented and wanted kids, house, dog, the whole nine yards.

On the matter of dogs… He’d adopted two just this month, and he’d moved back home to his parents.

“Daddy!” Grace yelled. “I watched the movie!”

“I’ll be right there, love,” I hollered back. “Actually—come say hi to Uncle Lias. I think he needs a hug.”

“Okay!”

She abandoned the living room and darted into the kitchen as I brought the coffee to the table.

“Whatsa matter?” She crawled up on Lias’s lap and offered no privacy whatsoever. “Are you sad?”

He mustered a small smile and kissed her on the forehead. “I’m feelin’ better already.”

“What can we do, buddy?” I asked, taking a sip of my coffee.

“Nothing. Actually, this is good. I need distractions.” He shrugged out of his leather jacket and repositioned Grace on his lap.

“Ave is building a vegetable garden for me in the backyard,” Elise mentioned. “Maybe you can help him? My tomatoes need to be transplanted outside soon anyway.”

My wife didn’t need another project. I did. I liked doing that sort of thing for her, but she was so busy with her shop as it was. Though, try talking a Quinn out of something…

She claimed it would give her the “perfect mild exercise” through the summer as her belly grew larger. As if she didn’t run around plenty at work. Thankfully, she’d been able to afford her first full-time employee this year. And Mary loved helping out too.

“Just put me to work,” Lias said. “Anything to get me outta my head.”

“You gots to have a head,” Grace scoffed.

I grinned.

“Ave, you want them lined up along the fence?” Lias asked.

“Here, Daddy?” Grace was being ever helpful.

I looked up from the crate I was building and squinted toward the corner of the backyard. “Leave five or six inches between the crates and the fence,” I replied. Living on the very outskirts of Downtown meant you had a taller fence in the back, because this was northern Washington and there was plenty of wildlife. It also meant, since the fence was wood, you had to take care of it. I didn’t want the soil from Elise’s gardening to turn the fence into decomposed mush in a few years.

While Lias lined the crates near the fence, with his little helper in tow, I went back to finishing the next one.

There’d be twelve in total, and each one would be filled with soil that Darius was bringing over tomorrow. He’d recently bought a piece of land up in Westslope, the forest district north of here, so he had more soil than he needed. He’d spend the next couple of years building his…homestead. We weren’t allowed to call it a house. It would be a homestead straight from the 1800s. But he had time. He said he wasn’t going to start building anything until the loan he’d taken out for the restaurant was paid back in full.