When the Rivers Rise by Joey Jones

Author:Joey Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Joey Jones
Published: 2020-06-21T16:00:00+00:00

19

When Niles and Mickey finished cutting down tree limbs at their first job after lunch, they hurried to the next. Then the next, and another, and the chain just kept rotating. Niles had lost count of how many projects they tackled today. He knew that the list on the dashboard was full of marked off names, and that was a good thing. The sun seemed to be sinking as fast as they were moving, and when it began to touch the tree line, Niles was both excited and nervous. The most bizarre thing happened around mid-afternoon. He gave Eden a call and took a shot in the dark that she might allow Riley to spend the evening with him since he would miss out on his Wednesday visit.

“I’ll be working until dark, maybe after, but it would be nice to take Riley out for dessert or something special like that,” he said politely after apologizing for getting upset earlier.

“Sure,” Eden agreed without hesitation.

That was the moment when Niles nearly fainted. Thankfully, he hadn’t because he was standing in the middle of a dilapidated shed where loose boards with rusty nails were scattered all around his dusty shoes. The entire structure was so weak that he and Mickey pushed the whole thing over with much less than a hurricane-force wind. The owners weren’t worried about the fact that the storm would likely knock over the old shed, but instead, they were concerned that the heavy winds would fling boards through windows and who knows where else.

“Really?” he replied without thinking, wondering if he heard right. He was almost positive that Eden had said Sure.

“Yeah, that will be fine.”

Niles immediately wondered if Grandyma had talked some sense into Eden. He appreciated how that woman hadn’t treated him any differently since the day he and her daughter split up. Even the morning when they sat at opposite benches during the custody case, she gave him a big bear hug and told him she still loved him. Nowadays, she often made mention of how she thought Riley should spend more time with his father. She had even been known to let Niles come over to the house for lunch on weekdays when she was watching her grandson. He was pretty sure that Eden didn’t know about those visits.

“Is it okay if I plan to pick him up around eight o’clock and have him back home by ten?” Niles knew that ten was past Riley’s regular bedtime. Still, he was hoping that Eden would make an exception based on the circumstances. Plus, he was likely to sleep in the car when they left town, so the little tyke would have an opportunity to catch up on any missed sleep.

“That will be fine; you can pick him up whenever,” Eden offered. “If you and Mickey finish early, you can get him any time after six. By then, he and I will be home. I can feed him, or you can take him out for dinner.”

Standing in the rubble, Niles wondered what happened to the woman he had been talking to earlier today.

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