I looked where he was pointing and shrugged. I'd called the rental company the day I decided to stay in Crown Creek and they'd been only too happy to extend my rental agreement indefinitely. "Hadn't really thought about it," I said.
As soon as I said it, I winced internally. Though he'd never come right out and said it, I had a pretty good idea that Finn had spent all his King Brothers' money. He was very possibly broke now. Beau had let a few comments slip that made me wonder if the twins were planning on getting a place together. On Beau's dime.
The door from the kitchen into the garage slammed shut. "You should return it, save your money," my father piped up from the top of the drive.
"How does he do that?" I muttered to Finn. "Like he knew we were talking about cars."
"He could smell it," Finn muttered back.
"If you're staying here, why do you need a rental?" my dad went on, oblivious to our joking. "It's not a wise use of funds to just have it sitting here while you fart around with your guitar."
"Then what will I do to get around?" I asked. "Walk? It's twenty degrees out here."
"Pussy," Finn muttered. I lifted my middle finger.
My father looked excited. He took off his glasses and wiped them on his shirtfront with reddened hands. I wondered if the man even felt the cold any more or if his exterior was completely impermeable. Nothing could get to him just like nothing could get through to him. "Come on, wait til you see what I have." He turned to head down to one of his zillion sheds.
I glanced at Finn who only shrugged, then pointed and silently laughed at me behind my Dad's back. I mimed needing to be saved just like we had when we were kids, and he shook his head and crossed his arms.
"It's down here," Dad called. I followed him down the sloped, pitted lawn. Tree roots were punching their way through the hard soil and here and there the brown grass was dusted with a fine powdery layer of snow that swirled in eddies as we walked through it. The frozen grass crunched and squeaked under my boots. "You got another shed?" I asked him, looking at the new, blue painted shed in the shape of a miniature barn.
"You can never have enough sheds," my father said, sounding way more enthusiastic about sheds than anyone had a right being.
He opened the door with a flourish. Inside was a tarp covered hulk. "What's that?" I asked.
"What I wanted to show you," my Dad said. He looked at me with the kind of smile on his face that I rarely saw. I'd seen his smile of pride. I'd seen his smile of pleasure. But this was one of...
Maybe it was hope?
Something tight and unwelcome was sitting heavy in my chest. I suddenly wished for Uncle Gid to be here, to gently tease his brother about trying too hard. In the way that Gabe always teased me.
That tight unwelcome feeling grew heavier. Looking at my dad right now was like looking in a mirror and short of not recognizing yourself, it was seeing yourself for the first time and not really liking it all that much. "Okay," was all I managed to say, because I didn't want to be wipe that smile of hope off his face while at the same time that was all I wanted to do.
He gripped the tarp like a magician ready to perform his most acclaimed trick. I held my breath, ready for disappointment. Ready to smile like it was something I wanted when I was certain there was nothing my father could give me that would ever be what I wanted.
He yanked it back and I blinked.
"Ethel?" I said, but my voice cracked and I couldn't get the whole word out. I tried again. "You found Ethel?"
My dad ran his hand down the hood of my very first car. The one I had crashed, that had caused all that scandal when I was sixteen with speculation that I had been underaged drinking. When the truth was I was just trying to change the radio station. But this couldn't be Ethel. "I smashed her up. I saw the tow truck, you said she was going to the scrap lot."
My dad shrugged. "I wanted to teach you a lesson, but then I thought to myself. Hey. He's a good kid and he made a mistake. He should be allowed to be young and make mistakes. No one else allows him that, but his dad should."
The tightness in my chest was now up in my throat, preventing me from speaking. I ran my hand up the hood again. "Did you..."
"Do the body work myself? Here and there, yeah. Bud Clemson pitched in, and so did Chuck although he mostly got in the way. It got to be a nice little project we had going on there."
I didn't even think to ask if Uncle Gid had helped. I couldn't imagine my uncle doing something like this. I blinked at my dad. "Wow."
He looked away and both of us stood there for a moment. Then he sprang into action. "Let me show you how she runs. Now she's been sitting in here a while since I didn't quite know when you'd be back again, or even if you'd ever want this car..."
"No, I want this car." Memories of the few moments of normal teenaged life I'd managed to snatch here and there flooded me, stolen moments of freedom cut short by the crash. Ethel had been all of my normal teenaged rebellion condensed into one summer between tours.
Dad had that hopeful grin on his face again. "Now I haven't checked the tires yet. You're probably gonna want to change those since they've settled, especially since it's been so damn cold."
I nodded. "Sure, okay."
"Luckily you didn't crack anything vital when you landed in that ditch. Just crunched up the hood. Insurance shouldn't have totaled it." My dad shook his head. "No, it was a lesson you didn't need to learn, son. You always knew it. More than knowing consequences, you always needed to learn that you can lean on your family." He took a deep breath and his heavy hand pressed my shoulder. "You don't have to do it all yourself, you know."
Chapter Nineteen
Ruby
Sunni Tran didn't live up to her name in any sense of the word, but her Thai restaurant was the only place in Crown Creek that actually used spices in their food. Every other place acted like black pepper was too exotic a flavoring.
Sunni was always in danger of going under too, so I considered it a sacred duty to visit as often as I could.
The rest of the girls always sighed heavily when it was my week to pick the restaurant, because they knew I'd always ask for Family Thai's. But I think I was starting to win them over. Last time, Sadie actually asked for a curry instead of the pineapple fried rice.
Sunni scowled from the hostess stand as we sat down for our Saturday lunch. Since we were the only people in the place, you would think she'd act a little happier to see us, but that was part of Sunni's charm. Willa called her "Stormy Tran." But never to her face.
"How's your dad doing?" I asked Claire once we had our menus. It was the first time we'd hung out since the funeral.
"He's dealing with his grief by throwing himself into cleaning out Uncle Gid's place," Claire said.
I swallowed back the urge to tell her I already knew this. From having lunch with her brother. I wasn't sure she could handle that information.
I wasn't really sure I could handle it myself.
"Foster's gotta have a job to do," Willa agreed. "I told you about the time I came over for a study group and he inflated my bike tires and greased my chain for me?"