Ok, on my way. You better not be dead in a ditch.
I turn my ringer back on. I silenced it before the meeting with Adriana and forgot to turn it back on.
I send a reply.
I’m fine. At the cemetery.
His response is almost immediate.
I know. I’m walking up the hill.
I look toward the path that leads up the hill and sure enough, Gavin appears with his hands shoved in his jacket pockets.
“You know, normal people just call,” I say when he gets close.
“Normal people answer their phones.” He drops down next to me.
“Your face looks worse today,” I say. The bruise has deepened to a nice purple-green and his lip is still swollen.
“Thanks. It’ll heal.”
“Why’d you Uber here? What’s wrong with your car?” I ask.
“It’s in the shop. Transmission’s fucked.” He shrugs.
“And you were so desperate to see me that you Ubered to a cemetery?”
“I Ubered to find my brother who wasn’t answering his phone after a big meeting with his future wife.” He raises an eyebrow. “How’d that go, by the way?”
I can still feel Adriana’s hand in mine, how soft and warm it was. Her pulse definitely jumped when I brushed my thumb across her knuckles. She tried to play it off, but I saw. Felt it, too.
“Fine.”
“Fine? That’s all I get?”
“What else do you want? She laid out her terms. I agreed. We shook hands. And it was done.”
Gavin stares at me. “You agreed to everything she said?”
“Pretty much.”
“Just like that?” His eyes widen.
“What was I gonna do, argue? She wants separate bedrooms, control of her company, transparency on threats. None of that hurts me.”
“And what about the part where you have to actually marry her?”
“That part’s happening regardless. Might as well not be a dick about the details.”
Gavin snorts. “Look at you. Being all mature and shit.” He looks at Mom’s headstone, the smile fading from his face.
“You always come here before big things,” he says. “Before you started the security firm. Before you told Dad you were leaving the family business. I noticed.”
“Yeah. I guess it’s the times when I feel like…” I sigh. “Like things are a little too much.”
“I get it.” He pulls his knees up against his chest and wraps his arms around them. “I come here, too, sometimes. When shit gets heavy.”
I didn’t know that. The thought cracks open my chest. “Yeah?”
