Dale didn’t say one single word until we were in bed.
The wind was coming hard out of the northwest, the way it does in March. It was rattling the storm windows we hadn’t taken down yet. Dale lay on his back with his hands folded on his chest, staring at the ceiling.
“What are you going to do?” he said.
“I don’t know yet.”
“It’s your folks,” he said. “And it’s your brother. I’m not going to tell you what to do about your own family.”
He turned his head on the pillow and looked at me.
“But it’s my house too, Tam. I put my back into it. Literally. I want you to know I’m not going to give it up quiet.”
“I know you’re not.”
“Whatever you decide, I’m with you. I just want you to know where I stand.”
That’s the most Dale has said in one breath since the night he proposed to me at the Dairy Queen in Sheldon.
I lay awake a long time after he started snoring.
I thought about Cole wetting the bed on an air mattress. Next to a chest freezer full of venison. Waking up wet and cold in a basement that wasn’t his.
I thought about Kenzie, nine years old, crying in my parents’ bathroom with the fan running so her daddy wouldn’t hear her. So she wouldn’t make it harder for him.
I thought about Brody. Twelve. Old enough to understand exactly what was happening. Old enough to be embarrassed about it.
And I thought about this house. The roof. The wiring. The furnace humming downstairs. The notebook in the hutch drawer.
By two o’clock in the morning, I knew two things for certain.
I was not going to let my brother’s three kids go one more month without a real roof over their heads.
And I was not going to sign away the house Dale and I had rebuilt with our own two hands.
Both of those things were true.
I just had to find the door between them.
Around three in the morning, I found it.
It was right over my head.
Ethan Blake is a skilled Creative Content Specialist with a talent for crafting engaging and thought-provoking narratives. With a strong background in storytelling and digital content creation, Ethan brings a unique perspective to his role at TheArchivists, where he curates and produces captivating content for a global audience.
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