He Stood Me Up, so I Married His Brother novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: First Roof on Bolton Street

Thatcher didn't say anything for a second.

Then he started to laugh, low, with his head down.

"Twenty-eight," he said.

"That's my condition."

"I'll be standing right next to you. I won't even be able to call it."

"Somebody will. And you'll be there when they do."

He lifted my hand with the plastic ring and kissed the back of it, right there on the tailgate.

"Deal," he said.

Monday at seven, we started on my aunt's roof.

The first house on the city's list. The first of sixty.

The back half had held through the storm. Now it was the front half and the kitchen corner, where the soup pot had been.

Half of Bolton Street came out in lawn chairs to watch. The deacon brought a thermos.

My aunt sat on her front walk in a folding chair in her church coat.

"Don't drop anything on my azaleas," she called up.

"Yes, ma'am," said six roofers at once.

Tammy ran the tear-off. Crosby had shown up anyway, though it wasn't Saturday, in brand new work boots that squeaked.

He hauled old shingles to the dumpster all morning. He fell down once. He got back up.

"He's getting better," the new kid said.

"He's getting less bad," Tammy said. "Different thing."

The old decking came up in pieces. Thatcher and I stood over the open rafters and looked down into my aunt's kitchen.

Her soup pot was still on the counter.

"It's going to be a good roof," he said.

"It's going to be the best roof on the east side."

"That's a lot of pressure for a little house."

"She can take it."

By noon the plywood was down. Real plywood, the kind Lorene had crossed out.

I loaded the first strip of ring-shank nails into my gun and handed it to him.

"First nail on the city's dime," I said. "Builder of record."

He shook his head and handed it back.

"Your street," he said. "Your aunt. Your nail."

So we both put a hand on it.

The gun popped once. The nail went in flush.

Down on the walk, my aunt clapped. Then the whole street clapped, from their lawn chairs.

We laid shingles until the light went.

The last course went on at the ridge with the two of us on our knees, side by side, his shoulder against mine.

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