she couldn’t have anyone new. All her relationships seemed really casual. I don’t know if they were or if that was the front she was projecting for me and Pete. They were all nice, but no one guy was on the scene long enough for me to get attached.”
“Until Fred.”
Erik rested his hands on the end of the shovel and set his chin on top. “Right away I sensed Fred was different. I liked him and I liked how he treated Mom. I remember playing basketball in the driveway with him one day and it was fun and relaxed. And I kind of exhaled and thought, This guy is different. I got a good feeling about him.”
“I wonder if your mother was waiting for that moment. Waiting for your permission. Kind of like you felt Fred was waiting for yours.”
But Erik had lost his train of thought while looking at her. Her eyes were brilliant turquoise. Her cheeks were pink with fresh air and bits of leaf matter were stuck in her hair. He reached and picked them out, the moment vibrating in his bones.
“I got a good feeling about you,” he said.
The Kaegers closed on the house next door. Two more Adirondack chairs appeared at the end of Barbegazi’s dock. Jack and Sara ran back and forth freely between the yards, repeatedly slamming the pergola gate at the center of Barbegazi’s wooden fence.
“That fence is infested with something,” Daisy said. “I don’t know if termites or carpenter ants, but every time the gate slams, you see a cloud of sawdust.”
“The fence is fine,” Erik said. “Whoever built the pergola didn’t know what they were doing. It needs to be replaced.”
“Well, get on it,” Will said. “You’re diminishing my property value.”
Erik flipped him off. “Get on this, asshole.”
Not a week later, Jack came tearing through the fence, letting the gate crash closed behind him. The pergola teetered back and forth before majestically toppling to its death. Luckily Erik was right there, cutting back the rose bushes. He yanked Jack out of the way, sending the two of them into a rolling pile just before the pergola hit the ground and disintegrated in a rubble of wood.
For a minute, neither of them said anything, lying on the grass breathing hard. Looking at the mess then at each other. Jack’s eyes were doubled in size and he appeared on the verge of running for his life.
“You all right?” Erik said.
Jack nodded slowly.
“I think we best keep this our little secret.”
Jack nodded harder. They got up, brushed off, and surveyed the mess.
“Well, that saves me the trouble of knocking it down,” Erik said, kicking at the structure.
“What will you do?” Jack said.
“I’ll build another one.”
“You know how?”
“Sure.” He went to the garage to get the wheelbarrow, not looking to see if Jack was following. He rolled back and started chucking the broken-up wood into the well. Jack reached for a piece.
“Ah ah,” Erik said. “You’ll get splinters. Go get your gloves.”
Daisy had bought Jack and Sara little garden kits, including kid-sized gloves. Jack fetched his and helped Erik pick up every piece.
“Thanks for the help,” Erik said, checking his watch. “Now I have just enough time to run out to Home Depot. See if I can get another kit.”
He walked off, pushing the barrow, again not looking back. Hardly six steps when he heard the voice behind him, along with the sound of a tiny nut cracking.
“Can I come with you?”
Erik smiled over his shoulder. “Go ask your mother.”
He built the new pergola during his next two days off. At first Jack just watched. But soon he was measuring and marking, holding and bracing. Erik tightened the straps on his extra pair of safety goggles until they fit the boy’s head. Then he coached Jack with the Makita drill, keeping his hands on top. Jack flinched at the sound and the vibration only a few times before he was confidently sinking the screws.
“Let me do it alone,” he said.
“Nope,” Erik said. “Not until you’re ten. That was my dad’s rule.”
“Where’s your dad?”
Erik paused. “He went away.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
The screw dropped on the ground as Jack looked back over his shoulder. “He went to forever? Like my pépère?”
“Kind of.”
“Were you sad?”
Erik nodded.
Jack looked down. He picked up the screw and set it carefully against the drill bit. They went back to work.
Jack stayed all day. As the sun slipped behind the trees, a rich garlicky smell drifted out of the house, beckoning.
“I made spaghetti