23
EVERETT
“I mean, you do know I can still hear, right?”
“It was like a freight train with a coyote driving it.”
“Pretty sure the neighbors needed a cigarette after.”
I heard them all. All day. Uncle Harry was relentless and had excellent timing to make sure I either had food or drink in my mouth or was in some other way completely unprepared. He said it was his solemn duty as the uncle of an only child to make sure that he ragged on me as much as possible in the rare instance that he knew anything about my sex life. I didn’t have a big brother to do it, so it fell on him.
Oh, the burden.
I didn’t mind because it came from a place of love. And with every one-liner that he hit me with, he would also say something nice about her. Either that she was very pretty or very sweet or a terrific cook. He had something to follow up each and every thing he said that made me feel like I had a furnace burning up my neck.
The latest one, a complex and verbose line where he compared our dalliance to that of a finely directed opera being performed by the master tenors if they were drunk and in the middle of a buffet, had me in stitches at the imagery. When we both finally stopped laughing so hard, he stood up, slapped my knee, and began heading toward the kitchen.
“I’ll say this though,” he said as he disappeared behind the partial wall that separated the kitchen from the living room. “I’d rather have endured another night of turning the television up to twenty if it meant she cooked breakfast again. I am no good and neither are you.”
“Hey, I can cook eggs and bacon,” I said somewhat defensively. Somewhat because compared to Helen, my stuff was dog food.
“Sort of,” he said. “Better than me at any rate. I always wondered why I could never get the hang of cooking. A damn master’s degree in business means nothing when I have a wok in my hand.”
“Do you know which one of those pans is a wok?” I asked.
The silence from the other end of the partial wall was very telling. “No,” a weak voice answered. “Is it the one that has all the ridges in it?”
“I don’t think I own a wok, Uncle Harry,” I said.
“Well, that explains that, doesn’t it?” He laughed.
“We should get going,” I said. “Would you bring me one of the energy bars in there in the basket?”
“These granola things next to the sink?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“I thought those were fancy dog biscuits,” he said.
“Why would you think that?” I asked.
“You have damn Godzilla for a dog, Everett,” he said. “I figured he eats fancy food.”
“Fair enough,” I said.
“You know,” he said, “I don’t know how far you and that Helen girl are or anything, and I know I’ve been giving you shit about it, but I’m glad you’ve found someone that’s so cool.”
I raised my eyebrows in surprise as he came back into the living room, handed me one of the breakfast bars, and took a seat with his coffee.
“Thanks,” I said. “And I don’t know what we are yet. We haven’t talked about it.”
“Ah, well, you’re young,” he said. “You’ve got time.”
“I’m thirty-six,” I said.
“Like I said, young,” he said, taking a sip.
I laughed and shook my head as I slipped on my boots and laced them up. “Are you sure you are good to walk Lily?” I asked. “She can be a handful.”
“I’ll be fine,” he said. “She won’t give me any trouble. Will you, girl?”
Lily, in a spectacular act of disloyalty to me, happily accepted scratches under her chin and then laid her head down in his lap.
“Alright then,” I said. “She loves being on the job sites and usually goes without a leash, so it should be easy. Let’s get on out of here.”
“After you,” he said, standing again. “Come on, Lily. Let’s go for a ride.”
Lily followed us out to the truck and hopped obediently into the backseat. She was fine being back there as long as she kept her nose between Uncle Harry and me. She didn’t even want the window if she could stay in the middle of everything.
Harrison Westin was an interesting guy, even aside from my personal bias on account of him being my uncle. When I brought him into the office and showed him around, he instantly became the center of attention, making a rapt audience of Carter and Deacon. He was charismatic and silly while still giving off the air of being someone who was exceptionally intelligent and successful. Because he was. All of that was true.
I had wondered if he was going to say anything about Helen and her unique look, since he and his whole family had been raised in a very successful and very conservative family. But when he didn’t, I was happily surprised. Instead, he seemed to think she was interesting and cool. He also seemed to take to Carter and Deacon in much the same way, almost seamlessly fitting in with the two military jock mountain men like he had known them all their life.