I went over to our one big closet and pulled open the double louvered doors. “Storage space is our biggest hurdle out here. You can have a couple feet of this hanging bar if you need it, and you get one big drawer.” I pointed at the built-ins at either end of Zach’s bed.

“One drawer is plenty for me,” he pointed out as I poked around in the closet for a set of sheets and a blanket.

“True.” The guy would need more clothes if he was going to do farm work, though. We got plenty dirty. “Here.” I offered him the bedding I’d found. Then I sat down on Zach’s bed. “Now tell me what else I need to know about working with you. Is there anything special you need? Any work that you can’t do?” I’d never known anyone who was trying to get off drugs, so I couldn’t guess his limitations.

Jude turned his back to me and shook out a sheet before answering. But when he spoke, he eyed me over his shoulder. “Angelo brought me here because I’m trying not to move back to Colebury until I have a few more months where I’m clean. Eventually I’ll have to go home, but I need to rack up some more time off the junk. He said your place would be like a halfway house, because I’d be stranded out here. So I’d rather not be sent into Colebury on errands, if you don’t mind. There’s drugs everywhere, and I just don’t want to think about it. Don’t want to run into any of my so-called friends.”

Yikes. “Okay. Sure. What else?”

“I’m a decent mechanic. Started working in a body shop when I was fourteen. If you need any maintenance work on your vehicles, just ask.”

“Thanks. Zach is an engine whiz, too. He’s saved me a mint already.”

“Well, that’s lucky,” Jude said. But I swear he looked a little deflated at this news.

“What else?”

He tucked the corners of the sheet over the mattress. “I don’t sleep too well. Drugs really fuck up your REM cycles.”

“So if I hear you walking around at night, I shouldn’t call the police?” I meant this as a joke, but when the words came out of my mouth, I realized they were a poor choice for talking to someone who’d been arrested at least once.

He sighed. “You might find me sitting outside on the porch at two in the morning. I’ll try to be quiet.”

“No big.” I cleared my throat. “Now, don’t take this the wrong way, but I say this to every man who ever stays here.”

He looked up at me, amusement in his eyes. “Yeah? Hit me.”

“My little sister is off limits. I have to say it. She’s seventeen going on thirty.”

“Aw, man. Don’t feel you have to say another word. I get it.” He chuckled. “Hey kids, stay the hell away from the junkie in bunk number three.”