The History of Us: a novel by Jennifer Bardsley

Author:Jennifer Bardsley [Bardsley, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Montlake
Published: 2022-07-11T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

Sometimes Dustin wondered which was harder—his hard hat or his head. Ever since driving away from Andrea’s house last night, he’d felt like a damn fool. Why had he ruined things? Those kisses back at the Quinault Resort had been spectacular. But everything had unraveled from there, and Dustin blamed himself. The threat of losing people was always on his mind, churning his emotions like dark waters. It was easier to say nothing at all than to speak from the heart.

Now it was Sunday morning, and he was at the jobsite, playing catch-up for missed work yesterday. Karlsson Construction was on a tight deadline, with the goal of listing the house as soon as Kitsap County could pass inspection on the electrical work. Heidi was upstairs painting the master bedroom, and workers were out front replacing the roof on the porch. Kendal and Jane were there in the kitchen, wearing bright-pink hard hats with their names written on them in purple script. It wasn’t really a hard hat zone, but the girls loved to dress the part. Leanne had picked up an extra shift deep cleaning the pizza parlor that morning, and Dustin was on day care duty.

He still hadn’t told Leanne about Cade cheating on her with Lisa, the redheaded cocktail waitress, and wasn’t sure how to bring it up without her completely shutting down. Hopefully Heidi would handle it, because Dustin hated uncomfortable conversations. Plus, his track record of explaining difficult things to Leanne was poor. When she turned sixteen and wanted to get her driver’s license, he’d told her, “You’re not ready. You might kill someone on the freeway if you don’t practice more.” She’d scheduled her test anyway and failed it. When she had first started dating Cade, he’d tried to warn her about him, saying, “Cade only dates women who are desperate. You’re better than that.” Leanne had dated Cade anyway, trying to prove him wrong.

“That’s not how you ungroup,” Kendal told Dustin from her perch at the kitchen island. “Ms. Nguyen says to ungroup.” Her math homework lay in front of her, next to Jane’s crayons. The girls sat on a makeshift bench constructed from a plank of wood and two stepladders.

“I don’t know what ungrouping is,” said Dustin, “but you can’t take nine away from seven, so you have to borrow from the six next door.”

“That’s not a six.” Kendal tapped the paper with her pencil. “That’s a sixty. It’s in the tens place.”

“Okay, but you still need to cross it out and give ten to seven.” Dustin frowned. When had first-grade math become so confusing? Supervising Kendal’s math homework while he tried to paint the mudroom was proving complicated.

“I need help with my homework too,” said Jane. She was drawing either a dog or a horse; Dustin couldn’t tell.

“You don’t have homework,” Kendal said in a superior tone. “You’re just in kindergarten.”

“I do too have homework.” Jane jutted out her bottom lip. “I’m supposed to bring three different apples to school tomorrow.

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