6. Levi

6

LEVI

T he next morning, Levi glanced in the rearview mirror for the tenth time in five minutes, but of course he still couldn’t see Flora since she was in a rear-facing seat.

“We’ll install your mirror this afternoon,” he told her in the calm, peaceful voice he had discovered she liked.

Thankfully, his years as a volunteer firefighter meant he had already known how to install her car seat in his truck. The department did a free car seat-check every year, and new parents in town stopped by for a lesson from time to time, so the volunteers all had to know how to do it.

They were on their way home from the big baby store up on Route One, where they’d been waiting outside for the manager to open the doors at eight this morning.

Lily had been clever enough to share the registry from the most recent baby shower she had attended, and he’d used it to make a list of what he seemed to need, which had turned out to be staggering .

An hour after entering the store, he had checked out with a monstrous number of items. The cost at check-out had been jaw-dropping. After seeing that, he was now more determined than ever to pay for all the items Lily had given him.

Once he and Flora were home safe from their first trip out into the world together, he called his mother. The one item he hadn’t purchased at the store was a crib. Almost every single one on the shelf had cost more than his first car, so he decided it was probably best to borrow one that had belonged to a niece or nephew.

Besides, he needed to call Mom anyway to let her know what was going on. But, to his surprise, she didn’t pick up, and he ended up having to leave a message.

“Hey, Mom,” he said, trying and failing to quickly think up a way to explain his current situation. “I, um, I need a crib for a while. Do you think anyone has a good one around that I could borrow?”

He hung up, figuring he would talk to her soon enough anyway. She was probably busy helping with something for his sister’s wedding, but she would definitely check her phone throughout the day.

Sliding his phone back into his pocket, he turned his attention to getting himself and the baby ready for one more trip. He was going to have to take her with him to visit Mrs. Tally, there were no two ways about it. But at least he had bought a front carrier for Flora this morning, so she could still be right with him without taking up the use of his arms.

He didn’t quite dare to leave the baby alone long enough to shower, something he’d never thought about before, but he did his best to freshen up. Then he put Flora in the most professional-looking outfit he could find for her—a tiny lavender dress with flowers embroidered across the chest, and matching slightly darker lavender leggings with a pair of brown fleece lined booties. When they got to Mrs. Tally’s place, he would simply put her in the front-carrier and wear her to the door. He just had to explain what he was doing there, and then he and Flora could walk the property and get out of there before she filled her diaper or lost her patience.

Half an hour later, they were almost there.

“Easy-peasy,” he said out loud as they pulled up at the house on Partridge Place.

He parked the car, noticing the rose bushes on either side of the front path. They were dormant now, but Mrs. Tally tended to them faithfully in the spring and summer, coaxing brilliant blossoms from them every year.

Levi wasn’t sure if her grandson would do the same, but he highly doubted it. And Mrs. Tally would miss her fresh air and exercise.

Don’t think about it, he told himself as he opened the door to get Flora out. It’s Mrs. Tally’s decision. This is what she wants.

Flora crowed with happiness as soon as her eyes landed on Levi’s.

“Hi, princess,” he said, smiling back at her helplessly. “Are you ready to go to work?”

He grabbed the front carrier from the seat beside her and put it on, glad he’d already figured it out and made all the adjustments at home. It had been far more complicated than he’d imagined.

“Here we go,” he told her, unstrapping her and holding her to his chest, face out.

But Flora didn’t want to be in the front carrier. She wiggled and wailed to tell him so as soon as he tried to get her legs in place.

“I know,” he told her calmly, not trying to force her to cooperate. “You were just strapped into your car seat, and that’s no fun when you want to explore, right?”

She stopped struggling and listened to him.

“The thing is,” he went on. “Mrs. Tally needs our help. But I have to have my hands free to help her. Can you be in your front carrier for just a little while to help Mrs. Tally?”

She was leaned back against his chest now, her fingers absentmindedly caressing her own downy hair. She hadn’t understood him, but she was calmer.

He tried again, and this time he got her into the carrier without any fuss.

“You are the best baby in the whole world,” he told her. “Did you know that? Did you know you were the best one?”

She murmured something back to him that wasn’t words, but sounded conversational.

Glad they had made it through their first disagreement unscathed, Levi headed for the house. He would have to go back to the car for his measuring wheel, but he figured it was best to talk with Mrs. Tally first.

