15.

G ARVEY

“Are you going to tell me what you and my dad discussed in the garage?” Zoey asked as she hit the gas on the golf cart, the vehicle that seemed to be her primary mode of transportation these days.

“Oh, you know, neutral subjects like global warming, politics, religion.”

“You’re so full of shit,” Zoey said as we pulled away from her house and headed back to work, something she never seemed to stop doing.

After my short and slightly painful discussion with Sam in the garage, we had joined Zoey and Carlie in the kitchen for dessert. The conversation was much less tense than it had been when I arrived, and there was even a little laughter and joking around. It actually reminded me of what it was like at their house before I went off the rails.

I did wonder what he meant by saying the situation Zoey was in right now was half my fault but guessed from the mood she was in that now was not the time to ask her about it.

Instead, I asked, “What exactly are we doing this evening? Don’t you ever sleep?”

Zoey laughed before she answered, “You know I sleep! I woke up with you this morning.”

“This morning? That was at least three days ago,” I grumbled.

“Are you tired, Gravy?”

“I am. Not just physically either. The last few days have been a roller coaster.”

“Does that . . . Is that . . . Do you want a drink?”

“My drinking was a problem, as you know, but it was the drugs that had a real hold on me. Avoiding alcohol is a big part of my recovery because drinking will lower my inhibitions and make it easier for me to succumb to the cravings. And to answer your question, no, I don’t want a drink.”

“Okay,” Zoey said, sounding relieved.

“I can hear the gears spinning in your head right now. Yes, I do think about drugs - sometimes multiple times a day, and no, I haven’t taken any recently and don’t plan on taking any in the future.”

“Good.”

“And there’s not a specific thing that triggers the cravings for me, they’re just there . . . sometimes better and sometimes worse than other times.” It looked like Zoey was about to say something, but I put my hand up and said, “Actually, that’s not true. One specific thing that gets me amped up is watching people do drugs on TV or in a movie. I try to avoid that shit at all costs although it’s impossible sometimes.”

“So, having a Scarface and Breaking Bad marathon is a bad idea?”

“Very bad idea. Luckily, I’ve seen that movie a few times already, and I was a huge Walter White fan back in the day.” We drove around the corner of the office, and I was shocked to see the small parking lot nearly full of motorcycles and trucks. “Are you having a party or what?”

“Yes! A work party. Some of the Queens are here with whatever volunteers they could find, which means they recruited dads, brothers, and boyfriends.”

“Well, I hope they don’t mind me joining them, not that I’ll be much help since you’ve had me working since the crack of dawn.”

“If I recall, you were enjoying that work I assigned to you when you first woke up,” Zoey teased as she got out of the golf cart.

“And I hope to do it all again soon, that is if I can even move when you’re finished with me today.”

We had almost made it to the small house where the majority of the voices were coming from when Zoey stopped suddenly and said, “The guys usually bring beer.”

“Oh, no! Someone’s drinking beer while they work? Whatever will we do?” I asked sarcastically. When she narrowed her eyes at me, I said, “I can be around alcohol with no problem, Zo. Now, if one of them whips out a baggie of drugs, that might be a different story, so I’ll jet, but hanging out with the guys while they have a couple of beers isn’t going to throw me into a tailspin. I don’t want you to feel like you have to tiptoe around me, Zo. Just relax. I can take care of myself. If I need to get away, I’ve got two working legs and can do that, okay?”

“Will you tell me if you get uncomfortable?” Zoey asked.

“Honey, we’re about to walk into a house full of people who probably thought they’d never see me again and maybe even hoped they’d never see me again. Believe me, being uncomfortable is quickly becoming my new normal.”

“Is it worth it?”

“Is what?”

“Coming back here and facing everyone after so long away?”

“Every bit of it is worth it if that means I get to be with you, but an added bonus is that I can start to rebuild the relationships that I fractured and make them even better than they were before.”

“Is that what we’re doing? Making things better than they were before?”

“I think so, don’t you?”

“I like this you, Gravy. I like you a lot.”

“That’s good because I never stopped loving you, Zoey, and the woman you’ve become is more than I ever dreamed of. Having you in my life makes me want to be a better man - the kind of man who faces his shit instead of running away from it.”

