The two men looked at each other before they bolted for the pasture gate, and soon were running across the Heckmans’ front yard.
“Jason! Do not move, do you hear me? You sit down right now!”
Sarah stood staring up at the roof, a terror-stricken expression on her face.
On the roof, Jason stared down at her, frowning. “I’m okay, Mom. It’s not that steep.”
She started toward the end of the house but Sam caught her by the shoulders and handed her off to Pete. “Keep her here and stand here in case he falls.”
He ran down to the other end of the house, where he spotted the ladder leaning against the eaves. He despised heights, but as the terrified sound of Sarah’s voice carried to him, he didn’t hesitate to scramble up the rungs until he reached the roof.
Walking carefully, he made his way over to where Jason was now sitting on the shingles. “Hey, buddy. What are you doing up here?” Mindful of Jason’s cast, he picked the boy up as Sarah sobbed in relief down on the ground.
“The old lady at Aunt Dana’s shop yesterday said my daddy was up in Heaven. I was going to talk to him.”
He blinked, unsure what to say. “Yeah. Okay. Your mom’s scared to death, though. Let’s get you down from here, all right?”
“Okay. Who are you?”
He tried to tune out Sarah’s terrified voice in the background. He didn’t want the boy to get upset and panic. He knew Pete could take care of her. “I’m Sam Hope. I live next door with my cousin, Pete. Your mom works for us. You all are coming over tonight for a cookout.”
“Oh.” He smiled. “Nice to meet you. I’m Jason. That’s my mom.”
“Yeah, we’ve met your mom already.” Watching his footing, he slowly walked over toward where the ladder was. He heard Pete and Sarah move around the house to stand by the base of the ladder.
“Hey,” he softly said, “you know, I think you really scared your mom. Next time, it’s okay to just close your eyes and do this on the ground.”
Jason frowned. “But the lady at the shop said Heaven was in the sky.”
Oh, boy. He wasn’t a religious man himself and had no idea what Sarah’s beliefs were, but he suspected he should tread lightly. “Believe me, it’s okay. If you want to talk to your dad, you can do it anywhere.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“No more climbing on the roof. Any roof. Deal?” He shifted the boy to one arm and held out his palm for a high-five.
Jason nodded. “Deal.” He high-fived him back with his good hand.
Pete climbed up the ladder.
“Are you Pete?” Jason asked.
“Yeah. Let’s get you back on the ground before your mom has a nervous breakdown.”
He held out his arms for the boy. Sam helped get Jason situated on the rungs and Pete kept an arm securely around the boy’s waist all the way back down to the ground.
Sarah burst into tears when Pete handed Jason off to her. She dropped to her knees and held him tight. “What were you doing? Don’t you ever do that again!”
Now safely back with his mom, he burst into tears, too. “I’m sorry, Mommy. The old lady said I could talk to Daddy.”
She palmed his cheeks. “What lady? What are you talking about?”
Sam had made it back down to the ground. “Someone at Dana’s shop told him his dad was in Heaven. He was going to talk to him.”
He didn’t know if it was relief, anger, fear, confusion, or a mix of all of the above that crossed her face. She tightly hugged Jason again. “Honey, do not ever climb up on the roof again. Ever.”
Walt and Betty came running up. “What happened?” he asked. “Who was screaming?”
Sam pulled the ladder away from the house and dropped the extension. “Jason decided to climb on the roof. Everyone’s okay.”
“Holy crap.” Walt rubbed at his face. “Sorry. I forgot to put the ladder away yesterday.” He took it from Sam and headed for the barn.
Pete helped Sarah, who winced, to her feet. She threw her arms around Sam. “Thank you,” she said before hugging Pete and thanking him, too. She pointed at the house and spoke to Jason. “You, in your room. Right now. I’ll be there in a minute to talk to you.”
He looked down at the ground and headed inside.
Betty draped an arm around her. “Are you okay?”
