A Roof Over Their Heads

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“Alexi,” he said and gave her hand a quick, hard squeeze before letting go. His own hand felt warm and solid—and gritty, like a sandpaper block.

“Alexi,” he repeated and then added what made no sense at all given that he was the one doing her a favor. “Thank you.”

* * *

SETH RESTED THE drainpipe against his shoulder as he wrestled to get the fitting on, one shoulder brushing against a stud, his head bent to clear a copper intake pipe that ran across the utility room. This was a two-person job really, but the only handy person was Alexi Docker and she was the last person he wanted to face.

Literally, to face. Seeing her all banged up had rattled him, and then when he’d heard how it had happened, it felt like the fresh death of Stephensson was there before him, and he’d come off—well, a little harsh. He’d made it worse with his boneheaded comment about losing others suddenly. She’d shut down just like yesterday when the subject of her dead husband had come up. No room there to explain that he understood how she felt, that his own father had died unexpectedly, too, even if it was twenty years ago, not one.

“Hello?”

At the sound of Alexi’s voice, he jerked, which shot the pipe out of place.

“Sorry,” she said. “Didn’t mean to sneak up on you.” She stood at the entrance to the utility room, her long legs set apart enough for Callie with her pink-framed glasses to peep through. The second Seth made eye contact she slipped from view. That one was either really shy or she didn’t like the looks of him, or both.

Alexi pointed to the pipe. “Can I help?”

It made no sense to refuse her, now that she was standing right here. Right here in a T-shirt that fit real well. He snapped his focus back on the job at hand. “Yeah, actually. Could you hold this pipe here? I need to put on a fitting and cut the pipe to the right length.”

She angled in beside him and steadied the pipe exactly where he wanted it.

“Thanks,” he said, for the second time in this visit. At least this time, it made sense.

“It’s me that should be thanking you.”

That was true.

“I didn’t know it would be so involved,” she continued.

Anything involving Connie got way more complicated than necessary. “Turns out that I just can’t clamp off the valves,” he explained. “Looks as if the entire waterworks is getting revamped so I have to install a drainpipe first.”

“Oh, I heard you leave. You went for supplies?” Was there reproach in her voice, as if he should’ve checked in with her?

“I didn’t know I was supposed to tell you.” Despite his attempt at politeness, he could hear belligerence in his voice.

Her eyes were on the pipe as she replied coolly, “I didn’t know I was not supposed to wonder where you went. After all, wondering about us was what brought you here this morning.”

He didn’t answer because she’d made a couple of good points he wasn’t about to concede. He chalked a line on the pipe.

“Excuse me. I need to use the cutter,” he said instead. Rather than let her back out and exit before he followed with the pipe, he tried to edge past her, which forced them into shuffling around each other, dodging pipes and each other’s body parts.

Could his time with her be more awkward? Free of the tight quarters of the utility room, he headed straight for the cutter he’d had to rent, but that would be a conversation with Connie, and fired it up. Two minutes of noise and he was done. This time Alexi gave him plenty of room to get around her, but that didn’t stop her from following him in. Callie lingered at the entrance.

“Since I am in a wondering state of mind,” she said, steadying the pipe for him again, “I was wondering if, since you lived here before, if you know the number of the landlord. I got her cell number but she’s not answering. I thought there might be a landline I could use.”

Seth took his time lining the pipe up with the fitting to buy himself a few seconds of fast thinking. “Landline won’t do you much use. She’s in Las Vegas.”

“Las Vegas? Are you sure?”

“Very.”

She looked over her upraised arm and pinned him with her full blue gaze. “How do you know this?”

Seth fiddled with his end of the pipe. “How do I know this?”

“Yes.” The faint hiss at the end of her one word conveyed her opinion of his delay tactic.

“I was at a ball game last night and a guy there knows Connie. Said she was in Vegas.” There, not a word of a lie. He slipped the fitting over the freshly cut end of the pipe. Perfect.

He slid his hand along the pipe to hers. It was a beautiful hand. Large and capable and smooth, like his favorite hammer and with a good heft to it. “I got it,” he said.

She dropped her hand and it immediately strayed to her back pocket. She’d already done that three times since coming downstairs. Strange habit. “I will have to find out what my rights are,” she said. “I didn’t sign up for this. I should’ve asked the officer what I could do when I had him on the line.”

It would serve Connie right if Alexi took legal action. Hadn’t he warned Connie just last night? But if history was anything to go by, his sister would go down dragging as many as she could grab hold of—like Mel and him. “She might come around yet.”

Alexi shoved her beautiful hands into the tangled heap of hair. “Meanwhile, what am I supposed to do? What about the kids? I can’t go back. And I’ve nowhere else to go.”

