“Shit,” I mutter, scrubbing my hand across my face. I guess I’m goingbackto the school on the way into work. Luckily, I have an hour before my shift starts at my practice. Enough time to get some of this mess picked up.
But first, I pick up my phone and call Joyce back.
Joyce and Frank have always been a second pair of parents to me, especially after my own parents passed when I was still inmedical school. And nothing aboutourrelationship has changed since Jess left us.
In a way, she left them too. Up and moving to Florida without a word to anyone. It’s brought all of us closer, and I try to be there for them in any way I can, now that they’re getting older and don’t have anyone to look after them.
She answers on the second ring. “Hello?”
“Hey, Joyce. Sorry, I missed you. Ollie had a morning.” I lean against the counter, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Is everything okay? Is Frank—”
After Frank’s heart attack a few years back, it’s where my mind automatically goes.
“Oh, Nolan, dear, you worry too much. Frank’s fine.” My body relaxes a bit, but not for long because the pause she takes before speaking again doesn’t feel like everything is fine.
“It’s about Will.”
I close my eyes, mentally preparing myself for whatever she’s going to say, the list of worst-case scenarios that have sat in the back of my mind since my brother-in-law went to prison. The horror stories you read online.
“He’s being released.”
Oh.
I wasn’t expecting that.
“I thought he had three more years left on his sentence.”
“He’s getting out on good behavior,” she says with a chuckle, like she doesn’t believe it’s true.
“Huh.”
I hardly believe it myself. The last time I saw Will was… I don’t even know. There was the time at Addie’s birthday party. Maybe once or twice after that. All bad experiences.
“Frank’s going to pick him up tomorrow morning,” she continues, and I can hear it in her voice, she doesn’t want tosound upset, but it’s there. “I was wondering if maybe you could be there. When they get back.”
“I know it’s a lot to ask,” she adds quickly before I can agree. “I wouldn’t if I thought we could handle it ourselves, but we haven’t seen him in years, and I don’t know what sort of shape he’s in—” She stops, taking a breath. “I think it would help to have you there. Will always respected you.”
I almost laugh at that, but I don’t, because this is Joyce. Respect isn’t exactly the word I would use for what Will feels for me.
“Of course,” I say instead. There’s no chance I would let them deal with this alone.
“You’re a good man,” she says, and I’m starting to wonder if she’s right about that. “I don’t know what we’d do without you.”
After we hang up, I set my phone down on the counter and start on the dishes, unable to focus on anything. Because after seven years, Will Davis is coming home.
And I have no idea what that means for my family.
Chapter 2
Addie is on the couch when I get home, her phone in her hand, staring at the screen with a small frown that doesn’t look right on her usually bright, bubbly face.
“Hey,” I say, dropping my keys on the counter and stretching, like that will do anything at this point.
She blinks, noticing I’m here for the first time, turning her frown into a neutral line. “Oh, hi. How was work?”
“It was work.” I shrug off my jacket, hanging it on the hook beside the door. “What’s wrong?”
She looks back down at her phone, her lips turning down even more. “Just a thing with Em.”
