Kade cringed as he hissed through his teeth. “He’s got Truman?”
“Yes.” Despair radiated off of Ali.
“I’m guessing the old man hasn’t mellowed with age?”
“No.” She let out a forced laugh. “He’s gotten worse.”
Kade leaned forward, careful not to disturb any of the Legos strewn about and grabbed the poster board that was haphazardly leaning against the cabinets. He set back on his heels and scanned the detailed architectural plans for each building that Ricky had outlined. It wasn’t going to be easy, but he was pretty sure that they could follow them.
“Okay. I understand your instinct to try and salvage what is still intact, but that’s not going to get the job done. We need to disassemble before we can reassemble.”
She eyed him with suspicion. “I don’t know. Maybe I should just go get Ricky…”
Kade didn’t want to wake up the kid to do work he’d already done and he also liked the idea of him and Ali working on a project together. It was an excuse to force her to spend time with him.
“Trust me, we can do this.”
She let out a sound that clearly communicated what a ridiculous idea she thought that was.
“Give me an hour,” he bargained. “If I don’t have things under control by then, you can wake up the kid.”
After a few moments of hesitation, she conceded. “Fine.”
Wasting no time, the two gathered each one of the pieces and carried them to the dining room table. Within no time, they’d separated the pieces and sorted them. From there it was just a matter of following Ricky’s plans.
They worked together in comfortable silence like a well-oiled machine. He’d had plenty he wanted to say but he was worried about ruining the tentative truce they’d forged. He did, however, take the opportunity to sneak glances at her every chance he got. It was adorable how she’d bite her lip and scrunch her nose while she concentrated. He loved watching her mouth words while she read silently. Being near her was his favorite place to be.
Even if she was mad at him.
The time flew by, at least to him anyway, and before they knew it they were down to the final piece.
“Would you like to do the honors?” He held the red four-pronged plastic square in the center of his palm out to Ali.
She grinned, plucked it up and clicked it into its rightful place. “Done.”
They both leaned back in their chairs and surveyed their work.
Ali’s eyes were wide as her head shook back and forth. “I can’t believe we did it.”
“I knew we could. You just had to trust me.”
Kade wasn’t used to putting his foot in his mouth. He’d always been able to talk his way out of most situations, but he was definitely tasting toe jam as he watched Ali’s smile drop and her shoulders stiffen.
“It’s already past three. I have to be up at six.” She stood and headed for the stairs. Halfway up she stopped but didn’t turn around. “Thanks.”
“It was my pleasure.” Kade’s response was sincere but he heard her let out a huff of frustration as she disappeared up the stairs.
Alone for the first time since he’d arrived, he stood and walked around the quiet house. Everything looked exactly the same as it always had, but it felt different. There was a heaviness, a sadness now. It felt empty. As natural as that was given the circumstances, he knew that this was not how Patrick would want his family to live. Ali had the weight of the world on her shoulders, KJ was angry, and Ricky was withdrawn.
Kade knew that he couldn’t fix everything overnight, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t start to fix things. He’d learned a lot over the past year and a half, and one thing that his sponsor had told him was that you don’t have to see the top of the stairs to take the first step.