AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Long story,” he said, waving her off. “How are you two? Has Nancy come by yet?”
“Yeah. Briefly the other day. It was…fine.”
“With your mom, sometimes ‘fine’ is thebest we can hope for,” he cooed when Becks flipped the camera back to Ruby, who’d started blowing raspberries. “I need to kiss those pudgy cheeks!”
“How are things with the baker?”
Even Ruby sensed the weight of that question, settling down to stare at him intently with her huge caramel eyes while she popped her pappy back into her mouth.
“They’re good,” Cole answered quickly, keeping his voice level.
“Good? Is that all? Because I saw your Instagram post of her bread racks the other day, and then the one of her hands kneading dough, and that last one of her looking out the window of your cabin with her hair up in a ponytail and the sun hitting her just so…”
He scratched his head.
“Dad.” Becks flipped the screen again so he could see how serious she was, bordering on dire. “I’m not sure if you know this or not, but your Instagram appears to be deeply, deeply in love. Have you spoken with it recently? Done a welfare check?”
While it was true that he and Mira had been having alotof fun lately, he still had his work cut out for him when it came to anything more than that. He’d thought they’d had a breakthrough last week, but after he’d tucked her in and driven back up to Bluebird, she’d woken up in the middle of the night and texted him to apologize for “breaking their rules,” telling him if he needed to take a step back from her, she understood because she was “a mess, and her life was complete and utter chaos.”
It had taken every ounce of self-preservation left in him not to drive right back down the mountain, run up her stairs, take her face between his hands, and tell her, “No, I will not be taking a fucking step back from you.” But after a few deep breaths, he texted back.
Cole: Without chaos, there would be no stars in the sky. See you tomorrow.
“It’s not like that,” he said, lying to his own flesh and blood. “We’re only—”
“Friends?” Becks guessed. “Tell that to your story yesterday of the sun setting over Bluebird with the song ‘Lips Like Sugar’ playing in the background. Felt like I was watching the end of an elder-emo rom-com.”
He’d shot that video after he’d gotten back from spending an hour steaming up her Element’s windows, parked in the woods halfway between Bluebird and Glazed, the ridges of her floor mat still indenting his knees, her taste still sweet on his tongue.
“You’re reading too much into it,” he said. “Iaman elder-emo rom-com.” When the doorbell rang across the line, he stiffened. “Who’s that?” he asked, his instinctual dad fight-or-flight response kicking in. He never liked it when they were alone. “Check the doorbell camera. Don’t let anyone you don’t recognize in.”
“Dad, you must chill,” she said. “It’s just Josh. I gotta go.”
“Josh is coming over again?” It was the third time in the last week, not that he’d been checking their doorbell cam too. “Are you two doing better?”
Flipping the screen back to Ruby, Becks evaded the question with “Say goodbye to your grandpa. Love you, Dad.”
“Becks, wait!” But it was too late, and Ruby was too damn cute. “Bye-bye, little angel,” he said, waving at the phone. “Grandpa will see you soon. Tell your mom to talk to me about your dad, okay?”
Ruby squealed so loud it echoed between his ears long after Becks ended the call. Staring at his silent screen, sitting in the rocking chair in his silent cabin, Cole felt suddenly so alone he could barely breathe. He missed Becks and Ruby so much it hurt. But he also knew the next time he’d get to see them, he’d only trade missing them for missing Mira. The realization made him sink helplessly into the cushion beneath him. But he didn’t have time for existential sinking. Today was a day off at Little Timber. And that meant he’d spend all afternoon monitoring visitations.
While he rocked forward to stand up, his phone buzzed again.
“Hey, Benji,” he said, making his voice light, pretending he hadn’t nearly been swallowed whole by a rocking chair.
“Cole? Jesus, man. You sound like shit. You sick or something?”
Apparently, he hadn’t done a very good job. “I’m good. Just got done FaceTiming with Becks and Ruby.”
“Ah, yeah. Homesick, right?”
That wasn’t quite it. Cole missed his family, but he wouldn’t call the weight pushing on his shoulders homesickness. Because, as clearly as he’d ever felt anything, he felt at home here too. “Something like that.”
“Funny thing,” Benji said. “I might be able to help you out with that.”
Cole straightened. “What do you mean?”
“You know that band you’ve been trying to get to use Trax?”
