Page 57 of The Deadbeat Next Door

“We weren’t even…That was before the fake fiancé stuff. I’m pretty sure he didn’t even like me.”

“What he did proves he likes you, even if he didn’t admit it to himself. Noah didn’t do any of that. My tears were a nuisance, not something that bothered him on a compassionate or empathetic level.”

“Maybe tears make him uncomfortable, and he didn’t know how to react.”

She pointed a slim, well-manicured finger at me. “I had the same thought. So I upped the ante. I told him I was crying because my heart was broken by my stupid boyfriend, who I’d caught in bed with another woman.”

“What did he do?”

“He told me I was better off without the idiot and went back to his office to work, just like he does every single day.”

“Wow. I thought you said he’s your best friend. Even a good friend would do more than that.”

She looked at Noah who was smiling at a story May was telling. “He had my favorite sushi delivered. Our relationship has never been one of effusive emotion. He’s a reserved man. Just watch him.”

So, I watched. I watched the siblings talk and laugh and tease each other and Aubrey was right, a very definite dynamic did reveal itself. Noah, the tall, lean, dark-haired one with glasses and a firm, harsh stroke of a mouth on an otherwise handsome face, held himself back from the others, not quite aloof, but more watchful, offering input only when asked. The next oldest, Jill, had a sad look in her eyes, but she smiled fondly at her family. She was the shortest of the Reynolds siblings, probably about my height, and the only one with blond hair and pale skin. She seemed to be the one the others looked to for approval or advice, even though she was their sister. There was just something innately maternal about her. Jenna, the college professor, was calm and cool like her older siblings, but that seemed more her nature than a purposeful restraint. She had to be five-ten and was rail-thin, with thick, dark hair that fell midway down her back. Her eyes danced with constant amusement and she was the first to laugh when anyone made a joke. Her own jokes fell flat, but she found herself infinitely amusing. Next was Cody and he acted differently than I’d ever seen him before. He was a goofball, making the others laugh with tales of his failures and faults. The others played along and wondered how he survived from day to day with a sincere astonishment that pissed me off. How did they not see how bright and capable he was? I might not have seen him go to a job every day, but I’d seen him doing research and making plans for his vineyards, cooking a good meal every night, doing repairs around the house even though it was just a rental, and chatting with the neighbors like they were family.

Jared didn’t stop smiling the whole night. Aubrey told me he loved having his family together. He was just shy of Cody’s height and could have been his twin, except for the extra laugh lines around Cody’s eyes. May was the youngest and she was a stunner in bright colors. Where the other girls in her family were model-thin, she was curvy and voluptuous, her thick brown hair framing a face that would have been at home on an angel, even as the devil sparkled in her brown eyes. The others seemed to cater to her every whim, telling her at turns how capable and smart she was and how lucky she was to have her curves and good fashion sense. As Aubrey had said, everyone had their box and some of Cody’s words, about being a fuck-up, made more sense. He hadn’t just blown one big deal, he’d been treated as a goofball and a ne’er-do-well by his family for a long time.

My own observations were augmented by stories Aubrey told me about all the kids. According to her, Noah was the most astute and reliable, Jill was the hardest worker, Jenna was the smartest, Jared had the biggest heart and a love of animals that exceeded his love of people, and May had made a career of never settling on a career and avoiding failure and negativity all together. Of Cody, she said that his goofball routine was something she suspected he’d started as a kid to distract the others from their parents’ fights and their financial struggles. A coping mechanism he’d wrongly accepted as a truth about himself.

Shortly after we joined the group on the patio, the matriarch of the family emerged. She sat next to Noah and teased her family with love and understanding. She argued that Cody wasn’t a goofball and May was capable of great things. She suggested Noah needed to loosen up and Jill needed to stop hiding from life. She told Jenna she should stop turning down every date offered and Jared that being a good person meant sometimes you couldn’t save everyone. She glowed in the center of her family’s love and affection.

Cody waved me over and I went, aiming for the vacant chair next to him. He grabbed my waist before I got there and pulled me onto his lap, his arms tight around me. The conversation around us stilled and Mrs. Reynolds’ eyebrows went high. “I thought this relationship was pretend?”

Cody froze beneath me and his arms loosened. He forced a laugh. “I guess we’ve just gotten so used to pretending, that I’d forgotten we don’t have to do that here.”

I stood and moved to the seat next to him. He drained his beer in two swallows and stood. “I’m getting another, anyone else want one?”

“I think you’ve all had enough,” Mrs. Reynolds said. “I will honestly never understand why this is the tradition that stuck with you six.”

“Because we get along so much better when we’re less sober,” Cody said. He raised the bottle high. “Anyone else?”

Three hands went up. Cody swayed on his feet as he pointed at each and turned to make the ten step walk to the cooler.

“So, Carrie,” Jared said, his smile firmly in place. “How’d you have the bad luck of getting pulled into one of Code Red’s messes?”

He might be smiling, but his tone was a bit snide and I didn’t like it. I didn’t like that Cody’s own family seemed to have fun at his expense. “Actually,” I said. “It was the other way around. I got into a mess and Cody helped me out.”

Cody passed the beers out and sat next to me. “It was a matter of mutual messes amazingly well-timed to correspond,” Cody said. “And the only reason we’re still pretending is because I’m trying to demonstrate how invested I am in the town to convince Bart Gregory to sell me his property.”

“You never did learn how to negotiate a deal the normal way, did you?” Noah asked, his tone teasing.

“You two must be incredibly well-suited with your matching messes,” Jenna said.

Cody frowned and his fist tightened on his beer bottle. “Carrie is nothing like me. She’s a wonderful teacher and well-respected in the town. She has a history of successes, not a history of fuck-ups.”

“Cody,” Jill said. “We’re all just teasing. You know we think you’re brilliant and talented. You can coax a grape crop from dust.”

I was almost certain Cody didn’t know they were just teasing and, judging by the expression on his face, he didn’t believe a word Jill said. “You kids have always been too harsh with each other,” Mrs. Reynolds said. “You take after your father that way, and I didn’t step in as often as I should have. But I say enough is enough. Family is supposed to support one another.”

Cody drained his beer while she spoke and stood. This time he didn’t ask anyone else if they wanted one, he just went to the cooler and got another. I didn’t have a big family, but it didn’t seem right that they needed to drink like this to be around one another. Although, everyone else seemed relatively sober compared to Cody. “We support each other,” Jill said. “But teasing is how we show love.”

Mrs. Reynolds sighed. “I know. Just be careful not to take it too far. Don’t get personal.”

“If we have to be nice to each other,” May said. “Let’s play truth or dare.”

“And that’s my cue to leave.” Mrs. Reynolds stood, kissed each of us, even me, good night, and headed inside.

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