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“Because it’s not finished yet,” she defends. I raise my eyebrow, staring at the pieces she tried to piece together.
“Sunshine, it’s upside down.”
She closes her eyes in disbelief. “Come on, I’ll help you.”
She sighs, throwing the shoe she was still holding further down in the grass, muttering something about it being worthless. I wait until she meets my eyes again. “Come.” I hold out my hand as I lower myself to my knees. “I can do it myself,” she says.
“I know you can. But you don’t have to. You have a very capable neighbor now.”
“Is that right?” she teases, cocking her head.
“Absolutely, I don’t like to brag, but I’m pretty good with my hands.” I regret the words the moment they come out of my mouth. “I mean. Uhm,” I stammer, trying to explain I didn’t mean anything sexual. Fuck, I made a similar joke yesterday. I don’t know where it’s coming from, but it’s like my mouth acts on its own.
She interrupts me with a laugh. “I’m sure you’re very capable.” I feel the tips of my ears get red. My mouth opens and closes as I try to find the words.
She palms my shoulder, getting on her knees next to me. “So where do we start?”
I sigh, grateful for the change in conversation. “Okay, so first—”
“Did you sleep last night?” she asks, breaking the silence as she reads the instructions.
I stop hammering, debating if I should lie to her, but decide not to. She deserves better. “Not really.” She frowns at my answer, the manual falling in the grass. “Not at all?”
I shake my head, focusing on the nearly finished chair instead of her eyes.
“Carson, you need to sleep.”
“I know, I know. I just don’t want to disturb my family. They’re all busy.”
Alexis bites her lips in thought, her legs spread out in front of her. “What about work? If you have a night shift, do you sleep then?”
“Yeah, when I get the chance too, but most times I’m too tired to think of what happened. I crash the moment my head meets the pillow.”
“Because you’re not alone. And too tired,” she mutters the words to herself but loud enough for me to hear.
She’s quiet for a minute, deep in thought, sitting on her knees inches away from me.
“Do you have work tonight?”
“No, tomorrow morning.”
“Okay, how about this? You stay at your own house tonight, and then tomorrow you can stay over at my place, and you can try to sleep there. If that works, you can stay at my house until you’re comfortable enough to tell your parents.”
“You don’t have to do that.” She just moved here. I don’t want to saddle her with my sleeping problems and take over her house.
“I want to. I suffered from it for years. I don’t want the same to happen to you. I want to help you with what I can. I may not be able to take the memories away, but I know what you’re going through, and if sleeping on my couch helps you, then you can sleep there as long as you want. I would offer you the guestroom, but I don’t have a bed yet.”
“Sunshine, I can’t let you do that.”
“Well, you have to suck it up, because it’s happening. I’m not gonna stand here and let you turn into a zombie when I can do something about it.”
“Is that right? Is that how you normally get things done?”
“I’m a foster child, remember? If I want something, I gotta fight for it. Now hurry up, I want to sunbathe.” My stomach flutters at the thought of spending a night at her house. She’s so gullible that it makes me angry that people mistreated her kindness for so long.
I grab my hammer. If she’s going to let me spend the night at her house, the least I could do is build her a lounge chair.
Chapter Seven
