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Or she was hit by a bus.
She smoothed the pages of the sketchbook, knowing where the lines for the panels would go and letting the feel of the paper against the palm of her hand tell her where the drawings would go. Then she got out her pencil and drew the squares. She wrote “The Tell, Third Time Is Not the Charm” in the first panel and then prepared to draw the humiliation of sharing her disease and watching a man walk out on her.
She hadn’t yet figured out how to draw any conversation where she let that man take her to dinner, at least not one that anyone would believe.
* * *
A WEEK LATER, Levi sat in O’Reilly’s and looked at the text message he’d gotten from Dennis.
In Bozeman for a job interview. Staying the night. Forgot to let you know.
Mary brought him his beer, and Levi drank it in one long gulp, like he used to do when he and Dennis were young and stupid, and too much beer didn’t give him heartburn. Dennis never forgot about their Friday night at the bar. Never. Not once since they’d moved to Missoula, since Kimmie’s death—since everything.
And the couple of times Levi hadn’t been able to make it, Dennis had given him hell. Bad friend, everything they’d been through, and all that. The mine accident, Kimmie’s death and Dennis’s cough wove between their feet, binding them to each other and preventing either of them from stumbling too far from one another.
But Bozeman? For a job interview?
Levi hadn’t even known that Dennis had been looking for a new job, and especially not one in Bozeman, of all places. Taking Brook and the kids and moving three hours away. No more coaching soccer practice. No more Fridays at the bar. No more running into his sister at the grocery store and getting a cup of coffee with her on the spur of the moment, so he could hear all the news about the kids and Dad.
He and Brook had always lived in the same town. Always. After the accident, when both he and Dennis had been looking for something else to do, they’d come to Missoula together. They hadn’t even talked about it. Dennis had said he had friends in town who could help them find jobs, and that had been that.
Mary brought another beer. Levi had drunk half of it before realizing that if he didn’t stop, he’d be the pathetic one trying to figure out how to get home. He pushed the beer to the other side of the table and signaled for the waitress. He needed a glass of water and a burger.
Was Dennis giving up? After everything they’d been through together, now he was picking up and leaving?
WTF. I postponed a date with my neighbor for tonight.
Mina. She was hanging out at the edge of his mind. Another go at the life he’d wanted, with all of his family together. A wife, his sister, maybe kids. Hell, maybe their dad would even visit. They could make that happen. It could be possible. Recently he’d been spending more time with Solstice, his niece, really getting to know her as a person, not just as his sister’s kid. He looked forward to getting that time with Skylar, too. Taking him for hikes and maybe out hunting or fishing.
Or whatever that kid wanted to do. Levi wanted to be with him as he grew up. The how didn’t matter.
Dennis moving ruined all of that.
Levi tapped his fingers on the cracked wood while waiting for Dennis’s response. The burger came before the text did.
We all got problems, man.
He turned his phone facedown and shoved it next to his beer. Apparently he was the only one who thought they had some responsibility to each other, especially after all they’d been through.
The burger might as well have been softened cardboard for as much as he tasted it as he wolfed it down. And he only noticed that the fries made his hands greasy; not if they were hot or not. Then he guzzled the glass of water and the rest of the beer and headed home.
* * *
ON SATURDAY NIGHT, Levi stood on Mina’s front porch, a bouquet of flowers in one hand while the other knocked on her door. It had been a while since he’d been on a date—a real date—but he remembered that Kimmie had liked getting flowers. Until he learned what Mina liked, flowers couldn’t hurt.
Though, if tonight went well, the fact that he’d shaved right before coming over had been just as smart.
Mina opened the door, wearing a flowy, floor-length cotton dress in a dark blue with earrings that dangled past the cut of her hair, though they didn’t quite reach her shoulders. Between that and her sandals, she looked ready for the beach.
