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“What?”
“What?What? What thefuckis more like it! Open the damn door and let me in.”
Will hung up and walked into the foyer, unlocked the door and then opened it. He stepped back and swung his arm out, wordlessly telling his friend to enter.
Charles stepped in, closed the door, and eyed him closely. “You look like shit.”
“I feel like shit, so that makes remarkable sense. What brings you to my door”—he looked at his watch, and saw that it was almost eight thirty—“so early?”
“Elizabeth, Georgie, and I have been trying to get in touch with you for the pasttwelve hours. What the hell is wrong with you?”
Will grimaced. “Stop yelling. And why are you assuming that something is wrong with me?”
“I didn't come over here to play games with you. You smell like a bar, and you look like you slept in one. Talk. Now.”
Will covered his face with his hands as a wave of nausea swept through him. Suddenly, the will to be stoic, and the energy it took to appear calm and collected, completely left him.
“I can't talk about it.” He lowered his hands, leaned against the wall, and hung his head. “I can't, Charles. I'm sorry you were worried, and I'll call Georgie again. But I can't talk about it.”
“What about Elizabeth?” Charles asked softly. “You need to call her. Jane is on her way to the Cape now to help her because you left herin the hospital. She deserves an explanation.”
“Is she–is she okay?”
“Suddenly you’re worried? You took off without a word.”
Will shook his head but said nothing.
Charles took off his suit jacket and hung it on the coat rack. “Go get in the shower. I’ll make a pot of coffee.”
“I told you I don't want to talk about it. Go to work.”
“No. I’m staying.” Charles paused. “You know, when everything happened with Georgie, I let you get away with all the 'I don't want to talk about it' bullshit that you kept feeding me. I watched it eat at you, and I never did a damn thing about it.”
“I talked to you about—”
“You talked about everything that happened, everything Georgie went through, but you never talked aboutyou. What it did toyou. I knew you were hurting, but I just sat back and let it tear you up. I'm not doing that this time.”
Will looked at him long and hard and knew his friend wouldn’t back down. What made Charles a damn good lawyer was his tenacity, and Will was seeing it firsthand.
“Fine,” Will finally said. “Make the coffee strong, please.”
He walked upstairs to his bedroom and walked straight through to the bathroom, stripped off his clothes, and stepped under the steaming hot spray of the shower. The water beat down on his head and ran over his face, and he silently prayed it would wash away the past fifteen hours.
* * *
Elizabeth walkedinto her house late Friday morning with Jane right behind her. She’d been anxious to get home, desperate to find clues as to what might have caused Will's sudden departure. She was upset, nervous…and a little annoyed.
“Go lie down,” Jane ordered, and placed Elizabeth's bag on the chair in the living room.
“I don't want to lie down.”
“You have to rest, Lizzy. You can think about things horizontally just as well as you can vertically.”
Jane had a point. Elizabeth's head was throbbing, and she still felt foggy from the painkillers. They’d stopped at a pharmacy to fill a prescription for more, though she’d already decided she wouldn't take them. She needed to keep her wits.
“Tell me again what Charles said.”
Jane sighed. “He only said that Will was upset and appeared to be hungover, but they hadn’t talked about anything yet. Will was taking a shower.”
