Page 67 of Fall From Grace

When he opened it, I held out my hand. “The bill. Where is it?”

He saw the phone in my hand and started stepping back. “Give me a second.” He hurried to the table and knocked a pop can over in the process. “Shit,” he muttered as he grabbed the bill and came back to me.

“I got it,” I told Noah.

“Pass the phone to him.” I did as he asked and handed my cell to John. He took it.

“Hey Son,” John went on, “how have you been?” John paused and was nodding nervously and looking over at me. “I’m sorry I had to ask. There’s been a lot going on and I’ve gotten a little behind on the bills…” He looked at me again. “Ah, it’s no big deal for me to talk to Grace now, is it? She’s going to be family one day, right? Fine, I’ll leave her be,” he said into the phone. “So, you’re going to pay it for me? You’re a good boy, Noah, always have been. It was good to hear your voice… Do you plan to come home soon when you turn eighteen?” There was another pause and nodding from John. “I’ll talk to you later. Yep.”

He handed the phone back to me. I wiped the screen over my pajama pants before holding it away from my ear. “Noah?”

“You can leave now,” he whispered then paused a moment while I turned around and stepped off the porch carefully. “Sorry about that Grace.”

“Are you okay?”

He sighed. “Just freezing my balls off outside… I didn’t want to have that conversation with everyone in the garage, ya know?”

I peeked inside the bill and gasped. “Six hundred dollars? Noah, you can’t pay this!”

He blew into the phone. “Figures. He’s probably just been paying enough every month to keep it turned on. It’s fine, I told him I’d pay it this once and that was it.”

“When are you coming to get the bill?”

“I’ll come get it this evening when I leave the garage.”

“The roads are already terrible and it’s still snowing.”

“Grace, Ineedto see you after hearing that man’s voice. I want to wrap you in my arms and recharge.” I smiled and tripped over Gus in the snow at the same time. “Are you okay?” he asked immediately when I gasped as I tried to catch myself from falling.

“Dang it, Gus, that’s twice I’ve fallen in the snow today!”

Noah started laughing in my ear and it made me smile again. “Shit, I can’t wait to hold you,” he told me again.

“Grace, what are you and Gus doing in the road?” Mom yelled from the porch with a towel over her wet hair.

“He wanted to play in the snow,” I told her and she shook her head.

“At least put on some more clothes,” she said before walking back in and shutting the door.

“I’m gonna get back to work, I’ll see you later, all right?”

“Can’t wait.”

_____

“Hi, Noah,” Mom yelled from the couch as I tried to sneak him up the stairs.

“Hi, Allison,” Noah said with a smirk as he leaned his head down to peer into the living room from the stairs.

“You came over in this snow?” Mom asked him. “Grace never said you were coming over.”

“It’s not too bad. School’s already been canceled for tomorrow too.”

Mom nodded. “You know your dad will be home soon, don’t you?” She was talking to me now.

“He doesn’t plan to stay long,” I mumbled, tugging at the bottom of his shirt as I continued up the stairs.

“If that’s all right with you?” Noah asked her.