“Are y’all gonna come in and do some actual work, or should I make a charcuterie board to entertain Dr. Phil when he gets here for your session?”

I looked over my shoulder and found Zane standing on the porch glaring at us, and without thinking, I asked, “Is he coming because you finally decided that you need help?”

Zoey burst out laughing, and I swear I heard Zane growl like an animal before he said, “Keep talking shit, Forrester, and I might have an accident with the nail gun.”

“If you shoot anyone with the nail gun, I’ll brick you into the fireplace like a fucked-up Santa Claus,” Zoey threatened.

“The place doesn’t even have a fireplace,” Zane argued.

“Don’t give me a reason to add one,” Zoey said, bumping him with her shoulder as she breezed past him.

“You know what? I wanted you to pay for the shit you did back then, but I’m starting to believe that spending the next eighty or so years with that smartass is punishment enough.”

“You know you love her.”

“Yeah, I do. Do you?”

“I probably wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.”

“Probably?”

“Well, she’s the reason I finally manned up and came home, but pissing you off by sticking around is probably going to be somewhere close to the top of the list of reasons I stay.”

“Fuck you, Forrester,” Zane said before he turned around to go inside. Over his shoulder, he called out, “Get your ass in here and start working, or I’ll use that nail gun after all.”

Even though it wasn’t the ideal conversation with a man that I used to call my best friend, I knew it was a giant step forward in reconnecting with him. Zane didn’t hurl insults at just everyone. Okay, maybe he did, but they were usually followed by a right hook or an uppercut, not an invitation to come inside and work.

Every little step counted, right?

◆◆◆

ZOEY

“I’m not sure what’s worse - waking up in the morning with flecks of paint in my hair or not being able to lift my arms,” Vivi complained.

“I volunteered to do the ladder work, but noooo , you just had to get up there and do it all,” I retorted, knowing the response before Vivi even opened her mouth.

“Are you mental? Wait a minute! I know! You bumped your head. That’s gotta be what’s wrong with you if you think I’m letting your drunken frat girl stumblin’, twitchin’ eyeball, woozy, can’t-stand-up-straight-ass on a ladder.”

I burst out laughing and heard a few chuckles behind me before Vivi’s twin, Evi, added, “Two of us would have to stand at the bottom just to catch you three seconds in, so there’s no sense wasting all that time. Besides, we know you planned this shit out, so don’t even pretend you want to do the top painting.”

“Yeah, because I like being on my knees so much . . .” When there was a roar of laughter, I winced and said, “Shit. I limped right into that one, didn’t I?”

“When we finish painting, what are we going to do?” Marla asked.

“Pass out from exhaustion,” Vivi grumbled. When I looked up, I saw that she was almost finished with the section she was working on. After she moved her ladder one more time, she’d almost be next to Evi who had worked her way around the room from the other side. There was laughter coming from the bedroom, and Vivi said, “Sounds like the guys are getting along better.”

“It was touch-and-go there for a bit,” I admitted. “Zane seems to be handling things better than he was yesterday.”

“As if he has a choice,” Marla scoffed.

“True, but he doesn’t usually give in quite so easily.”

“Maybe he can tell that Garvey’s in this for the long haul,” Evi suggested.

“Is he, though?” Vivi asked. “If it was that easy to run off the first time, my guess is that the second would be even easier, don’t you?”

“It wasn’t easy on him at all,” I argued. “I think that he was so ashamed of what he’d done that he convinced himself that he didn’t have a place here.”

“That’s what my mom said,” Marla said sadly.

Marla’s mom, Kari, had been working with men and women who were at a crossroads in their life - usually due to abusive situations that they were trying to escape from, but she’d also worked with many people who were trying to rebuild their lives after drugs took over. If anyone could understand the challenges that people like Garvey faced, it would be Kari, so when she spoke, I generally listened. Her advice had already helped me over and over in this endeavor to start my . . . whatever this was called.

“We’ve got to come up with a name for this place,” I blurted out.

“Well, most people would call this a house, sweetie,” Vivi said sarcastically.

“This is Cottage #1, smartass. I’m talking about the entire place in general.”

“Didn’t you have to come up with a name for it when you started filing the paperwork?”

“Yeah, but that’s a business name. I want this to have a comfortable name, like something homey and safe,” I explained. “The place we went to tour in Tenillo is called The Compound.”

