RECENTLY, THERE’D BEEN a lot of times when he had to remind himself they were going to be fine. That all would pass, and they could still have the future he had always thought they’d have.
Drake closed the refrigerator door and turned to look over at Sheri where she sat at the table. Patrick, sitting opposite, turned to look at Drake. “The lettuce,” Sheri said. “There’s a big plate in there with the cut tomatoes.”
“Right,” Drake said. He turned back to the refrigerator and opened the door. There it was, on the middle shelf. He reached in and brought it up and set it on the counter. It had happened again, he’d drifted, found himself just staring into space. The same thing had happened that morning, looking over the deer carcass, the cell phone in his hand and—for only a moment—no idea at all what to do.
He looked back at the table. Grilled hamburger patties, buns, a jar of pickles, potato chips, and all the condiments set out. Drake closed the door and brought the plate of lettuce and tomatoes around the counter and out into the dining room. Sheri trying to answer a question about her hometown, where her folks were from. Patrick leaning into the table with his forearms, his shoulders pushed forward as he listened. Drake set the plate down and asked, “Anyone want a beer?”
Sheri said she’d have one and when Patrick wanted one too, Drake went back to the kitchen and found three on the bottom shelf.
Everything with Sheri and Drake was in the open now. Sheri had come home after her lunch shift and met Patrick. Then she’d gone into the bathroom to take a shower as Drake unloaded the groceries Sheri had brought.
It was just before dinner when they were all outside by the grill at the bottom of the back stairs that Patrick brought up the changes to the house. The pictures and furniture. The way the house looked new to him. How well they’d taken care of it, painting the outside and updating the bathroom. Patrick and Sheri sitting on the stairs while Drake stood a few feet apart, spatula in hand as the burger meat spat and hissed on the grill. “It never looked this good when Bobby was growing up here.” He gave Drake a quick glance before continuing. “I noticed the things you got for the second bedroom.”
Sheri looked away toward the orchard and then turned back.
Patrick glanced at Drake again, almost asking permission. “Bobby told me about the baby. I wanted to say I’m sorry about what happened.”
Sheri took a moment. “Thanks,” she said. “We never told anyone about it and so when we lost it we didn’t feel like we had anyone to talk with.”
“I’ve felt the same way,” Patrick said. With his fingers he worked a splinter up from the stair on which he sat and then flipped it away. “Bobby’s mom and I tried for a while after Bobby started school here in Silver Lake, but with her getting sick we lost a couple pregnancies and then just figured we’d wait till she got better.”
Drake was staring at his father. He’d never heard his father say anything like that to anyone. He’d never heard the man talk about anything personal, really. It was only when the burgers started to flame that he remembered they were there at all.
“They say it’s common,” Sheri said. “That’s what they told us at least. They said it’s just one of those things.”
Drake flipped a few more burgers and let them cook. When they were finished he asked for a plate and waited while Sheri went inside to get one.
Now he stood looking into the refrigerator again, the beers suspended between his fingers. He closed the door and walked back to the dining room table. His father there with his wife, and Patrick telling Sheri about the day they’d had. Talking about how nice it was to sit at a table and have a burger, to drink a beer, to not have every day repeat itself like every day before.
“Did Bobby tell you about the wolf?” Patrick asked, taking the beer in his hand and twisting the top off. He didn’t wait for Sheri to answer before going on. “First in the valley in fifty years.” He was smiling now and for a moment he looked at Drake and then looked back to Sheri. “I bet he didn’t tell you about the new Fish and Wildlife officer, either.”
“HOW MANY DAYS will you be out?” Sheri asked.
Drake sat on the edge of their bed and slid one boot off, followed by the other. “Two to three, depending on how it goes.” He looked back at Sheri. She was a few years younger than him, wrinkles just beginning to show around her eyes when she smiled.
They had met at the Chelan County Fair a couple years after Drake moved back to Silver Lake. Drake off for the weekend with one of the other deputies. Sheri with her friends, walking around the fairgrounds looking over the various prizes. The whole time Drake trying to catch her eye and missing every time. Watching her until he’d finally worked up the nerve to talk to her.
Now, turned on the bed, he looked back at her and thought over all the time that had passed in between. Sheri was already under the covers with her head resting on a pillow against the headboard. “The Fish and Wildlife officer wants me to take along my father.”
Sheri turned in bed and moved her feet beneath the covers, digging one of her toes into Drake’s side. “You mean the cute Fish and Wildlife officer that you didn’t tell me about?”
Drake watched his wife for a second as he tried to decide whether she was playing with him, or if this conversation held any hidden pitfalls. He moved a hand down and caught her foot, pressing his thumb into the arch. She made a small animal sound. Her body curling up as she brought her other foot from beneath the covers and placed it on his lap.
“This how you passed the time last night?” Sheri said. “When you were out late on your stakeout?”
Drake screwed his face up, trying to look disgusted. He finished the massage on the first foot and started in on the other. “On Ellie? No,” Drake said. “She’s got horrible corns and the calluses on her soles cut my hands any time I try.” Drake smiled back at his wife and Sheri dug her free foot into his side again, this time with a little more force, almost pushing him over.
“So she wants you to take your father along?” Sheri said.
Drake finished with the massage. “I haven’t told him. I don’t know if it’s the best idea. Going along with us so soon after getting out.” Drake pulled his T-shirt over his head and threw it to the corner of the room near a wicker hamper. “Seems like he’s able to charm everybody except me.”
“Pat has been perfectly fine,” Sheri said, and Drake knew he had. Over dinner Patrick had asked Sheri questions about herself, where she worked. What she did at the Buck Blind, waitress or bartend. Who she knew in the valley. He complimented her on the garden out back and the line of time-warped mason jars she’d collected over the sink window. After dinner producing a gift from his little cardboard box of possessions, a whittled horse figurine he’d done for her in the prison shop. Sheri leaned in to kiss his cheek, and afterward asked, “How is it being back here in this house?”
“Strange,” he said. “But in a good way. Everything is the same and everything is different. You know what I mean?”
Drake was leaning against the counter between the kitchen and dining area finishing his beer when Patrick looked away from Sheri, fixing Drake for a moment before going on. “Just strange, that’s all.” He looked back to Sheri and said, “It feels like I closed my eyes for a moment and then opened them again and twelve years passed.” He shook his head, thanked Sheri and nodded to Drake, and said good night to them both.