“I am?” Lorna wondered when she hadn’t looked well rested.
“This sabbatical must be working,” Liz added with a smile.
“You know? I think it is.”
“That hole is getting big,” Martin said. He was watching Bean and Aggie dig. They could not come to the backyard and not dig something.
Lorna saw that he was right. How interesting that she was not annoyed by it. She was almost amused by it. Maybe she’d turn the hole into a pond. It was just a hole after all.
The three of them chatted about the news around Austin—Martin was very excited about a new Torchy’s Tacos opening nearby. Lorna said she had never been to a Torchy’s. Martin made a show of falling out of his chair and Lorna, Liz, and Bean laughed.
Seth arrived soon after and walked outside, still shrugging out of his jacket. “Hey,” he said, and sat heavily in a lawn chair. He took three cookies, shoving one into his mouth, then seemed to realize what he was doing and blushed slightly. “Sorry. Long day.”
“What’s up, man?” Martin asked.
Seth shook his head. “This job is going to kill me.” His gaze found Bean, and he watched as Bean brushed dirt off Aggie’scoat. “When I took this promotion, I had a wife. We knew it would be longer hours, but we thought we’d handle it well enough with the two of us.” He rubbed his face with one hand. “The hours aren’t letting up, and the long hours are keeping me from my son.”
“What are you saying?” Martin asked. “Are you going to change jobs?”
“I don’t know.” Seth sighed again, then bit off half another cookie. “It’s just got me thinking in general.” He sat up a little and shook his head, like he was shaking a clutter of thoughts. “By the way, I went back to the condos I told you about. They’ve got some finished models now. They’re nice. They’ve got more square footage than any of our apartments. But they are a bit more expensive.”
“How much more?” Liz asked.
“A couple hundred a month. But without a list of things that need repair.”
They all took this news in. It seemed to Lorna that the four of them were silently contemplating what came next for them. She certainly was.
She was thinking about Bean and Seth, and about Martin and Liz. She was thinking about this house, and what it was like when she was a child. About the time she and Kristen found a litter of kittens under the house. About when her grandparents had a party and the next morning, bowls of candy were still out. She was thinking about what would happen to her fellow tenants. How she hadn’t even thought of them in the beginning, when the only thing on her mind was getting Nana’s house back. Would she regret buying this house from underneath them? It was obvious Mr. Contreras was going to sell. If not to her, then someone else. Could they blame her for being the one to buyit? Would buying their homes out from under them become another burdensome bundle of guilt? Would she be hunting them down in the years to come to apologize?
She could be their landlord, she realized. Buy the house and rent back to them. But would that change this thing between them that was feeling like friendship? She didn’t want to lose that. She didn’t want to be a landlord either.
She honestly didn’t know what she wanted or felt about this house anymore. Her thoughts were beginning to confuse her. She looked at Bean and Aggie. “Oh, right,” she said. “I have something for Bean.” She got up and went into her apartment to get the vest. When she returned, she called Bean from the yard.
He and Aggie loped together to where the adults were seated, and Lorna presented the vest like a king’s robe. “Ta-da!”
Bean gasped. He’d seen some progress in the beginning, but he hadn’t seen it in several days. “These are all my badges!” he crowed as Lorna slipped it on him.
“Dude, you have to model it,” Martin said, and made him do a walk up and down.
“Do you want to know all the badges?” Bean asked, and then began to rattle them off, pointing to each one. The list was long. “Dad!” Bean said suddenly. “I can wear this to the science fair!”
“You can,” Seth said, and explained, “Bean has an entry in the science fair this week. Martin helped us. We’ve got a volcano.”
“Now that I’d like to see,” Liz said.
“You should all come,” Seth offered. “Wednesday at five at the school.”
As the school was a mere two blocks away, Liz immediately said she’d go.
“I’ll be there too,” Martin said. “Lorna?”
She couldn’t believe Martin was inviting her. “Me too.”
“We can walk together,” Liz said.
They talked about science fairs while Bean counted his badges.L orna realized she was going to miss this group. It wasn’t like they were besties, but she cared about them.
These people had indeed become her friends.
