“Another nice night,” she said after a moment.
“Yep.” Jake stretched out his right leg and placed his left foot on the bottom step, resting his forearm over his knee. Looking completely comfortable like he sat on stoops and drank water with girls every day, he stared across the small space at the next trailer over. It was white like hers, maybe more rust stains. A stack of pizza boxes near the door looked ready to topple over onto several empty cases of beer.
“The yard is low maintenance,” she joked, her eyes on the sandy, gravelly, grassy mix at the bottom of the steps.
“That’s good. No big lawn to keep up with. And your neighbors are nice and close if you need a cup of sugar.”
Paige laughed and coughed on the water she’d just started to swallow. “I don’t think Bumper there gives out sugar.”
Jake laughed with her. “Okay. Maybe not.”
They spent another minute listening to the night bugs and a dog barking a few rows over. “I wouldn’t mind a lawn to keep up with, though. A little house with a porch Casey and I could plant flowers around. Of course we could plant flowers here, I guess.” But it wouldn’t be the same. She wanted a place she called home that was her own.
He looked at her thoughtfully. “Is that why you work so hard?”
“Yes. And I don’t want Casey to ever have to worry about…things I worried about.”
“Like what?”
“Like pissed-off, unpaid landlords for one thing.”
“Did that happen a lot?”
There was no pity in his tone, which she appreciated. “No. Some. It was more the fear of it.” She thought for a second how to describe what it had been like and how much to tell him. “My mom was more the fun, dance-around-in-your-underwear kind of mom than the responsible, pay-the-rent kind,” she said lightly. “She did her best.”
“And your dad?”
“I met him once on my seventh birthday. He didn’t know it was my birthday. He was there asking my mom for money, which didn’t go over well since I think he was supposed to be bringing money to her.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah.” She shrugged it off. “It’s fine. It was a long time ago. You can’t miss what you never had, right?” She hoped that was true. For Casey’s sake.
He searched her eyes for several beats, his own quiet and reflective.
“I’ve been thinking about Casey’s prosthesis situation,” Jake said after another moment. “And I think I should make her a new one. Not just make her one, but let her help me make it so she’d be excited about it.”
“Be one with her prosthesis?”
He smiled. “Exactly. I don’t pretend to know the mind of a five-year-old girl—”
“You do pretty well.”
His mouth curved slightly at the compliment. “I know you can go to Shriners, but I think I could make a better one. I know I could. And the turnaround time would be fast.”
Paige stared at him a second, taking in what he was offering. “That would be incredible. But I know it’s expensive, not to mention the time.”
“Paige. Please. I’ll put my guys on it. It’ll be a nice break for them. I can let Casey look at some material catalogs. She’ll have plenty of color and pattern choices to do whatever she wants.”
“That could be dangerous,” she said, thinking of what her daughter might dream up. He met her smile and she gave in with a sigh. “You know I can’t say no to that.”
“No,” he said. “You can’t.”
“Thank you. And thank you for today, too. I don’t know if I said that.”
“You did. About five times and you’re welcome. It was fun. I got a whistle and everything.”
He grinned, which was enough to make a woman stupid, then took a sip of water, and she tried not to stare at his throat. “So, um…was it always your dream to move to California? Open a major cutting-edge company?”
“No,” he said with a small laugh. “I never had such aspirations. The only thing I ever dreamed of was playing football.”
“Did you play at CalTech?”
“No. I played at the University of South Carolina. Thought I’d play four years of college, maybe even go pro.” He paused and studied the glass in his hand. “That was the dream, anyway. I played one season and then…” His gaze fell to his right leg and her heart hurt. “Then I lost my scholarship.”
He’d lost more than his scholarship. He rubbed his thigh again and she wondered if it was a habit when he thought about all he’d lost. He’d lost his dreams, so had she, but where she’d gained Casey, he’d lost his leg. “I’m sorry. What did you do after that?”
“After that, I moved out west to a rehab facility.”
That surprised her, that he’d needed to move for rehab, and it must have shown on her face.