Page 51 of Exposed

***

Jacob was surprisingly good at throwing and catching the football. There wasn’t a ton of room back here to do more than play catch. But this seemed to be what Jacob wanted to do anyway.

I stepped back when he tossed me another throw and almost ran into the huge clay pot Brooklyn had been trying to move. “Where did you want this?” I asked and picked up the pot.

Brooklyn pointed to the corner she’d been trying to drag it to.

I set it down.

“Thank you.”

I looked over at the planters she’d removed the tree from. “So you like to garden?” I asked. It seemed like the wrong season for tomatoes. Weren’t they going to die soon?

“Yeah. I think it’s my equivalent to your painting. I find it very relaxing.”

“These are baby Henry’s,” Jacob said and pointed to the tomato plant.

“Henry’s?” I asked.

“They’re all named Henry,” Jacob said. “But this one is a baby. Because he’s little.”

Brooklyn cleared her throat. “I know it’s silly. But I was really bad at growing things. And when I got better, I started naming them. They’re all descendants of my original Henry plant.”

“Really?” I laughed.What are the odds?

“Don’t laugh at me.”

“I wasn’t laughing because of that. I just…there’s this kid at Empire High. Henry Jefferson. A scholarship student I kind of took under my wing. I wanted to help him fit in.” I shrugged. “We both had Henry projects. What are the odds of that?”

She shook her head.

It was like we were on the same wavelength, even though we were apart.

“I’m hungry,” Jacob said. “Cuppycakes.”

I looked down at my watch. “For dinner? How about I order pizza or something?”

“Mommy and Abuelo let me eat cuppycakes for dinner.”

Well, I wasn’t going to argue with that. “Trying some of these famous baked goods sounds perfect to me.”

Brooklyn elbowed me in my side as she picked Jacob up. Jacob had put on a pair of shorts. But he’d refused the shoes. I followed her into the kitchen. She plopped Jacob on the kitchen counter with his feet dangling in the sink. He kicked his feet as she cleaned them with soap and water. Then she washed his hands too before depositing him on the granite island.

He sat right there in the middle like it was where he always sat.

And I kind of loved that he was a little barbarian. He’d abandoned his hat before we’d played outside. His hair was darker than Brooklyn’s and I wondered if it was the same color as Miller’s. I couldn’t remember what Miller looked like. I just remembered that he was a big guy. It was easiest to picture him pushing Brooklyn into a car after her uncle’s funeral.

But that’s not the Miller that Brooklyn knew. I tried to push away what I knew about him. “What do you usually do on Sundays?” I asked.

Jacob looked up at me. “Football.”

“We usually play football outside in the morning,” Brooklyn said as she put icing on a cupcake. “And then catch the game in the afternoon.”

“Who do you root for?” I asked him.

“My dad and I like the Giants.”

Yeah, I was going to get along with Jacob just fine. “Me too.”

---