Page 36 of The Moment They Can Never Forgive
More locals arrived, and Sawyer and Brody seemed to have taken over as project managers and put everyone to work.
Humbled, raw, and unsure how to process what was happening when for the past seven years, it had been her and Cassie, Leah went into the house.
“Leah!”
She turned on the front step and found Ryder walking toward her with a huge box.
“Here’s some food for the workers.” He handed it to her. “We’re doing this because we want to. Because you and Hudson are important to us. Don’t get all bent out of shape, okay?”
She nodded and then headed inside. After setting the box down, she went to the drawer where her mother’s cookbooks were kept and got one out.
If these people were here helping her, she’d damn well give them something she’d made to eat. Leah had to offer her thanks in some way, no matter how small. It was a matter of pride, which at the moment was shredded at her feet.
After finding a recipe that was simply titledChocolate Chip Cookies, she opened her cupboards. Leah had bought baking supplies because she’d planned to use them…so far, she hadn’t.
With Hudson’s help, all she’d mastered was cutting up a roll of dough Leah had bought and putting cookies on a baking sheet.
Forcing down the panic that was clawing its way to the surface, she read through the recipe.
When the back door opened ten minutes later, she was still trying to find the baking powder, which she didn’t think she’d bought but wasn’t sure, as Leah had never used it before. It was like reading a foreign language and one she’d never ever mastered. She’d lived her life trying to rise above her birth. Be better, and do better, but even cookies were too much for her to manage. What hope was there Leah would work out how to raise a kid?
Chapter 11
“Even after seven years of neglect, I can tell not much was done by way of maintenance when Chuck Reynolds was here,” Brody said to Dan.
“Yeah, the man was an asshole.”
“Did you spend much time here when you and Leah were a thing?”
“Thing?” Dan looked around him. The land was overgrown and needed to be grazed, but before that, the fences would have to be checked.
He and Brody were fixing the hole in the roof Hudson had told them about. They’d found two more. All around them family and friends were doing things. JD had brought his garden tractor and was cropping the lawn around the house. Sawyer and Ryder were working on the shade house.
“I’ve got this now. Go inside and see if any of the internal roofing needs fixing. Plus, check walls and floorboards, Dan.”
“Okay.”
“Tell me when the coffee is ready.”
“Will do.”
Looking for Leah, he didn’t see her anywhere out here, but Dan found Hudson looking at a tree that was close to the house. In fact, Dan knew it was the tree that Leah had often used to climb up to her room to avoid her father.
“Hey, Hudson. How are you doing?”
The boy looked at him through those solemn eyes that were just like his mom’s.
“What are you looking at?” Dan asked, crouching down beside the boy.
“Ally said she has a tree house, and that’s her space.”
“Kind of like a bedroom but up high where no adult can tell you to clean it?” Dan asked.
Hudson gave another solemn nod.
“And you think this tree could be a good place for a tree house?”
He turned to look fully up at Dan. He wasn’t big, like some kids he knew, and didn’t make a lot of noise like Ally. Maybe his mom’s death had changed him?
