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I gave him a look. “I gotta go to Buda.”
“Tonight?” When I didn’t answer right away, Frankie’s smile faded. He lowered his voice. “Something wrong?”
“Nothing specific,” I said, feeling my chest tighten. “You know, just family stuff. I’ll find a motel on the way.”
“A motel?” Frankie stared at me. “What about your brother?”
I paused, and stepped aside. Frankie followed.
“I have some other stuff to take care of. I don’t want to—yeah.” I should have just said good point and let it drop. “My dad and I don’t get along. And Jake’s got a wife and a kid. I don’t want to burden them.”
Last time I had seen Jake, I had brought him a list of apologies I had written on St. Joseph’s stationery, where I had just spent ten days detoxing. He’d shut the door in my face. I still had the piece of paper folded up in my bag a year later, as if I’d never be able to write it again.
“Come on, you’re about to go overseas. Someone will let you sleep on their couch,” Frankie said. “Crash with me for a while.”
“It’s all good. I’m gonna get a hotel. Thank you, though.”
He shrugged. “My parents have a big house. You’d have your own room.”
My heartbeat sped. In the fight between spending the next two weeks in a bed in a home in Austin versus a room off Highway 49, staring at shitty TV, trying not to relapse, the air-conditioned bed would win. But I liked Frankie. He’d become my friend. I didn’t want to bring my shit into his house.
His large, comfortable, air-conditioned house.
“For the whole two weeks?” Don’t look desperate.
“As long as you need,” Frankie said, glancing up at me, giving me a nod.
Luke Morrow was not the kind of person you bring home to people like this. Even before all this shit went down, I wasn’t a shake-your-hand-and-ask-about-the-weather kind of guy. I never had a mom to teach me how to be a gentleman, how to offer to do the dishes after dinner. More like smoke on the back porch until everyone went to bed.
But no one here knew that. I could do the dishes and whatnot. I could call everyone ma’am and sir, I was good at that now. The air felt cooler for a second. I took a deep breath.
I lifted my hand. Frankie took it.
“I’d appreciate it.”
“Morrow’s in!” Frankie yelled.
My phone vibrated in my pocket. I checked the screen. There was Johnno. I silenced it.
And it wasn’t like I was going out to snort powder off a dirty counter. This would be a bar with music and light and friends, ice in a glass. Frankie’s smile was wide and open, carefree. We started walking back to his parents’ car with the rest of the families, with everyone else.