She burst into tears again. All Sam wanted to do was pull Sarah into his arms and hug her until she smiled again.
“I can’t believe he’d do something like that!” she softly wailed.
Sam related what Jason had said.
Sarah looked ready to murder. “That fucking bastard almost got him killed once, and now he’s dead and he’s still putting him at risk.”
Betty gently hugged her a little more tightly. “I’m sure whoever it was didn’t tell Jason to climb on the roof. That’s typical boy behavior. I’ll come inside with you to talk to him, if you want me to. Okay?”
Sarah nodded.
Pete asked what Sam had been afraid to. “Are we still on for tonight, or did you want to cancel? We understand if you want to postpone it.”
Betty spoke up before Sarah could. “We’re still on,” she firmly said. She smiled at Sarah. “Believe me, my kids did crazy stuff, too. And not just my son. This, too, shall pass.”
Sarah wiped at her eyes with the backs of her hands. “I can’t take much more of this. I feel like I’m going to lose my mind.”
“All the more reason we are having that cookout tonight,” Betty said decisively. “No argument. And thank you, boys.”
Sarah gave them each another hug before letting Betty take her inside.
They were about to leave when Walt emerged from the barn and held up a staying hand to them. Once he’d rejoined them, they had to repeat what had happened to Jason, as well as Betty’s declaration that the cookout would go on as planned.
He looked grim. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you guys being here. If anything happened to Jase right now…” He shook his head again. “I think it’d push her over the edge.”
Sam had to ask. “How is she doing? Really?”
Walt shrugged. “She tries to put on a tough face. But I think this has eaten at her in a way even she doesn’t understand yet. Her self-esteem has taken a huge hit. She doesn’t trust herself anymore. She used to be so confident. But that bastard and his mother totally fucked with her head.” He let out a sigh. “If he wasn’t dead I’d kill him my damn self.”
“We’d help,” Sam said before he even realized he’d spoken.
Pete nodded his agreement.
Walt grinned. “I knew I always liked you boys. Well, guess we’ll see you in a few hours.”
They walked back toward their house. Big Mac greeted them in the pasture and followed them all the way to their gate.
“We really need to put another gate in,” Pete said. “Closer to the house, so we don’t need to walk through the pasture.”
“Yeah.” Sam had all but forgotten the argument about the rock waterfall. “She’s cute, isn’t she?”
Pete stopped so suddenly Sam almost walked into him. “What?” he asked.
He made his cousin turn. “Sarah. She’s cute. Don’t deny it. I saw the chubby you had for her the other night when we were talking to her.”
“Of course she’s cute,” he mumbled.
Sam grabbed his shoulder. “Okay, you want to tell me to go to hell, fine, but I’m going to put this out there. I like her. You like her. I know we were joking about finding the perfect woman for both of us, but you know what? Maybe she’s it. She’s been through a hell of a lot, her and Jason both. Maybe this was meant to be. Maybe they were brought back to Florida for a reason. Did you ever think about that?”
“You’re nuts,” Pete grumbled, but Sam still saw the wheels turning in his cousin’s head.
“You know what I mean.”
“She’s been a widow, what, less than a month? She’s not going to be ready for a relationship anytime soon.”
“I didn’t mean rush her. I meant the two of us be there for her, for both of them.” He let go of Pete’s shoulder. “Maybe, one day, she’ll let us know if she likes us. And until then, we keep any assholes away from her. We can help her with Jason.”
“And what happens if she only likes one of us?”
He shrugged. “We let her know from the start we’re both okay with it. That she doesn’t have to choose between us. That she can have us both. Tell me she’s not perfect.”
He didn’t reply at first, giving Sam the answer he wanted.
Finally, Pete tapped him in the middle of the chest. “We don’t pressure her,” he quietly said. “We don’t push her, we don’t rush her.”
Sam wanted to let out a whoop. Hell, he’d almost be willing to let Pete talk him into redoing the waterfall. “Agreed.” He held out his hand.
