Free Ten (My Brothers Best Friend) by Ker Dukey Page B

don’t, I know my uncle will.

I t’s been a week. I miss DJ like crazy but I won’t need to be here for much longer. I grab the last box and take it out to my car. It’s the final bits for Goodwill; everything else has been cleared. I saved my own room for last. It was therapeutic getting rid of all the stuff that now feels like a lie. Pictures, gifts, and diaries I’d written from the age of fourteen until I was sixteen. I sat unmoving for a full day when I found the passage of mine and Dalton’s first time together, and then finding out I was pregnant. I didn’t even get time to tell him. I lost so much on the day he went away. My Dad, Jonah, and him.
    The bottom of the box I’m holding gives way and the contents spills free. Damn it.
    “Hey, let me help you.”
    I turn to see the guy from the bakery. I guess he’s the neighbor now, until I’m finished here, that is. “You were standing there just staring into space.” He smiles.
    Shrugging, I bend down to help him pick up the contents of the box.
    “I was in a different world.”
    “One better than here?”
    A sigh leaves my lips. “No, not really.”
    His giant palm comes to rest on my shoulder. “Are you okay? You can always come over if you want to talk, or if you need me to help you in any way. Is someone harassing you?” His eyebrows pinch together.
    “No, I’m fine, honestly. I just lost my Dad and this is his place. I’m just sorting through everything and it comes with lots of memories.”
    He’s sweet and I have no doubt he would help me if I needed it; I think he’s lonely. I’ve seen the walk of shame happen every day since the first day I saw him living across the street. It’s not just women either. I saw a young guy kissing him goodbye on the porch in the early hours of the morning when I couldn’t sleep.
    “Is this for you?” he asks, pointing to a removal truck.
    “Yeah, it’s for the furniture to go to Goodwill.” I smile.
    “Hey, ma’am. What do we take?” a guy asks, jumping from the truck.
    “Everything,” I tell him, and hand him the keys. “I’ll be back in a couple of hours.” I close the trunk of my car. “Thanks for helping me out…?”
    “Six.”
    Six ? What’s with the number thing?
    “I’m Alex.”
    “Alex.” He repeats my name and shakes his head. “Of course you are.”
    “What does that mean?”
    “Nothing. You have a good day, okay?”
    He doesn’t wait for an answer. Instead, he turns and jogs back to his house.

    I pull up at the restaurant and straighten my dress, I haven’t seen Dad’s deputy in ten years, Jimmy was Dad’s best friend and had known us since we were in the womb. He asked me to meet him here when he learned I was in town and I was looking forward to seeing a friendly face.
    He welcomes me with a broad smile and a warm hug. He hasn’t aged at all in the years I haven’t seen him. His light brown hair with flecks of grey scattered through is still thick and long, the laughter lines around his eyes bring the familiarity of knowing him ten years ago. “How are you darling?” He asks holding out a chair for me to sit in. “I’ve been better.” I laugh but it’s more with nerves than humor. I feel weird being here, I’m not the same girl that he remembers.
    “I’m sorry about your Dad, he was a good man and will be missed.”
    I swallow down the lump in my throat. “We’re holding a service for him tomorrow, we didn’t know you were coming here so we went ahead and organized things.” He rests his hand on top of mine. “I hope that’s ok?” I nod my head and swipe at the tear falling from my eye. “That’s lovely, it feels right that you should get your goodbye.”
    The waitress comes over to take our order and we spend the next two hours talking about Dad and he catches me up on his family. I leave there feeling lighter and almost more at home here.

I’ m staring at Lisa who’s stomping up and down my office and I’m about to toss her through the