Page 85 of Roll With The Punches

This is no way to live.

What truly scared him was if the worst-case scenario happened and the Lyme settled in for long-term suffering. He knew he shouldn’t play Google MD, but he couldn’t help but do research about this fiend that had taken over his life.

And it terrified him.

Because, so far, he wasn’t getting better, and some of his symptoms, like brain fog, were getting worse.

When the girls returned, Grace wearing some of Emma’s old grubby clothes, Emma took charge. “We need to finish that wiring harness, don’t we?” She pointed at it.

He nodded. “Yeah.”

Without asking, she started climbing into the engine compartment. Suddenly, it felt like he wasn’t even needed. Not only did Emma remember what they’d been working on that day, she seemed to be a step ahead of him.

Grace didn’t have much experience with tools, but with Emma and Jeff coaching her, she proved a quick study.

By the time they finished an hour later, the wiring harness was rerouted and he’d taken them out for a test drive around the block in it.

“This is sooo cool,” Grace said from the backseat. “I love this car!”

“We should start taking it to car shows,” Emma said. “I’d go with you.”

“Me, too,” Grace echoed.

Jeff pulled back into the driveway, easing it into the garage. “Maybe we can look into that. I don’t know when I’m going to be able to finish it at this rate.”

“Can we help you do something else?” Grace asked.

He shrugged. “Picking up tools, I guess.”

When they finished helping him do that, they started to head inside, but Emma stopped and turned to him when she realized he wasn’t following them. “Why don’t you go rest?”

“I will in a little while. I feel like I’ve been doing nothing but resting and it’s not helping.”

* * * *

In the dining room, Brandon was on his laptop and going over reports for work when Grace and Emma walked in. Emma tapped him on the shoulder and motioned for him to follow her and Grace out to the lanai.

There, she kept her voice low. “Jeff’s not getting better. Have you seen how bad he is? When we came in, he was just standing there in the garage staring at the Edsel. Like he’d forgotten what he was going to do.”

Brandon felt torn between not wanting her to have to parent the adults in her life, and grateful she was as observant as she was. Especially since he’d suspected Jeff was putting on a good front for them in the evenings, trying to pretend he wasn’t having as much trouble as he really was.

“Thanks, honey. I’ll talk to Stuart and figure out what to do. Let me know if you see anything else.”

Once the girls had returned to the house, Stuart stepped through the sliders from the master bedroom. “What’s going on? What was that about?”

Brandon told him.

“So what now?” Stuart asked.

Brandon ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know.”

And that frustrated him most of all, that he couldn’t take care of his guy, the one thing Brandon had promised he would always do.