Pete shook with him. “This is so crazy it might just work.”
“I hope to hell so.”
* * * *
Sarah let Betty lead her back into the house. “Just remember,” the older woman softly said, “he wasn’t trying to get you upset.”
“I know.”
“And he’s not going to exactly understand why you were upset.”
She nodded, still sniffling.
“Do you want me to come in there with you?”
She wanted to say no, she had this under control, but knew that would be a damned lie.
Nothing in her life was under control anymore. It felt like she spun from one catastrophe to another. Although, in retrospect, everything that had happened since Michael’s death felt like a cakewalk by comparison.
“Please,” she whispered.
Betty kindly smiled. “When he was nine, my son shoved his little sister off the roof with a bedsheet parachute. Into a pile of freshly raked leaves.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh, no! What happened?”
“He was grounded for two weeks, and fortunately the azalea bushes she landed in cushioned her fall.” She smiled. “And I spanked the crap out of him. That was the last time he ever tried anything like that. My point is, kids do stupid things. Think about some of the things you did as a kid that your mom and dad didn’t know about.”
Sarah recalled once climbing up onto the roof over the boat lift on the dock and jumping into the lake on a dare from a neighbor boy who thought she was too chicken.
“Point taken,” Sarah said.
Betty followed her down to Jason’s bedroom. He’d left his door open and was lying on his bed.
He launched the opening salvo, weakening her defenses. “I’m sorry I scared you, Mommy.”
“I know, kiddo.” She and Betty walked over and sat on the bed on either side of him. “But you can’t go climbing onto the roof like that. It’s not safe. Especially with your broken arm.” And that I almost lost you once and it would kill me if I really did lose you.
“I’m sorry.”
“Honey,” Betty said, “who told you about your dad?”
Sarah was actually glad Betty asked it. If she’d asked it, it might have come out sounding more like, Who the fuck is the nutless bitch who told you that?
“Some old woman at Aunt Dana’s work. She was sitting under one of those things.”
“A dryer?” Betty asked.
He nodded.
She glanced at Sarah. “Jason, she didn’t mean you had to get on the roof. You can close your eyes and do the same thing.”
“Oh. Okay. Mommy, are you mad at me?”
She shook her head. “No, sweetheart. You scared me. If anything had happened to you…” The lump swelled in her throat and she couldn’t finish the sentence.
Betty glanced at her and picked up the thread of her thought. She gentled her voice even more. “Jason, you have to remember that sometimes when someone says something, they don’t mean it literally.”
“Huh?”
Sarah tuned out the rest of Betty’s conversation with Jason as she waged an internal struggle not to break down into tears again.
She hated crying.
Crying sucked.
This whole situation sucked.
Worse, she couldn’t even scream at Michael to tell him what an unholy shit she thought he was for doing this to her and Jason in the first place. She’d never have the satisfaction of slamming a door in his face, or yelling at him.
Or telling him to go fuck himself.
Or even telling him good-bye.
Worse, Jason never got to really say good-bye to him. He’d still been in the hospital when they had the funeral, one of her friends sitting at his bedside while her dad went with her to face off against the d’Antonio clan.
Betty looked at her. “Anything else to add, Mom?”
She shook her head. “I think you covered it,” she quietly said.
Jason hugged her. “I’m sorry I scared you, Mommy.”
She kissed the top of his head. “I know, kiddo. Please don’t do it again.” She broached the subject. “If you want to talk about your dad with me, it’s okay. Anything you want to say, I’ll listen.”
He shrugged.
She reached out and brushed her fingers through his hair. “Nothing you want to talk about?”
“I like Pete and Sam.”
That was an odd segue, but okay. “I think they’re nice guys,” Sarah told him. “I like them, too.”
“I’m glad we’re still going tonight,” he said. “I’d like to see them again.”
