At some point it had been opened, so Ollie didn’t think it was illegal for him to look inside. He lifted the flap and pulled out the papers inside.
Ten minutes later, he put down the papers and pulled out his phone. “Eliza? Yeah, hi, it’s Ollie. Do you have an hour free this afternoon? Or maybe tonight? It’s important.”
WEDNESDAY WASthe last baseball practice of the year. Even if they were playing a team that consisted entirely of the three loners who hadn’t managed to get the mumps, Henry thought the kids should be prepared.
Danny and Peter Chiu still wouldn’t look each other in the eye, which could not be good for Henry’s blood pressure. It wouldn’t help their odds of winning a baseball game either, but unless someone came up with a miracle cure for mumps, that probably didn’t matter.
No one got seriously maimed, and Ty had an hour’s distraction from the looming specter of Saturday’s town hall meeting, which at this point was all he could hope for.
“I’m sorry we didn’t put on a better showing for you, bud,” he told Theo as they made their way to the car. “It would’ve been nice if we could’ve won a couple.”
“It’s okay,” Theo said seriously. “The Cubs get paid to play baseball, and they lose all the time too.”
Ty cackled and unlocked the doors. “Who’s been teaching youtrash talk? That was good.”
“Grandma.”
Even better. “I thought she didn’t like baseball.”
“I think that’s why she’s so good at trash talk.”
“Could be.”
The drive home passed mostly in silence, with Theo leaning his head against the window and Ty humming along with the radio.
When he pulled into the driveway, there was an unfamiliar truck parked behind the house. The hair on the back of Ty’s neck stood up, but Theo just said, “What’s Grandpa doing here?”
If that was Ollie’s father’s truck, at least Ty didn’t have to worry about another potential vandal attack. Probably. Ollie’s dad didn’t hate Ty enough to break his window, right?
He clicked the button to open the garage and maneuvered inside. Whatever Ollie’s dad was doing here, he was doing it without Ollie; the Toyota wasn’t in its space. “I don’t know. Let’s go find out.” He pocketed his keys and led the way around to the back of the house.
What Ollie’s dad was doing appeared to involve Ty’s office window and a new pane of glass. Jake was there too, helping lever it into place. Replacing a windowpane evidently took two people.
For a second, Ty honestly couldn’t think of anything to say.
“Uh,” he managed after a moment. “Hi.”
“Hey, Ty,” Jake said cheerfully. As if Ty hadn’t rejected his advances two days ago. “Just about done here.”
Mr. Kent pushed a small metal pin in next to the glass, then did the same on the other side. Ollie had said his father had a construction company at one point, if Ty remembered right. “Had a free afternoon, and Maureen said you could use some help.”
She did?
Ollie’s parents were speaking to each other again?
“Oh,” Ty said after a moment. “Well, I appreciate it. Let me know what I owe you for the materials and labor.”
“No, no. I had a piece of glass in my garage, just had to cut it down.” He didn’t quite meet Ty’s eyes, and Ty had no idea what was going on. He felt like he’d stepped sideways into an alternate dimension. “Theo. You want to learn a skill? Come over here and I’ll show you how to seal a window.”
Ty slowly backed away, giving Jake a little wave. He didn’t want to come across as unfriendly, but he did want to figure out what was happening. He pulled out his phone to text Ollie.Your dad is fixing the window???
The little checkmark indicated the message had been delivered, and then it changed color. Seen.
A moment later Ollie replied.Oh good, I thought he might not get to it until tomorrow.
Ollie was going to pretend this was normal? That he and his dad hadn’t been engaged in a sort of cold war for weeks?
Did he have a come to jesus moment or something, he wrote.
