Every Time My Heart Breaks by Linda Kage

Author:Linda Kage [Kage, Linda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Linda Kage
Published: 2022-12-27T18:30:00+00:00

20 LUKE

After Chloe left to confront her dad, I took my time straightening the kitchen and cleaning the mess I’d made. Then, I returned to her bedroom to shower and change into my clothes for the day. Once I was pulling on my shoes, however, I glanced over toward her closet at the shoes she had in there.

So I pushed to my feet and wandered inside to snoop around, browsing through her footwear until I got a decent bead on what size she wore. Then I locked up before heading out to my truck.

A good night’s rest had left me feeling more resolute about my goals than before. She might be a little reticent over the whole thing and a hard nut to crack, but that just made her a bigger challenge. And one thing I loved to conquer was a good challenge.

So she could fight it and butt heads with me as much as she wanted to, I wasn’t giving up.

I stopped at a shoe store first, and walked out twenty minutes later, with an enormous bag in hand. As soon as I climbed into my truck, tossed my purchase over into the passenger seat, and started the engine, I called my brother.

“Hey. You off work today?” I asked as soon as he answered.

“Yep.” JB sounded harassed and winded. “First full day off in two weeks, and I gotta deal with a fucking leak in my master bathroom. What’s up?”

“Just wondering if I could swing by for a while,” I said, already putting the truck into drive and turning that way. “Sponge some lunch off you, maybe. Shit like that.”

“Sure,” he said easily. “And you can help me rip out my bathtub and maybe a partition wall while you’re at it.”

So that’s what I found myself doing an hour later, crowbar in hand and fiberglass particles floating around my head. Pausing my task from ripping away a rotted two-by-four from the wall, I coughed into my armpit and blinked my vision clear.

JB glanced over from his crowbar that he had wedged into the other end of the plank of wood. “Will you just put on a mask and safety glasses already? You have no idea what this shit could do to your lungs.”

“You sound like such an overbearing, big-brother doctor right now. You know that? It’s adorable. Really.”

And I lifted the crowbar again to help him remove the wood.

“Teagan!” my brother merely shouted through the house before we both worked together to pry the sucker loose.

“Luke!” his wife shouted back. “I don’t know what he told you to do this time. But just do it! Do you want my daughter to grow up without a damn uncle?”

The board popped loose. And both JB and I skipped a step back as it fell to the floor to avoid all the exposed nails.

As the dust settled, I looked up at him. “How the hell do you two do that?”

“What?” JB asked, holding out a mask and glasses. “The marriage mind-reading trick?”

I rolled my eyes and accepted the handful.

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