A stray thought tried to streak through Sarah’s brain, but she smashed it to pieces and shoved the remnants away. “Well, you pick up your room before you come back out. You can watch TV until Aunt Dana and her kids get here. Okay?”
“Okay.”
Betty had to help her up off the bed. She followed Sarah out to the living room.
“You all right?” Betty asked as Sarah dropped back down onto the couch.
“I think I’m going to be totally grey by the time he turns ten if he keeps this up.”
“Well, at least Dana is great at doing color.”
Chapter Eleven
Pete felt relief that Jason was unharmed, and that Sarah hadn’t decided to cancel the cookout.
Not that he would have blamed her in the least, but now that the idea of hopefully convincing her to see them as more than just friends had taken root in his mind, he wanted to spend as much time with her as he could.
And yes, he had to admit, Sam was right.
Sam glanced at him. “I know what you’re thinking.”
“Don’t be so sure.”
He stopped Pete again with an outstretched arm and stared at him. “Yeah, I do. Thank god she didn’t cancel tonight.”
Pete pushed his arm away. “Doesn’t take a mind reader to know that,” he muttered as he continued walking.
Sam hurried to catch up. “She’s perfect,” he insisted.
“We just discussed this. We’re not going to push or rush her.”
“No, of course not.” He looked offended Pete had even suggested it. “But tell me back there you didn’t want to pull her into your arms and hold her. Comfort her.”
“Of course I did.” He stopped walking again and turned to Sam. “But we also have to be prepared for the possibility that she won’t want us.”
“She will,” he said, a paragon of confidence.
“You don’t know that.”
He shrugged. “She already knows our finances.” He grinned. “So that’s a point in our favor.”
Pete rolled his eyes and started toward the house again. “I wouldn’t make that joke in front of her just yet, smart-ass.”
* * * *
Sarah felt like doing anything but socializing with her neighbors-slash-high-school-crushes-slash-hunks-slash-employers.
Especially since Pete and Sam had both now seen her pretty much at her worst.
No, Pete couldn’t have seen me dressed to the nines and with hair and makeup done. Oh, no. He had to see me with goat tracks on my boobs. Or screamin
g like a maniac at my son on the roof.
She also knew she didn’t want to miss an opportunity to spend time with the guys. Especially now that she felt thankful to them for rescuing Jason.
She dragged herself into the shower once more to stand under the warm spray and try to loosen up her sore muscles a little. Maybe, if she combined that with a handful of over-the-counter painkillers, she could function vertically for more than a few minutes tonight.
After getting out of the shower, she made an effort to root through her drawers and closet until she found a decent pair of shorts that didn’t look ratty and a nice sleeveless blouse she could wear without a bra.
She also took the time to put on a little makeup. As she appraised herself in the mirror, she nodded.
Better. Now if I can avoid crying, or shrieking like a banshee, or being attacked by livestock, or otherwise making a fool out of myself, everything’ll be hunky-dory.
Her dad was happy to drive her over to the Hopes’ in the Toyota. Sarah wasn’t even sure she could climb up into his truck at that point.
Jason was a little put out that he still couldn’t swim in the pool with his cousins, but Sarah didn’t miss how Sam and Pete took turns engaging all three kids in games, including Jason in the process so he wasn’t left out.
Dana leaned in close to her ear. “They’re cute.”
“Shh.”
Dana gave her a just sayin’ kind of shrug before sitting back in her chair with a smile.
The men prepared the hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill, refusing to let Sarah help and insisting she remained seated. While she appreciated their concern, it also made her feel even more self-conscious.
Damn goat.
She wouldn’t deny the men were great eye candy. Shirtless, wearing nothing but swim trunks, they were both leanly muscled from days of hard work in a way Michael never could have replicated in a gym no matter how much time he spent there.
Then again, maybe he wasn’t really at the gym all those times he said he was.
Another suspicion she couldn’t get out of her mind once it’d firmly latched itself into place. She really hadn’t known her husband a fraction as well as she thought she’d had.