He lifted his hand to knock, but the door opened before he could. Mrs. Tally must have been watching the whole thing through the window. He winced and tried not to be too embarrassed that he was bringing a baby to work with him.

“Oh my goodness,” Mrs. Tally said, in a happy, high-pitched tone. “Who is this little angel? You never told me you had a daughter, Levi.”

Flora was instantly delighted. She kicked her little legs and squeaked out a string of nonsense syllables at Mrs. Tally, like she was trying to tell her the whole story.

“She’s not mine. I’m watching her for a friend,” he explained. “I’m here about the property description they have down at the courthouse. I’m concerned the line between your place and the Dawsons’ next door might not be where we thought it was. I brought a wheel and I’d like to do a few quick measurements, if that’s okay with you. Then we’ll be out of your hair.”

As he spoke, Flora kicked, wiggled, and yelled to Mrs. Tally in a tone that was happy for now, but getting anxious at the edges.

“Do whatever you need to,” Mrs. Tally said. “But she doesn’t want to be in there. Why don’t you come in the house with me, sweetheart?”

Levi had anticipated all kinds of reactions from Mrs. Tally about her possible property line issue. He had never imagined she would be so matter-of-fact about it, or that she would want to invite Flora to come inside.

Suddenly, he was picturing all the dangerous things that could be inside the house, and the food Mrs. Tally might offer to her. But that gave him an idea.

“That’s very kind of you,” he said. “She would love to have her snack, I was going to wait until we left, but if you wanted to give it to her, that would be amazing.”

“Of course she’ll have her snack with me,” Mrs. Tally crooned.

“Well, it’s an applesauce packet,” he said. “I’ll just grab it from the car.”

“I have real Cassidy Farms applesauce,” she told him imperiously. “You can keep that other stuff.”

He opened his mouth to argue, but she was probably right. The Cassidy Farms applesauce would be fresher, and tastier too.

“Thank you so much, Mrs. Tally,” he told her, unfastening Flora’s carrier and lifting her out.

“Well, we’re just going to have the best time ever,” Mrs. Tally said, sweeping up the baby with a strength Levi didn’t know she had. “Take your time, son.”

Flora chattered to Mrs. Tally in a sort of sentence that also sounded a little bit like a musical scale and ended in a wet raspberry.

“Is that so?” Mrs. Tally asked her as they disappeared into the house. “You are a delightful conversational companion, you know.”

He smiled to himself as he headed out to the truck and grabbed his measuring wheel. When he got back up to the front walk he fished the folded description out of his pocket and read it again.

Starting at the sidewalk, he ran the wheel carefully toward the back of the property. He wasn’t worried about this measurement, but if he was checking the width, he might as well check the depth.

He passed the stone walls of the house as he walked, and when he tried to glance in the windows, he only saw his own reflection .

But he knew Flora was fine. Levi had known Mrs. Tally since he was a little boy. She had a grown-up grandson that she was close enough with to give him her house. She knew her way around babies.

The depth of the property matched the record, so he headed back down to the neighbor’s driveway, which was listed as the boundary on one side of the property.

Naturally, over the years, the neighbor’s driveway might have bled over slightly in one direction or the other when it was redone. The original line had been for a dirt drive that led to a horse barn. But it was the best landmark he had. A professional doing a survey might also look at GPS and other landmarks. Levi was just trying to get a sense of the big picture.

When he began his walk with the wheel at the neighbor’s driveway, he found that it ended just shy of the old stone firepit, and probably ten feet short of the Dawson house’s driveway, which Mr. and Mrs. Tally had always treated as the property line.

He stood back to look at that strip of land and sighed. It was maybe twelve feet wide, going from the sidewalk all the way to the back, and he wondered how much time Mr. Tally had spent mowing it over the years, and how disappointed Mrs. Tally would be that her grandson wouldn’t be filling the stone pit with chrysanthemums in the fall, like she had always done.

But it was better to learn this now than for Jaden to keep mowing land that wasn’t his. Eventually, the Dawsons might sell too, or have some other reason to do a survey, and it would come up—the truth always did.

He headed for the house, knowing that there was no time like the present when it came to getting bad news out of the way.

He jogged up the front steps and leaned the wheel against the house before knocking on the door. When there was no answer, he figured she had her hands full with the baby, so he headed on in.

