A Father's Love

Chapter 39

    Bright and early, Luke dragged Shelby and Jess all over town, looking at different apartments. While the cousins wandered around, Luke banged on pipes and measured from wall to wall with his measuring tape. It ended up being a long morning with Luke doing all the talking and asking questions. He asked them what they thought, at least. No matter what the apartment looked like, Shelby kept saying each time she liked the one they were living in.

"Why? What's wrong with that one?" he asked.

Jess was the one to respond, hating the last one they were coming out of the most. "It was pink."

"We can paint it." They stepped out onto the sidewalk, heading for the next apartment.

"You mean I can paint it," he scoffed.

"We can paint it together." Luke looked down at the newspaper in his hand.

Jess walked beside him with his hands shoved in his pockets. "Great," he replied sarcastically. "Then we can hold hands and skip afterwards."

"Fine," Luke snapped irritably. "Which one do you like?"

"The one before."

"The one with the two fridges?"

"No."

"The one before was the one with the two fridges." Luke returned to looking at the newspaper.

"No, the one we saw before was the one with the cat," he reminded his uncle.

Luke lifted his head to say, "I hate cats."

"Well, I don't think the cat came with the place."

"It had carpeting, so it's always gonna smell like a cat," Luke explained.

"Clean the carpet."

"Paint the pink."

There was a brief pause before Jess said, "The one next to the bank."

"Too many windows."

Jess asked, confused, "What?"

"Six windows all on one side, three o'clock in the afternoon, we're sitting in an oven," he explained, which Jess pointed out to get curtains. "Yeah, well, you'll have to help me put them up."

"Great, then we can hold hands and skip afterwards," Jess repeated, still in the same sarcastic manner.

"Stop saying that."

"You know what? I don't care," the boy told him, honestly. "Pick whichever one you want."

"I'm not picking by myself," Luke said firmly

"You're the only one that wants to move," he pointed out.

"Oh, so you like living the way we do?" he questioned him.

Jess shrugged casually. "Fine by me," he said, looking elsewhere.

Luke waved the paper out in front of him as he said, "No space, no privacy?"

"I got plenty of privacy," he stated towards the ground.

"Yeah, because Shelby and I are sitting downstairs in the dark, watching a two-inch TV."

"Hey, Scout's fine with it, too. You're the only one with the problem. You make the choice." They walked across the street.

Once across, Luke fully faced his nephew. "Jess, come on!"

Jess looked down at his watch. "I have to go."

Luke pointed behind him with his thumb. "We've got three more places to look at."