Page 23 of The Deals We Make

“Those are some big illness words.”

He gestures around the kitchen. “To describe some big life changes. Go talk to her, babe.”

“Okay. You’re right.”

And I’m halfway up the stairs before I realize he called mebabe.

Twice.

7

VEX

It takes ten minutes to drive to my house and pick up supplies. I end up throwing more in the truck than just the power washer and the vacuum cleaner. I add more industrial-level cleaners, protective eye wear, cloths, and a mop and bucket.

I also add wood from my own wood pile. And grab a handful of brown paper bags I keep so I can get it going for her once we’ve cleaned.

Can’t believe Mrs. Moray has been living like that.

Should have nudged my way in there sooner to look out for her.

As I finish securing the cover over the truck bed, my neighbor Matt steps out of his house. We live far enough apart to not bother each other. He shouts a greeting of hello, and I’m inspired. He cleans chimneys for a living.

“Hey, Matt. Know it’s getting late, but you think you could help my mom’s neighbor? We just realized she’s in some kind of mental decline. Don’t know the last time she had her chimney cleaned and her heating is down. You think you could help us out before we clean her house up?”

Matt looks down at his watch. “Yeah. I can fit that in. Message me the address, and I’ll head over there in fifteen.”

“Let me know how much I owe you when you’re done, yeah?”

“Will do.”

I climb into my truck and decide I should make another stop. When I pull up outside my best friend’s house, I can see lights on in the living room.

Switch sees me through the window and raises his hand in welcome. By the time I get to the door, it’s already open. His hair is growing back, and it strikes me how easy it is to forget the permanent damage done to both him and Sophia.

“Come on in out of the cold,” he says.

I step into the hallway and close the door behind me. I don’t move from the long hallway rug, though, so I don’t get mess from my boots all over the floor. There’s the smell of something…burning.

I look down to the kitchen. “What’s happening?”

“Sophia decided to try baking. It’s not going well.” Switch tries to hide his smile. “Her first batch, the cookies were so hard, I couldn’t bite them.”

“Shit,” I say with a grin.

He raises an eyebrow. “My girl can do many things, but baking apparently isn’t one of them. You wanna come in, have a beer?”

I shake my head. “Need a favor if you got a couple of hours to spare.”

“Of course. What do you need?”

“Calista is back in town.”

“Calista—? Oh!”

“Yeah.”

As my best friend, Switch knows more than most about her, that she exists, but he doesn’t knowshe’sthe reason I joined the club. For some reason, I never connected the dots for him. Justtold him my best friend disappeared one day. She came up one night when I was trying to help fill in the gaps in his memory, though, now much of it has returned.