Like Grownups Do by Nathan Roden Read Free Book Online

motor home and laid it on the floor in front of the fireplace. Joe snored softly, lying on his back on the pillow with his paws in the air.
     
    Babe brought a pitcher of water from the kitchen and split it among the three house plants he was trying to keep alive. He returned from another trip to the kitchen and handed Robbie a cup of cocoa.
    “This room is new. You must be doing really well at that ‘mystery’ business of yours,” Robbie said.
    “This was Jack’s house warming gift,” Babe said.
    “A week after we moved in he called and said he was coming over. He pulled up thirty minutes later followed by a Hummer and three gigantic pickup trucks. He introduced us to these four guys and they spent the next two hours walking around, talking, and pointing. A month later this room was finished, along with the gardening shed and the little greenhouse out back.”
     
    “I never told you, Dad, but I really can’t afford this place. Jamaica Plain was always Jill’s favorite, and we were out here all the time. She bought bicycles one Christmas and the first time we left the condo I knew where we were going. She always had plants and flowers in our first apartment, and then the condo, but I used to find her looking around outside for more space. It always made me sad. So what was I going to wait for? She was getting sicker all the time.”
    “Well, for what it’s worth,” Robbie said. “I think you did the right thing.”
    He paused.
    “Are you going to stay here?”
    Babe exhaled slowly.
    “I really want to. This is Jill’s home. It feels like…it feels like she’s still here—in this room, in the yard, and the garden. Does that sound stupid?”
    “Of course not.”
    “The HOA dues are going up, and last year my property taxes went up ten percent probably because of this room. The agent I used to buy the place has called a few times because she has buyers asking about it. She’s always telling me ‘Mr. Babelton, we can make you a nice profit on your property.’ But this is not ‘my property’. This is Jill’s home. And this is Jill’s room that opens into Jill’s garden. I don’t want to leave.”
    “Don’t leave, Joshua. If you need any help you let me know, immediately. I mean that, son.”
     
    “You do okay, then, right? With money, I mean,” Babe asked.
    “Yeah. Full disability just turned over into full retirement, and I don’t have a lot of overhead. I was going to stay in the house but the winters were killing me. Some days I couldn’t get out of bed at all. I’ve gotten used to this gypsy living, now. I don’t think I could go back.”
    Babe nodded. “Did you talk to mom while she was here?”
    “Yeah, sure. We talk on the phone sometimes. Hell, sometimes we talk for a long time. More than we did when…well. Yeah, I even had lunch with them at their house last year when I was in Chicago.”
    Babe shook his head. “I’ve never figured out how she could be married to you and then married to Rick Richmond. You two aren’t anything alike. What am I missing?”
     
    Robbie turned to stare into the flames, the fire light accentuating the intensity on his face. “I don’t think this is the best day for that discussion.”
    “Maybe it is the best day for this discussion. Mom never explained anything. She only said that ‘your father and I had a mutual agreement that our betrothal had been an unfortunate mistake’. I always knew that that was bullshit, but of course I was forbidden to use the term ‘bullshit’ because ‘bullshit’ is a term used by the ‘low-life common people that plague our society’. How the fuck do you get to be such a snob when you’re from St Louis fucking Missouri?”
     
    “Easy, big guy. This is your mother we’re talking about,” Robbie said, “as well as the home of ‘YOUUUUURRRRE St. Louis Cardinals.’ You were taken care of quite well after we split up. And that was, jeez, nineteen years ago?”
    “Yeah, taken care of,” Babe said,