“Very zombie apocalyptic,” Vivi said with a grimace.

“This needs to be something feminine but strong. Pretty but . . .”

“You already call the women the delicate flowers, right?” Marla interrupted. “Call this The Flower Patch or The Flower Garden. This is where they grow and thrive before they go out into the big, bad world, right?”

“I feel like Jewel will appear out of nowhere and slap me upside the head for saying this out loud, but I saw a craft pattern that said, ‘Grow where you are planted.’ I think that’s a good mantra for this place so The Flower Patch works.”

“I like The Flower Garden,” Vivi chimed in.

Evi agreed, “I do too. I think it’s fitting.”

“I like it,” I said as I watched Vivi climb down the ladder to scoot it closer to her sister’s. “Thanks for helping me, you guys. You’re the best.”

“If we didn’t come to help you, then your ass would be up here on this ladder and we know it, so it’s not like we had much of a choice,” Evi grumbled.

“You’ve helped us with our projects so many times over the years,” Marla chimed in. “And you’ll help us again if we need it, I’m sure.”

“Do you think we can have this finished by Wednesday?” I asked, giving us another night to meet my unofficial deadline.

“If you’d stop yapping and get your asses in gear, we’d be finished tonight,” Zane said as he walked into the living room followed by Garvey and my brother Xavier. “We’ve got this shit down to a science now, so I think we can bust out the living room in an hour or so.”

“We’re almost done with the paint,” I told him as I looked at the progress around the room. I looked back at the baseboards I had set up on the sawhorses and said, “We’ll need to move these somewhere to dry since we can’t install them until the floors are finished.”

“Are they done?” Garvey asked. When I nodded he said, “We’ll move them into the bedroom and start working in here.”

“We can get started painting the second house,” Vivi suggested.

“If y’all can get ahead of us with the paint, we can plan to do one house a night.”

“Are you serious?” I asked in shock.

“We make a good team,” Zane said with a shrug.

“They’re going to finish six more by the end of next week,” I told the group.

“Then we better get to work,” Xavier said as he walked around the long boards to figure out the best way to carry everything at once. “I suggest that we get the measurements of each room and cut them out, then you take them over to the shop and paint them there so they’re out of the way.”

The next few minutes were spent discussing a plan to get individual projects completed so that we weren’t in each other’s way. By the time we had come to a decision, the girls were finished painting and ready to move on to the next house.

“Holy shit,” I whispered as I walked into the bedroom and looked around. “It looks like a real house now.”

“It’s a place that anyone would be proud to call home, but the women you’re helping will appreciate it more than most. Believe me, this is going to make a huge difference in their lives.”

“That’s what I’m going for,” I said as I smiled over my shoulder at Garvey.

“You’re an awesome woman, Zo, and I’m proud to know you.”

“Thanks.”

“Chop chop, lovebirds. Let’s get this shit done,” Zane barked from behind us, but there wasn’t nearly as much heat in his words as there had been before. “I’d like to go to bed before midnight at least once this week.”

“And we have a mission,” Vivi said as she walked out the front door with a gallon of paint in each hand. “Let’s do this.”

“I’m the luckiest woman in the world to be surrounded by people like this,” I said, more to myself than anything.

“And all of us are lucky to be around you.”

I turned into Garvey’s arms and tiptoed up to give him a quick kiss before I said, “You say the sweetest things.”

My brothers started gagging theatrically, and I smiled up at Garvey before I whispered, “I’ll thank you for that later when we’re alone.”

“Are you trying to get me killed? The man has access to a table saw, and it would be easy for him to accidentally help me fall onto the blade.”

“Nah, Garvey, I’d never do such a thing. Imagine the mess,” Zane argued. “If I were gonna kill you, I’d do it out in the open where it was easier to clean up the evidence.”

“See, honey? You’re perfectly safe with my brothers,” I said with a grin as I patted Garvey on the stomach. I took a second to appreciate the muscles there before I smiled and said, “Y’all play nice. We’ll be next door.”

“Finally! We’ll be alone!” Zane said cheerfully.

As I walked past my brother, I shot him a mock glare and said, “Be good, Zane.”

“I’m good at everything I do.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.”