Okay, message received.

“Sorry,” I said again.

He held the phone up to me.

Lets go outside.

I jumped off the couch. “Okay. Like…gardening? Or a walk or something?”

gardening sounds fun

I didn’t agree. In fact, I hated gardening and grumbled every time Mom asked me to pull weeds out of our flower beds. Why had I even mentioned it? Think before you speak, Evie!

But then I got an idea. “How do you feel about weeding?” I asked. Maybe this could work out after all. He could do something he liked, and I wouldn’t have to do as much of something I didn’t like.

He shrugged.

“Okay, cool,” I said. “Come on, we’ll need to put on sunscreen first so we don’t burn. Last year I got burned so bad, I got blisters.”

He nodded.

Then, as he stood up, I noticed his cast. His very white cast that was sure to get dirty in the garden if we didn’t do something about it.

I pointed at it. “I guess we’ll need to figure that out too.”

Twelve

Mom came into the kitchen as we were putting sunscreen on our faces. She had traded out her pajamas for a navy-blue skirt and jacket over a pink blouse, with a pretty blue-and-burgundy scarf tied at her throat. She looked ready to meet with a family. Someday I’d dress up when I met with families, so I always paid attention to how she put herself together.

“You look really nice, Mom,” I said.

That made her smile. “Thanks, Evie. What are you kids up to?”

“We’re going outside to do some gardening.”

Mom’s eyebrows went up, and she looked at Oren. “You up for this?”

He nodded, even as I said, “Uh, Mom, it was his idea! It sure wasn’t mine. You know how I feel about gardening.”

Mom laughed. “Good point. Those beds out front could use weeding. But don’t you get that cast dirty,” she warned Oren.

“He won’t,” I assured her.

“I’m heading next door,” she said. “I’ll be back for lunch by one.”

“I’ll make lunch,” I offered. Because fixing lunch was way better than gardening.

She smiled and poured herself another cup of coffee. On her way out with the mug in her hand, she gave me a kiss on the cheek. “Have a good morning, you two. Try not to track too much dirt back inside.”

“We won’t,” I assured her.

Once we were done with the sunscreen, I offered to wrap Oren’s arm so it would stay clean and dry. Thanks to Nate’s busted leg the previous summer, I knew a trick for keeping a cast from getting dirty.

I went to the kitchen junk drawer and got out a plastic shopping bag and a roll of duct tape to seal it up. As I returned to him with my supplies, I noticed he didn’t have any markings on his cast yet. My brother’s had been filled with doodles and signatures from his friends. By the time he got it taken off, there wasn’t a square inch that didn’t have scribbles or pictures drawn on it.