“You’re on my bad list, Rett,” Clay told him. “You just up and disappeared for a couple of months.”
“I tell you what: if you come do this with me, I’ll explain everything and won’t kill you for messing around with my sister.”
Clay really looked like he was going to fade away. He got pale even under his perpetual tan. “I haven’t done anything with Angie. Honest, Rett, nothing.”
“God, Clay,” Rett answered, immediately taking back what he’d said. “I know that. I was just making a joke. It took me a little while to notice, but I can tell you like her.”
“Just so you know, I would never try anything with your sister.”
“Angie can take care of herself. Besides, I can’t think of anybody better for her.”
“You mean that?”
“Yeah, man.”
“And you’re not just saying that ’cause you want me to go and vandalize somebody’s front yard.”
“This is not an act of vandalism. This is a catharsis.”
“A what?”
“I’m just letting off some steam.”
“You don’t let off steam by messing up somebody’s front yard,” Clay remarked. Rett raised his eyebrow at his friend. Then he shook his head. “Unless they’re my friend Rett, obviously.”
“Obviously,” Rett answered, throwing a second chainsaw into the back of his SUV.
“You going to tell me why?”
“Because it’s not safe to have all those trees in the front yard blocking the view from the road. Anything could happen just on the front porch and no one would be the wiser until it was too late.” Rett did not add that this was the house that had made him succumb to stupid Tracey. It was the place that promised something they could never really have, a secret world untouched by anything beyond it.
“When are you going to tell me the whole thing?”
“The whole thing about what?”
“Well, Rett, I’m not stupid. I know somethin’ big is going on with you. If my ears were serving me right this morning, there’s something about a baby. And I know for damn sure that Kim isn’t pregnant. In fact, Charles says she can’t get pregnant.” The irony of that was not lost on Garrett. Kim was going to hate him more than she already did when she found out he was getting the child she had been trying to “give” him for more than a year. Yeah, she was going to be out for blood.
They pulled up in front of Tracey’s grandmother’s house forty-five minutes later.
“This neighborhood’s really…really…”
“Really what?” Rett tensed up.
“Why are we doing this?”
“I told you.”
“Well, you haven’t told me who lives here.”
“The mother of my child used to live here. This is still her house.”
“Here?”
“Yeah.”
“Tracey McAlpine lived here?”
Rett didn’t look at his friend, proud he hadn’t even flinched. He was surprised that Clay knew. In the end he should have been relieved; he no longer had to figure out how to break the news. “Yep. You should see the inside of the house. It’s gorgeous. Anyway, let’s get to it.”
“So you have a baby?” Awe peppered Clay’s voice.
Rett couldn’t help the grin. He had a bee-you-tiful baby. He reached into his wallet and pulled out three pictures. He paged through more on his cell.
“Would you look at that?” Clay breathed.
“Yeah.” Rett’s chest puffed out proudly.
“Isn’t she just a precious little thing?”
Rett beamed nodding. “Her name’s Nathalie.”
Clay handed the pictures back and clasped Rett on the shoulder in affection.
“When it happens to you, man…” Rett mused. “I mean, I can’t describe the way I feel when I look at her and hold her. I keep wanting to cry like a little bitch.”
Clay laughed. “Rett, you still haven’t answered my question. Why are we doing this?”
“Because I’ve always hated these trees.”
“Yeah, but do you have permission to do this?”
“Look, are you goin’ to help me or not?”
Clay shook his head. He then started to unload the truck.
Rett climbed the first tree to start trimming branches. Clay made his way up with him.
“How did you know?” Rett asked. “Did Angie tell you?”
“Naw, man.” Clay shook his head. “After that night at the apartment, I knew something was up. You made sure of that. Then, I don’t know why, it never came up again, but you stopped seeing Kim and I just knew.”
Rett didn’t say anything. He just nodded.
“Rett,” Clay continued.
“Yeah.”
“I think she was good for you.”
“What makes you say that?” Rett’s chest got tight all of a sudden.
“Because I know you, man. You were happy. You were half the jackass you normally are. It was easy to see. And when y’all broke it off, it was clear as day what had happened. You had that ‘screw everybody’ attitude you get when things don’t go your way.”
“Really?”
“Hell yeah.”
Rett digested this for a moment, then questioned, “What’s my attitude saying to you now?”
He asked this question because he really wanted to know. His brain and heart had been at war since that day in the mall. He’d thought that with the birth of his daughter, he’d be able to forget Tracey and focus on this new and important part of his life. He’d thought that with his new job and being a daddy, he wouldn’t have time to stew over the mess that was his relationship with Nathalie’s mother. He’d been wrong. His feelings for Tracey continued to be a puzzle for him.
“Why are you cutting down her trees?”
“Because she’s planning on selling this place and I’m doing my part to help.”
“Without her knowing anything about it?”
“I’ve told her twelve times that it needed to be done.”
“So you’re helpin’ her, whether she likes it or not. And you’re cutting down trees that you felt hid the house from the road.”
“Shut up and help me take this branch down.”
Hours later, they sat on the ground, dripping with sweat, wondering at the general mess they’d made of the yard and drinking beer.
“Maybe this was a two-day project,” Rett offered.
Clay laughed so hard he kicked at the trunk of the nearest tree. Then his eyes went wide and he scrambled to his feet.
“What are you doing?” Rett asked, too sore, hot, and fuzzy to follow… until he witnessed Clay snap a picture of the yard with his camera phone and start to type on the keypad.
“You jackass!” he yelled. He caught up with his friend just after he hit the send button. The message was sent directly to Angie.
Well, that was a way to get Tracey to call him.
Sure as he breathed, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” sounded on his cell.
“Yeah?” he answered.
“What the hell are you doing at my grandmother’s house?”
“Helping you sell it,” he answered, knowing full well it would piss her off.
“You have no right, Garrett. No right.”
“So?”
He held the phone away from his ears to protect his eardrums from loud and intense yelling on the other end.
Garrett and Clay finished clearing the yard on Sunday.
The house was sold in a week.
Tracey didn’t expect the house to sell so fast. She figured she’d have at least three months, especially with the exorbitant price she put on it. But it was obvious it wasn’t going to happen that way now. She’d gotten an offer, not from a nice family but from a convenience store chain. Rett got perverse pleasure out of the fact that the place where it had all begun was going to be torn down to make way for something new.