She clamped her mouth to a thin line and looked away. If he was anybody other than being a practical stranger to her, he could’ve hugged her, told her everything was going to be all right. If he was anybody other than who he was, he could make things right. As it was, he stood there, holding the pipe, clueless about what to say or do. No, he knew what to do: attach the other end of the pipe, but he wasn’t about to restart another round of shuffling that would bring him alongside her body parts.

Her hand went to her back pocket again, and it dawned on him what she wanted. Her phone. That’s where she carried her phone, which was charging now. The world was addicted to phones but her case was severe.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “It’s not your problem, and you are being so kind.”

Kind? Hardly. He didn’t want to lie to her. It made her think she had to be grateful to him and from the way her voice had gone tight, she hated depending on him. He understood; he didn’t want her to depend on him in any way, shape or form. He decided to set the record straight. “Not doing it for you. It’s for Connie.”

She frowned. “For the landlady?” Her eyes widened. “I mean—of course. I didn’t realize you and she might be...” She trailed off and took a step backward, which brought her up hard against a stud.

He now had room to move to the other end of the pipe but no way did he want Alexi thinking he actually chose Connie. “She’s my sister.”

“Your sister?” Her eyes narrowed. “So yesterday, when you asked about the landlady, you were really asking if your sister had contacted me?”

He took his time to get to the other end of the pipe. “Yep,” he said, his back half-turned to her. “I didn’t want to get involved in her business.” He shoved the other end of the pipe into a fitting. It went in easy and straight. Good. So long as he used his hands and not his mouth, things went well. “Still don’t, but she’s a bad habit.”

He felt her slide behind him and out of the room. At the door, she paused. “You think helping others is a bad habit?”

Seth had long ago lost track of the number of people he’d been obliged to help during the past couple of years, all because he had helped the wrong person. “Yeah,” he said, “I guess so.”

A smile played at the edge of her mouth. “So you’re saying that I shouldn’t feel guilty that you took time out of your schedule to help me?”

Guilt. He knew too much of that. “You can only be guilty for your own choices, and it was my choice to come here today.”

It was the truth. He’d really done what he wanted, when he wanted.

Her hand moved and he supposed it was going to her phantom phone. Instead it rose to her cheek, her hair, to wrap around the back of her neck, as if she didn’t know what to do with it.

“Thanks,” she whispered. “I needed to hear that.”

Whaddaya know, Seth thought, he’d made her feel better. His bad habit had finally done some genuine good.

CHAPTER FIVE (#u2f1dd2b2-3011-5f2c-ac7f-2306b161c122)

TWO DAYS LATER, Alexi shouldered open the front door of the house, Callie in tow, carrying the last box from the U-Haul trailer, a plastic tub of cloth scraps and stuffing for her craft business. Matt sat on the stairs to the main level, his shoulders slumped.

Poor kid. She’d relied on him to carry load after load and then help her wheel and lift the furniture when not four days ago he was packing it into the trailer. She set down the tub and sat on it, suddenly aware of how good it felt to take the weight off her sore ankle. “I’m sorry, Matt. You must be exhausted.”

Callie sat beside him, her way of showing sympathy. He shrugged. “I’ll live.”

His answer recalled what Richard would say to the kids whenever they howled about a scrape or a bruise. He hadn’t. He was killed on impact in a head-on collision on the highway south of Fort McMurray on his way home after a twenty-one-day stint in the oil patch. Since then, only Callie cried over a scraped knee or a bruised elbow. Alexi wished they all would. Tears were normal.

“Listen, I’d like you to treat yourself. Go on up to Mac’s. Get yourself a slushie, okay?”

“Should I ask Seth Greene if he wants anything?”

Seth was jury-rigging the kitchen sink with planks and sawhorses and running pipes underneath. Time he could be profiting from his jobs that she knew from the calls on his cell were stacking up. Yes, she didn’t want Matt getting chummy with Seth. He was a good part of the reason she’d kept Matt busy with unpacking. The last thing the already complicated adoption process needed was the introduction of a relationship between Matt and this man, but no sense making a big deal out of a small courtesy, either.

“Yes,” she said. “You should. Make it clear that I’m paying and it’s my pleasure.” She couldn’t resist adding that last bit, knowing full well Mr. Grumpy could hear every word.

Matt shot up the stairs while Alexi headed outside to sweep out the back of the U-Haul, Callie right behind like a devoted puppy.

She barely had broom in hand before Matt popped his head in. “He said thanks but he’s okay. Should I get him something anyway?”

Richard again. He’d always get her a treat even when she specifically said she didn’t want one because he didn’t want to ever leave her out.

“It’s enough that you offered.”

She handed him a twenty, and told him to make sure he pocketed the change before taking the drinks. She skirted the house into the backyard, Callie on her heels. Amy was riding a stick with her posse of imaginary friends, her bow legs for once looking appropriate. Callie broke away to join Amy, while Alexi scanned the yard for Bryn. Where, oh, where, oh, please—

There. Under the weeping birch, lost in the shadows with Seth Greene’s old baseball bat. He was pounding it into the ground with a rock. She was about to call to ask the reason for that when her phone sounded. It was a number without a name. The landlady?

