Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 84247 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84247 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
My skin felt a little too tight, which was weird, so I said, “Fine, just try and get rid of me. I’ll go out to my shop for a few minutes while you two smart guys take care of this.”
“You’re smart,” Logan said. “Just in different ways.”
“Thanks, buddy.”
Callum waved me away playfully. I left them to it. There wasn’t much I could help with. Plus, if there was anything school related Logan didn’t want to talk to me about, maybe he would share it with Callum. As soon as I had the thought, I wondered if that was fair. He couldn’t want to spend his time befriending a kid, but then, that didn’t feel right. There was an honesty to how Callum laughed and spoke with Logan, like he enjoyed it and not only did it because it was polite.
I unlocked the old barn and went straight for my workbench. I sent off a quick text to Charlotte, saying hi and that I loved her. It was earlier there, so she was likely just getting out of school or at gymnastics practice or something.
I picked up the carving of a lion’s head I’d been working on, losing myself in it for who knew how long. Eventually, there was a sound by the door, and I looked up to see Callum standing there.
“Hi.” He looked almost bashful as he said it, his eyes darting away.
“Hey.”
“Can I come in?”
“Of course.”
“Homework is finished. Logan’s out back with Frankie Blue.” He bit his lip, and I wondered what it meant. Was he nervous? Why would he be? But then I’d had no reason to feel jittery when I’d asked him to come over tonight either.
“Thank you for helping. I appreciate it. I should have asked. Shit, I didn’t even think. I’m not trying to push my kid off on you. I feel like I’m always apologizing or thanking you for something where my son is concerned.” I rubbed a hand over my face, which I did when I was nervous or frustrated. All I wanted was to do right by Logan, and I really hoped I was.
“Then maybe you should stop, hmm? If I didn’t want to do it, I wouldn’t. I love kids. Logan is even more awesome than most. Also, I’ve seen you with him, and the last thing I would ever think is that you’re trying to pawn your son off on someone else.” I watched as he walked over to the wall on the right side of the barn. There was a long table there where I had my finished pieces—a boat, an old tree that reminded me of when I was a kid, and a few others. “You did these?” Callum reached out and ran his fingers over the tree, almost in reverence. His nails were painted black, which was a first. Well, for me. I’d never seen him with painted nails before. It struck me suddenly how strong he was, how confident. I hadn’t noticed any other adult men in Havenwood painting their nails or wearing the eye stuff, yet Callum was who he was and didn’t care. It was one of my favorite things about him.
Finally, I replied, “Yeah, I did. Keeps me busy.” I walked over and joined him. “When I was a kid, we had a tree like this behind our property. My dad built a tree house in it. He wasn’t good with words. It was always just the two of us—my mom passed away when I was little—and I knew he loved me, but he was very much the real-men-don’t-talk-about-their-feelings type. Never in a hateful way. If I’d ever tried to talk to him, I knew he would have tried to listen, but he wouldn’t have gotten the why of it, ya know? It didn’t make sense to him.”
“People are nuanced. They’re rarely one thing or another—hateful or good, talkative or not. Your dad probably learned that from his parents, or maybe it’s simply how he was built.”
“Exactly.” Somehow, I knew he’d get it. “Anyway, this tree house. I built it with him. I think I felt closer to my dad than I ever had, when we made it. I felt like I was his equal, if that makes sense. I was one of the guys, and we were building our tree house. Sounds stupid, I’m sure.”
He nudged me with his hip. “No, it doesn’t. Go on.”
“I don’t really know the point of my story. Maybe that I loved building that tree house with my dad.” I paused, thought. “And I guess maybe, when I found out I was having a son, I saw me and Logan doing stuff like that together? And maybe we will. When he first came here, he told me he wanted to work with me in the barn, but now I’m seeing it was more that he felt like he should want to, or maybe to try and prove wrong the kids who teased him. He might want to, or maybe he won’t, and that’s okay too. Again, it’s not like that. I want him to be happy and healthy and comfortable in his skin, but…I want him to always feel as comfortable with me as I did when I built that tree house with my dad. I want to bond with him over something that’s just ours, more than it being a certain kind of activity. We have the model planes, but that’s it. I don’t want him to look back and only have one memory like that, the way I do.”