I glanced at Annabelle to see what she was making of the situation. She looked as if she was concentrating on taking it all in.

Jackson parked right in front of the stairs that led up into the trailer, which was the temporary office of the builder and where I knew my sister maintained a work space so she could oversee her project. The smell of the place, plowed-up dirt, damp from the water being sprayed to keep the dust down, and the underlying smell of gasoline fumes and exhaust from the construction trucks filled my nostrils, and just like that I was back on my first jobsite. It was intoxicating stuff.

I opened my door and stood. My leg felt solid, no numbness as yet, and I was grateful. My mission was to get in and out as quickly as possible with Lexi none the wiser to my condition.

As I’d explained to Annabelle the night I made my proposal, under no circumstances did I want our client to know about what had happened to me. She’d looked like she was going to argue, but I’d wrapped up her compliance by reminding her that she needed this account.

I started up the steps using the handrail. Annabelle and Jackson fell in behind me. I could feel Annabelle’s stare on my back. I wondered what she was making of my ability to navigate the steps. The two times we’d seen each other, I’d been seated. How could I explain that post-stroke my life was a constant loop of being fine and then landing flat on my face for no diagnosable reason? I couldn’t. And I didn’t want to try as the very last thing I wanted from her was pity.

When I reached the landing, I rapped on the metal door. I heard the sound of a chair scraping back on a hard floor and the door was pulled open. Standing in the doorway was Lexi, and unsurprisingly, she did not look happy to see me.

“What the hell do you want?” she snapped. “Are you here to say ‘I told you so’? Because if you are, you can shove it right up your behind, I have nothing to say to you, big bro—”

17

“Good to see you, too,” I interrupted. I knew if I looked over my shoulder at my companions, I’d see two things, Jackson most definitely trying not to laugh and Annabelle looking alarmed, and possibly trying to flee the conflict zone.

“Problem, boss?” An enormous black man, who rivaled Jackson in size and width and who also had his head shaved down to the scalp, appeared behind Lexi. Being a few inches over six feet tall, I wasn’t used to looking up at people. This made two men in the vicinity that I had to crane my neck to look at. I didn’t like it.

“No, I’m fine,” she said. “Stand down, Micah.”