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Chapter 20
No matter what life throws at you, a cold beer will help.
Grayson
I’m half-way to Merrill before my anger starts to abate. I can’t believe Suzie betrayed me this way. I thought we were friends. If I’m honest, I’d like to be more than friends, but Suzie has a nine-foot electric fence around her heart. And I’m not in the right frame of mind to start scaling it.
But now? Now I have no interest in seeing her betraying little face again. Especially since she’s forced me to drive home – a place I am not ready to visit. I don’t care if I’ve only been back once in nearly four years. I’m not ready. But I can’t not visit. Not after the way I treated Liz when she came to see me at McGraw’s. I hope she’ll forgive me for being a total jackass.
I stop at a gas station when I’m half an hour out from Merrill. I can’t show up empty-handed to meet my namesake for the first time. I have no idea what to buy a four-year-old boy, but I settle on a Lincoln Logs building set. I remember I had one as a kid and liked it.
Once I arrive on Liz’s street, I park my truck but don’t get out. Like the coward I am, I sit there staring at Liz’s house until the front window curtains flutter. Shit. If I sit here any longer, the police will come in with lights blazing and sirens blaring to arrest me for being a stalker.
I gather the present and make my way to the front door.
“Grayson!” Liz shouts and envelopes me in a hug when she opens the door.
I feel like a fraud. How can she possibly be happy to see me when I caused the death of her husband?
I awkwardly pat her back and retreat from the hug as soon as possible.
“What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to apologize for how I behaved on Monday.” I lift the gift. “I also wanted to meet Grayson.”
“I’m Grayson.” A boy peeks out from his mother’s legs.
I kneel down. “Then this must be for you.” I hold out the present. He doesn’t take it. He looks to his mother for guidance. At her nod, he snatches the package from my hands and rushes off.
“Grayson Bill Morris,” Liz shouts. “You will open the present in front of the person who gave it to you.” She nudges me forward. “We better hurry up.”
The look of happiness on her face almost has me freezing in her hallway. She can’t possibly be happy, can she?
When we enter the living room, Grayson is sitting on the floor holding his present. “Can I open it? Can I?”
Liz shakes her head. “I’d like to introduce you to someone first.”
Grayson pouts but he stands and walks to me. “I’m Grayson,” he says as he holds out his hand.
I get down on a knee and shake his hand. “I’m Grayson, too.”
He pumps my hand up and down. “You must be Uncle Grayson. Look, Mom, it’s Uncle Grayson.”
Liz ruffles his hair. “I know.”
“Is he a hero like my dad?”
My heart squeezes at his words and I lower my gaze to the carpet to buy myself some time to get it together. Once I think I can talk without making a fool of myself, I lift my head and say, “Your dad was a great man.”
His back straightens. “I know.” He looks up at his mom. “Can I open my present now?” At his mom’s nod, he rushes back to the gift and tears into the wrapping.
Liz sits with him on the floor. “It’s Lincoln Logs. You can build houses with them. Now, what do you say?”
“Thanks, Uncle Grayson! Can I go play?”
Before his mom can answer, he picks up the box and rushes off. Liz smiles as she watches him leave. “Thank you, Grayson. But you didn’t need to buy him a gift.”
I shrug. “Actually, I came here to apologize.”
