“Stop there, baby,” I told her when she reached the top. I didn’t want her hitting her head.
She stayed put as I closed the distance between us, and then I reached above her head, throwing open the door in the floor.
Waving her hand to gauge the width, she climbed through, crawling up onto the floor and standing up carefully as I came through after her.
She stood there for a minute, getting her bearings, but then took a few careful steps, finding the railing. I kept my eye on her feet, making sure she didn’t step over. I’d put the boards in the fencing close enough together, we wouldn’t fall, but she could still slip and hurt herself.
I walked around, making sure everything was holding well and inspecting the pointed roof to see if any water had seeped through in the last rain. I’d thought about making it a full house, completely enclosed, but maybe that was better for kids. For now, I liked it open on the sides for the wind and the sound of the trees.
“So this is where you’ve been going?” she said, still facing out. “Not a hundred yards away from me.”
I came up behind her. “Never.”
All the nights I was away, I was still here.
I held her waist with one hand and leaned on the railing with the other, staring out at the house and thinking about where we were five years ago today.
It was Halloween, and I’d just been arrested.
“How are you?” she asked.
I knew she meant my father. If I was upset.
I still wasn’t sure. I was glad he was gone, but I was still trying to figure out what this meant and what the next step was.
The important thing was I wasn’t alone anymore, and that made a huge difference. We were going to be fine.
Unfortunately, not as fine as I wanted, though.
“I have no money, no home, a wife, and a probably pregnant girlfriend,” I said, trying to tease.
But even I knew the amount of shit that needed to be cleaned up when I woke up tomorrow. I had a lot to do.
She was quiet for a moment, but then said, “I wonder if it’s easier to get an annulment if the marriage was never consummated.” She let the words hang in the air a minute. “If it was never consummated.”
I looked down at her, knowing what she was worried about. Did I sleep with Ari…
I reached around and turned her chin toward me. “It’s called fraud,” I explained. “When you enter into a marriage with no intention of consummating it. I’m way ahead of you, Devil.”
An embarrassed little smile tugged at her lips, and I could see her shoulders relaxing.
Marrying Ari got me into the house and put them all under my thumb. I was a means to an end. It didn’t take long to face the fact, though, that I could barely tolerate eating a meal with that woman, let alone take her to bed. I knew who I wanted.
She lowered herself onto the floor, dangling her legs over the side just like we did when we were kids.
“Banks won’t want the inheritance,” she pointed out. “You can contest his will if you want.”
I let out a breath and sat down next to her, leaning back on my hands and looking out through the leaves in the tree that hid us from the world.
“Fuck it,” I said. “He was right. She’ll do better with it than I would have. And I don’t want anything of his anyway.”
She nodded, but no worry creased her brow. She almost looked happy, and with her hair blowing behind her and those same dark pink lips, she was eight again, and I was eleven, unable to stop looking at her.
She faced out toward the house, and I was glad she seemed to like it up here.
“What do you see?” I asked.
She inhaled a deep breath and then fell slowly back, lying down on the floor with her legs still hanging over the side.