LITMIR.BIZ

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      “Really?” Mickie said. Her eyebrows went up and she pursed her lips, just slightly. Then her face relaxed. “I thought you would have liked that. You’re such a natural teacher.”

      “It’s not the project. It’s the man. Is he really doing this or is it a scam to get my phone number?”

      “I doubt it. DeShawn’s a good guy.”

      Tiana nodded and her eyes narrowed.

      “I’m sure he is, but I don’t have time for games.”

      Mickie frowned and pushed away from the counter. “What should I tell him then?”

      Tiana sighed, sucking in one corner of her lips and dropping her chin. She shook her head side to side once, then again. She picked a piece of lint off of her sleeve, examined it and then walked over to drop it in the trash can. “Give me his number,” she said. “And tell him I’ll think about it.”

      Mickie slipped her phone out, then swiped and scrolled a few times. Her brow knit and she bit her bottom lip. “Come on, come on, where are you?” She swept her finger across the screen. “Ah, okay. Here we go.” She grabbed the closest pencil and scribbled a number on the top of the calendar hanging on the wall. “Ugh,” she said, obviously noticing all Lily’s school projects, tests and meet-the-teacher nights listed. First graders had so much to do. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to manage this when Ian gets to school.” She tapped the calendar with the pencil eraser and turned to look at Tiana.

      “It doesn’t stop,” Tiana said. She was smiling now. “I’m not going to kid you.”

      “Yikes,” Mickie said, glancing at the time. “I need to get going. Let me say goodbye to Ian.” She pulled Tiana in for a hug. “Thank you again for helping me out.”

      “You just be there for your man.”

      * * *

      FEBRUARY GAVE THEM the gift of one of those rare cold days with sunshine and blue skies. The occasional icy breeze was the only reminder it was deep winter. DeShawn sat on one of the black folding chairs set out around a bright green awning over an open grave. Josh sat unmoving like a stone. Mickie leaned against Josh, holding his hand tight in hers. Kim, Josh’s sister, was on his other side, holding his hand also. Beside her were her adoptive parents.

      He’d been to funerals. Many. Too many. But this was...a reinternment. What an odd word. What an odd thing for a beautiful Saturday afternoon. A word for repeating what should only ever have to be done once for someone. He glanced to his left at Sadie. Wyatt, her fiancé, had her left hand clasped in both of his. Her lips were pressed tightly together, moving her gaze from Josh, she reached out and took his hand. He squeezed her fingers and leaned in close to her.

      “Is he okay?” he whispered.

      Sadie didn’t answer, but gave a shrug while shaking her head, just barely. DeShawn turned his attention back to the chaplain, who was giving the standard funeral oratory. At the end, Josh stood and approached the coffin. He set a bouquet of red roses on the gleaming wood.

      “Be at peace, Momma,” he said, his voice wavering. He patted the coffin. “You’re safe now.” He stepped back.

      Mickie and Sadie simultaneously began crying. DeShawn felt his own throat close up tight. He wanted to put his arm around Sadie, but Wyatt already had her. He clasped his hands together on his lap and looked down at the ground.

      “It’s okay.”

      He looked back up at the sound of Josh’s words. Josh sat back in his chair and pulled Mickie into his arms. “It’s okay,” Josh repeated.

      DeShawn reached out and put a hand on Josh’s shoulder. As did Sadie. For a moment, he felt the strength and fierce love that joined them. Sadie. Josh. They’d been his family for so long. And now look at them. Starting their own families. He looked back down. Thought about the phone call from his mother. He shook his head. There’s nothing to salvage from my family.

      Josh and Kim had requested to be alone as the coffin was lowered into the ground. DeShawn leaned against his car, watching from a distance. Most the guests had left. Mickie, Sadie, Wyatt, Lena and Kim’s parents remained. They didn’t speak. He went to Mickie and pulled her into a hug.

      “You’re looking mighty cold, my Mickie.”

      She wrapped her arms around him and pressed a cheek to his chest. “I’m from Minnesota. This is shorts and flip-flop weather. I’m glad you were able to be here.”

      “It’s crazy. Is Josh okay? I can’t wrap my mind around this.”

      “I think so. She was buried next to her murderer. You know? I can’t even... The anger. He was using it, I guess. It kept the grief down. It caught up with him, though. This morning.” She stepped back and glanced over her shoulder at the grave site. When she turned back, the troubled look on her face deepened just a bit.

      “What?” he said.

      “I asked Tiana about the project.”

      “Great! What’d she say?”

      “No.”

      DeShawn was taken aback for a moment. Despite all the teasing between them, he thought she’d definitely be interested in his idea. Then he noted the look in Mickie’s eyes. That I’m-waiting-for-an-explanation look. “What?”

      “Are you scamming for her phone number?”

      “What? No! Is that what she thought?”

      Mickie glanced over her shoulder again. “What happened at the grocery store?”

      Shaking his head, he lifted his hands, palms up. “Nothing. Never mind. Don’t need her.”

      Mickie pushed his hands aside. “Actually, it wasn’t a hard no. She said she’d think about it.”

      He tilted his head, scrunched up his chin then looked off to the right.

      “Here they come,” he said.

      Josh and Kim walked back to the small group. Kim went straight into her parents’ arms. Josh held his hand out to DeShawn for a high-five, but DeShawn pulled him in close and held him there instead.

      “You okay, brother?” DeShawn asked.

      “Yeah,” Josh said. “I am. Feels good to have it done. I feel as if I’ve... I don’t know how to say it.”

      DeShawn put his hands on Josh’s shoulders and looked him in the eyes. “You freed her, Josh. She died because she was trying to save you and Kim. She’s free of him now.”

      Josh nodded and looked away as he swallowed hard. “You coming to Sadie’s?”

      “Yeah, man. I’ll be there.”

      “Okay. We’re going to pick up Ian. See you there.”

       CHAPTER FOUR

      DESHAWN LOUNGED BACK in a chair around the table in the conference room of the Cleaning Crew offices. He’d spent four years of his life working here. He closed his eyes and tried to put himself back in the head of the young man he’d been when he first walked in here, all those years ago. He couldn’t do it. He didn’t fit there anymore.

      What those years had been, for him, was work, hard work. He’d caught a little side-eye, at first, from those who couldn’t see a man in that role. Cleaning houses? But he figured out was that there was a world of difference between just doing the job and doing the job right. You did the job if it was a good day or a bad one. If you were sore or under the weather, you pushed that to the other side of your head and kept going. You learned to see more, to notice, to take pride in that wow in the client’s eyes. Yeah. And the friends he’d made here. The family he’d made.

      He felt at home.

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