Page 9 of Love It or List It
Joe wasn’t going to dropI was a lonely only child and so were three of themon a guy he just met.“Meg’s a good kid, and I was kind of like a big brother after a while.”He pulled open a cupboard and started sorting, needing to keep his hands busy.“Which is around the time that I noticed the total lack of adult supervision happening in their lives.Meg’s parents are good people but busy.The other three….”Gavin’s parents had a messy divorce and made it their seven-year-old’s problem, Alex’s mom didn’t get sober until two years ago, and Will’s family believes in conversion therapy.Joe cleared his throat.The kids would be back any second.Now was not the time to vent his true feelings on the matter.“Let’s just say there is a reason I tell them to eat their vegetables.”
“Got it.”
He didn’t—he couldn’t.But if they were going to be spending time together while they cleaned out this house and got it ready to sell, then he would eventually.The kids would be around.Alex, Gavin, and Will would be here as much as Joe let them.They didn’t really have anywhere else to go.
The kids came bounding back inside, damp, Gavin and Meg in the lead—Meg because she clearly felt some ownership over the house and the adventure, and Gavin because he was always in the lead.
Will and Alex followed more slowly.Now that the initial reaction was over, they held back to better assess Austin.Will measured him up with curious brown eyes.Joe wasn’t sure what Will looked for or saw, but he always read people right.After the time Will started refusing to go to the local Mac’s Milk and then the cashier got arrested for child porn, Joe trusted Will’s gut.
Alex sucked their bottom lip, playing with their lip ring, then tossed their head to get their hair out of their eyes.Three months ago, Alex had disappeared one Saturday afternoon to return with half their head shaved and the rest of their blond hair dyed purple.It was blue now, but they’d kept up the undercut.
“Okay, so I’ve prepared a list of questions,” Gavin announced, because no amount of ADHD medication could curb his curiosity or dampen his energy.
“Shut up,” Meg cut in, elbowing Gavin in the gut.He wheezed and whined about her pointy elbows.“Me first.”
Meg held her hand out to Austin, who stripped off his right work glove and took her hand.“Meg Mitchell.DeeDee was my grandmother.Why did she leave you her house?”
“Meg,” Joe groaned.Meg might not yet qualify for adulthood, but she was old enough to have some tact.
“What?I want to know!Don’t you want to know?Four months looking for him.I’m dying to hear the story.”Meg settled her hands on her hips.It might have looked silly on another young woman, but on Meg it highlighted the breadth of her shoulders and the muscles in her arms.
“You could at least let the man introduce himself before you start the interrogation.”
“Why?He’s clearly Austin Taylor, the guy who owns the other half of this house.”
“How does that work, anyway?Do you divide the house up front to back, or top to bottom?”Gavin wondered.
“They’re not going to saw it in half and take it home, Gav.”Alex rolled their eyes.“It’s not a danish.”
“But, like, what if they both want to live here?”Gavin turned to Alex.
“Why would they want to livehere?”Alex shot back, somehow managing to encompass all of the many reasons cohabitation—or, in fact, any habitation—in this house at this time was a terrible idea.
Austin’s lips quirked.“There wasn’t a letter,” he said, addressing Meg.“So I don’t know.I fixed her lawn mower once and she kept inviting me to lunch on Sundays.I came.Which, uh—” He glanced around at them, his half-smile twisting into a slight grimace.“—I probably would not have done if I’d ever seen the kitchen.”
For a moment Meg evaluated him.“So you were, like, friends.Cool.”
Joe was just glad they were paying attention to each other and not him, because now he was remembering all DeeDee’s too-casual invitations and developing a sudden humiliating suspicion why she’d left him half a house.
She never had taken to Paul.
“Hellspawn, introductions go two ways, you know,” Joe put in when he’d schooled his features.“Austin, as mentioned, this is Meg Mitchell, DeeDee’s granddaughter.”
Meg shook back chlorine-streaked damp hair and smiled.“Hi.”
“And this is Gavin Chalmers.Don’t let those baby blues fool you, he’s the ringleader even if Meg’s the brains of the operation.”
“I resemble that remark,” Gavin said and ripped off a salute.
“This one’s Will”—Joe indicated his skinny twink-wannabe son in his hand-me-down jeans and flannel—“and finally Alex, the light of my life, the child of my heart, the fruit of my loom—”
“Blessed be the Fruit,” the four of them intoned.
Alex added, “My pronouns are they/them.”
Joe loved them all so fucking much.
Austin said, “Nice to meet you,” and looked back and forth between them like he expected one of them to explode.
