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“Be safe, Alicia,” she replied. “I really wish we could’ve had a better welcome to the family conversation than this, but Hurricane Court is bearing down on us and I really think it’d help if we could all get on the same page before he gets out.”
CHAPTER 37
HOLDEN
Midterms were coming up quickly and Halloween was only two weeks away, but naturally, now would be the time when the media shit storm we’d been bracing for would hit. I left my last lecture of the day with a headache and three pages of notes I’d never be able to read because of how fast I’d had to write.
My phone buzzed as I crossed the quad, but I ignored it. It buzzed again as I pulled my keys out of my pocket and headed for the parking garage. The damn thing had been at it all day, not shutting up for two consecutive minutes at a time since I’d left home this morning.
When I climbed into my car, I had twenty-something new, unread emails, more texts than I was ever going to open, and a message from Alicia asking if I was coming to Colin’s house when I was done. That one, I replied to, letting her know that I was on my way before I turned over the engine.
All the way to Colin’s neighborhood, traffic was a nightmare. Since it was cloudy, people seemed to have forgotten how to drive, a man in a low-slung sedan cutting across two lanes without signaling forcing me to slam on my brakes. I muttered curses under my breath, smacking the brakes again when he veered back across the same lanes like he’d simply needed to get closer to check a road sign.
In the process, my phone connected to Bluetooth and the screen flashed with an incoming call. Illinois Department of Corrections.
I glanced at it and snorted, but then that stupid fucking sedan swerved around a delivery truck, red light exploding across the back of it when he pumped the brakes once more. As I braced against the steering wheel to hit my own again, my thumb hit the control by accident and the call connected.
“Hello,” a much too familiar voice on the other end of the line echoed through the car. “Holden, are you there, son?”
Every muscle in my body locked and I tightened my grip on the wheel, punching the button to hang up without saying a single word. The call disappeared from the screen and I refocused on the traffic, but my mind wasn’t there anymore. Instead, it was stuck in some alternate dimension where nothing existed but anger at the audacity he had.
The rest of the way to Colin’s house, it felt like I’d disconnected myself right along with that fucking call. I’d expected Dad to pick up the phone eventually. I’d known it was coming, but actually hearing his voice again after all these years had abruptly and unexpectedly made him real again.
It’d brought him back from the proverbial dead, reminding me that he was more than just a name I hated and a picture I didn’t want to see.
He was still here, on the same planet as me, living, breathing, and looking forward to rejoining society soon. The very same man who’d been in our house one day and gone the next wasn’t just some shadow we lived under. He was very much flesh and blood, and soon enough, he’d be close enough to touch again.
As I pulled up in front of Colin’s house, I parked right at the end of the driveway. I wasn’t sure why Alicia was here or who else was coming, but I wasn’t about to do something stupid, like let them park me in if this was some kind of intervention.
I knocked on Colin’s door still feeling like my brain had been detached from my body, and evidently, it was pretty obvious. As soon as he pulled it open, he frowned, his gaze sweeping across my face like he was searching for signs of injury.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he said. “Are you okay?”
“No, and thanks.”
“Don’t be an asshole.” He took a step aside and waved me in. “You look terrible. What happened? You’re not sick, are you?”
I shook my head, brushing past him into the house. “I’m fine. Where’s Alicia?”
“She and Deja have gone out to pick up a baby-shower gift.”
For a second, I just stared at the empty rooms surrounding me, both the living room and the kitchen visible but deserted from where I was standing. I tried to process what he was saying. “They went to pick up a baby-shower gift? Whose shower?”
“Maggie’s,” he said, squinting at me. “Are you sure you don’t have a fever?”
“I’m fine,” I snapped. “Just tell me what’s going on.”
Colin let the door swing shut behind us, motioning for me to follow him to the kitchen. “Ryan and Maggie have invited everyone to New York next weekend for their shower. Naturally, because it’s Maggie, it’s Halloween themed.”
“Naturally,” I muttered, rubbing both my hands across my face and trying to force my brain into this dimension. The one I should be in. “So, next weekend, huh? She’s actually organizing her own baby shower for Halloween?”
“Yep.” He strode directly to the fridge, pulled out a pitcher of water, poured two tall glasses, and handed one to me. “Drink. We can talk about the shower in a minute. Tell me what’s going on with you first. You’re really pale, man. I’m worried.”
I wrapped my fingers around the glass, the cold against my skin and the slight moisture of condensation finally helping to clear my head a bit. I took a long drink, focusing on the sting of the iciness as it made my throat ache. Ultimately, however, there was no point trying to lie about this.
Court had probably already called Jane or someone else—maybe even Colin—to tattle about me hanging up on him. The truth would come out. There was no reason my brother shouldn’t hear it from me.
“Court called while I was on my way over here,” I explained, keeping it fast and factual. “The fucking car in front of me was being an idiot and I accidentally connected the call when I was trying to avoid dying in a fiery crash.”