She tapped the green bar. “Hello.”

“Alexi. How are you?” It was the measured voice of her caseworker.

She was so not prepared to take this call. She climbed the stairs, careful with her bad ankle, to the back deck, so the kids didn’t overhear. Callie—miracles of miracles—watched her leave but turned back to Bryn and Amy when Alexi stayed within sight.

Alexi drew breath and aimed for a tone of airy confidence. “Oh, hi, Brenda. Fine. And you?”

“I must admit to a little confusion. Weren’t we supposed to meet yesterday?”

Shoot, she’d forgotten to reschedule, which would’ve bought her time before having to officially notify Brenda of a change of address. “Oh, yes, right. That’s my fault entirely. I forgot to tell you that I wouldn’t be able to make the meeting.”

“Did you also forget to tell me that you’d moved?”

How did she know? Alexi turned away from the open kitchen window where Seth was working and kept her voice low. “No. I mean, yes. Yes, I did move. To Spirit Lake.”

“Spirit Lake. I’ve heard of it. Near Red Deer, right?”

“Yes, about ten minutes west.”

Brenda groaned softly. “Oh, Alexi. This is not good.”

Yes, it was. It was. It just didn’t look that way. Stay confident, she ordered herself. “I told you that I needed to get out of that house for Matt’s sake. He bolted every single week. The house was toxic for him.”

“Given time—”

“I gave it almost a year! It was only getting worse.”

“But a move? Not just to another house but another community? What will be the effect of that, Alexi?”

A question she’d asked herself a million times and every time she’d consoled herself with the answer she now gave Brenda. “Since the day I promised him we were moving, he hasn’t run off. That was two months ago. I had to keep my end of the bargain. And he hasn’t run off here, either.” Alexi wasn’t about to tell her Matt was out of sight and off the property right now.

“But, Alexi, this triggers new questions. How will you manage your business from a new location?”

“Nothing changes. It’s a home-based business. I still have my own website. I’m still on Etsy. That doesn’t change. It’s business as usual.”

“And how is business, Alexi?”

“It’s business as usual, Brenda. I was paid last week and I’m expecting payment on two more orders today, as a matter of fact.” Which was the truth. The other truth was that they’d barely cover the minimum payment on her credit card.

Brenda’s sigh felt like a puff of cold air in Alexi’s ear. “I hope things go well for you. I really do. However, the consequence of your change is that we will have to reopen parts of Matt’s file. Likely do a new home study.”

What? No one could see this wreck of a house. Alexi pressed her fingers to her temple, forgetting that her head bruise was there. She bit back a squeak of pain. “When?”

“I’m not sure. You’re out of my territory. I will send the paperwork to the Red Deer office, and a new caseworker will be assigned. Today’s Monday, so...perhaps as early as next week.”

There was no way this place would be in shape by then. She drove her fingers into her hair, bunching it so hard it hurt. “Listen, Brenda. This is the thing. The house here is still being renovated. There’s a—a—man working on it even as we speak but if the new social worker sees it like this right now, without knowing who I am, it won’t look good. Is there any way you can delay the transfer?”

There was a loud thud from the kitchen. Alexi whirled to see—nothing. Then Seth rose from where she guessed the sink was. She wondered how much he’d overheard. Her voice had risen, and now there was silence on Brenda’s end. Alexi was about to ask if she was still there when the woman who had guided her and Richard through three adoptions, was taking her through the last stages with Matt, who had championed their cause time and time again, who knew Alexi’s life story and hadn’t judged, finally spoke. “I can’t stop what will happen. And I’m telling you now this process is only going to get worse. The office up there has some good people but there are others—others who might not be as sympathetic.”

“What do you mean, not as sympathetic?”

“I mean that there are people,” Brenda spoke slowly in a clear effort to be diplomatic, “who are more concerned about filling in the paperwork and putting in the hours than the lives they are affecting.”

Great, all Alexi needed. A caseworker who wouldn’t listen.

“I have no control over who will be assigned your file. But, as you know,” Brenda went on, “I have a heavy workload and transferring your file may take longer than I originally anticipated.”

Alexi breathed out. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

“Don’t thank me,” Brenda said. “I am doing this for the sake of your family. And for Richard. To be honest, I don’t know if he would’ve approved, Alexi.”

As soon as the call ended, Alexi opened her phone photo of Richard. All she could see was Richard’s smile and open face. “I was right, wasn’t I?” she whispered.

All he did was smile at her. It was all he’d done for the past year.

The door opened and out came Seth. “Sink’s in,” he said with his usual verbosity.