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“Crap. What good is a discount if we can’t get the tile in time?”
“Not much. We need the tile before we can proceed with the rest of the bathroom. I’ve dealt with this tile shop before and never had a problem like this. I’m sorry.”
Great. He should have expected problems along the way, but he hadn’t. He’d been too focused on Asher coming home and worrying about how he was dealing with the loss of his leg. Not to mention, how would Asher deal with being out of the army for the first time since he was seventeen years old? He wasn’t doing so great in the hospital, but to be fair, who the hell would be given the circumstances?
“Not your fault. Can we just choose a different tile? One that’s in stock?”
“Yes. We can look online but we’ll probably have to forego the sample if we want it as soon as possible.”
“I don’t care about that. Let’s just pick something. I guarantee you Asher won’t care.” He let Dana use his computer since she hadn’t brought hers outside with her. She called up the website and they picked several out in case there was another problem.
“I’ll go call and see how soon they can deliver.”
“Before you go, are there any other things that are delayed?”
“The hardware for the bathroom sink isn’t in yet, but it should be soon. And the granite for the countertops is here and going in Monday morning.”
“That’s something, I guess. They’ve finished the ramps, at least,” Levi said. “And widening all the doorways. So it looks like the bathroom tile is the holdup. Is that the only problem?”
“At the moment it is. But construction is notorious for running late. Didn’t you have any delays when you remodeled before?”
“I didn’t really notice. It just wasn’t as big of a deal when it was only for me.”
“We’ll get it done, Levi. We might not have everything just like you want it. Obviously, the kitchen won’t be ready. But we can make it livable for Asher.”
“We have to. I can’t fail my brother. Not again.”
*
“What does that mean? You can’t fail your brother again?” Dana asked. She wasn’t aware that Levi had ever failed at anything, other than both of them failing to make their relationship work. But he was dead serious. “Levi?”
He didn’t reply but paced the room. Eventually he came to a halt in front of her. “Sit down. This will take a while.”
She started to sit on the bench but Levi stopped her. “Take my chair.”
“I can sit here.”
“Take the chair. It’s more comfortable. I don’t need one. I’m not sure I can talk about this period, much less sit still while I do it.”
Dana took the seat but she said, “Are you sure you want to talk about this? You don’t sound like you do.”
“Want to? No. Need to? Probably.” He paced over to the window, which had a view of the pool. “I’ve never told you about my parents, have I? And not much about Asher.”
“No. The most you’ve said was the other night when we were talking about movies.”
“Yeah, well, it’s not a pretty story.”
“I…gathered that. There were a lot of things we never talked about. Especially…before.” When they were young and their relationship was new they didn’t feel the need to talk much. Sharing the explosive passion that erupted whenever they were near each other had been enough. Until it wasn’t.
“Asher and I had a shitty childhood. Really shitty. But by the time you and I met I’d put the past behind me. At least, that’s what I told myself. Does anyone ever truly put something like that behind them?
“My mother left when I was nine and Asher was seven. She and my father fought constantly and she never seemed to have any use for her kids, either. So it wasn’t a huge surprise, or loss, frankly. But my father didn’t see it that way.
“He’d always been a heavy drinker but after she left he got totally out of control. He was hardly ever sober. He lost his job and we lived on welfare. He drank most of the money.”
“How did you survive?”
“We scraped by. I’d wait until he was drunk and passed out and steal any money he had left over to buy food. I took odd jobs, things a kid could do. Once they realized what was going on Zack, Travis and Tobi shared food. None of them were well off, but compared to Asher and me they were rich. For one thing, they had decent parents. Not like us.”