“Mrs. Tally,” he called out as he stepped into the center hall.

He heard her speaking softly, her voice coming from the back of the house, so he followed it, noticing how toasty warm she kept the place. The baby probably loved that.

Sure enough, when he got back to the kitchen, he saw she had Flora sitting on her lap, laughing so hard her little head was thrown back as Mrs. Tally sang her a song about riding a horsey while she bumped her up and down on her knee.

When the song was finished, Flora patted Mrs. Tally’s shoulder and opened up her own little arms.

“You want a hug?” Mrs. Tally asked her, pulling her close. “That’s so lovely.”

Levi saw a mostly empty dish of applesauce and a spoon on the table. So Flora had eaten and had time to play, too. Not a bad visit.

“Are you done already?” Mrs. Tally asked, sounding a little disappointed.

“Oh, yes,” he said, remembering the reason he was here. “Unfortunately, if the public record is correct, and I see no reason for it not to be, the property line isn’t where we thought.”

“Well?” she said. “Where is it? ”

“It’s not the Dawsons’s driveway,” he told her. “It’s just inside of the old stone firepit. So that pit isn’t really yours.”

“Seems like Ed might have said something about that at one time or another,” she said, nodding thoughtfully. “It was so long ago. I guess I never gave it another thought. But as long as the crepe myrtle is still mine, I’m happy.”

“Oh yes,” Levi assured her. “As far as I can see, your crepe myrtle is in no danger.”

“My tree is safe,” she told Flora in a happy, singsong voice before turning her attention back to Levi. “And Jaden can bring it up with the Dawsons, if he wants. It’ll be his house. Do we have to do that measuring thing?”

“If you’re not arguing where the line is, then there’s no need to do a survey, unless Jaden would like one for his own peace of mind,” Levi told her.

“That’s good news,” Mrs. Tally said. “We don’t need any more costs coming our way. You and your little stick-wheel saved me some money today, didn’t you?”

“Well, it’s not an official survey,” Levi reminded her. “But I’m always glad to do whatever I can to help.”

“I don’t see anyone else’s lawyers running around their lawn in the morning, trying to save them a dollar,” Mrs. Tally said in a satisfied way. “And I got to have a little party with this pretty princess.”

Flora squeaked back at her, waving her arms and wiggling her fingers like she was so excited that she had to talk with her hands.

“Thank you so much for keeping an eye on her,” Levi said gratefully. “She had the time of her life. I can tell.”

“Well, I’ve been a grandma for many years,” Mrs. Tally said, smiling up at him. “And I hope to be a great-grandma one day.”

“I hope you don’t have to wait too long on that,” Levi said.

“Well, Jaden will have a house now,” Mrs. Tally said, winking at him. “Hopefully, that will help the ladies notice that he’s a good catch.”

Levi had to chuckle at that. Jaden Tally was already being chased by half the girls in Tarker county. He probably just wanted the house to hide out in.

“Let me know if you need anything else,” Mrs. Tally said. “I’m sorry to say goodbye to her. How long do you have her for?”

That was a tricky question, and one he should have anticipated. Levi hadn’t minded sharing what was going on with Flora’s mom with Lily because she was helping him. But he didn’t like the idea of making Andrea or Flora the subject of pity or gossip around town, even if they would likely leave when Andrea was done, and never come back.

The idea put an unexpected lump in his throat.

“I’m not sure yet,” he said carefully. “Her mother had a family emergency, so most likely a few weeks, but we’ll see.”

Mrs. Tally nodded with a thoughtful expression. He was sure she’d seen her share of family emergencies in her time.

“Thank you again,” he told her. “I’ll see you and Jaden soon, when it’s time to sign the papers.”

“That’ll be just fine,” Mrs. Tally said, surrendering the baby. “Be sure to bring this young lady with you. She and I will want to catch up.”

Levi smiled at the idea, even as he thought to himself that he would definitely be bringing Flora with him, since he was literally the only one caring for her.

The thought drew up images in his mind of her fussing in the carrier while he searched files at the courthouse or argued in front of a judge. Thankfully, Levi didn’t anticipate having to do much of that.

It will all be fine, he told himself as they headed back to the car. This challenge will be easy compared to what her mom is facing.

Still, he couldn’t help but think that it might be a little easier if he had someone to share it with.