My plate expanded slowly with time and testing, and when the world shook, it did not falter. I didn’t fail.
Everyone’s homes, Ari’s, and the boat had all fared well through the storm, but the same could not be said for the oak tree behind the Big House.
Which was what brought us to today, one of the last days of summer.
“Cody, this is morbid,” Bree said from beside me on my open truck bed.
I’d just put a handful of popcorn into my mouth, but in deference of the moment, I waited until I chewed and swallowed it before answering.
“Yeah, it is. And if you want to leave, we can go back to the cottage now. Just say the word.”
She sighed. “I don’t. I think you’re right. I’d rather the idea of how it looked not haunt me and just know instead.”
I passed her the popcorn bowl, and she took it, huffing something close to a laugh before she ate some. Vinh had prepared it for us, not being able to help himself in having a hand in this morning’s admittedly morbid errand. Both Lott brothers had offered to come with us, but she’d told them she didn’t want to risk bad karma for them from Miss Barb.
“Cody and I are already deep in it,” she’d said, making my heart laugh and cry all at once, which was the same reaction she’d had when I’d told her the entire story of my big heist inside the home.
There had been a lot of tears that day, when Liem and I had presented her with the refurbished frames and photographs we’d worked on in Dad’s garage. She now knew it all—AJ’s involvement, my horrible trip to Louisiana, my sadness over not being able to get a rooster statue.
Bree, showing her beautiful, true colors, had forgiven me in the same breath that she cursed me for taking such a risk. The same concern that’d filled her eyes then filled them now as we watched how easily Miss Barb’s house fell.
I swung my legs as I watched her and grappled with the contradictory feelings that stormed inside of me. Relief and gratitude that, almost a year after I’d royally fucked up by leaving town, things were back to normal between us.
The zing of chainsaws punched the air, making us both jump, and we shared an edgy laugh before her gaze was drawn back to the house and mine to her leg. The scars. The tattoo.
I blew out a breath and laughed hoarsely. Things were not normal, but even so, they were somehow mostly better, despite it all.
Reaching behind my head, I traced the tiny new star tattoo on the back of my neck and smiled to myself.
More than better.
That giant tree that AJ had tossed me into had taken power lines with it as it epically smashed across Miss Barb’s house, which made it a public safety threat.
So, on this hot and exceedingly humid late-August day, I sat with my best friend and watched as the city demolished the home that she’d grown up in.
Or, like me, raised herself in.
The popcorn bowl eventually lay forgotten as more machines of destruction cranked on, and the house fell.
Bree grabbed my hand, squeezing tightly after one particularly large section collapsed. “I think I’ve seen enough.”
I glanced at my watch—a fitness tracker I’d accepted from Dad with only a little fuss—and nodded. “Let’s get you home. I’ve got my BTB meeting in an hour.”
“That will never stop being funny,” she mused as we got into the truck. “What’re y’all planning now?”
I smiled at Bree wryly as we headed toward Bay Springs. “Last-minute things for the Labor Day weekend markets and parade and then preliminary planning for the Harvest Festival in October.”
We were silent as we crossed the twin bridges, and I glanced over to find Bree staring at me. “The hell are you looking at?”
Despite my scowl, she just smiled even bigger, but she just shook her head in answer.
My scowl fell off and my body lit with excitement as we pulled into the cottage’s driveway beside Vinh’s car and Liem’s Vespa, but I resisted jumping from the truck and took a moment to look at my best friend.
“You’re okay?”
Her brows furrowed slightly as she considered her answer, but she eventually nodded. “I’m okay.” She angled her head toward me and added, “It’s all working out, isn’t it?”
I held her gray eyes for a moment, and then movement drew my attention to Liem’s bedroom window. My nerve endings shimmered with anticipation at his silhouette, and as I unbuckled my seat belt, my hair stood on end as if actual electricity entered my nerve endings.
