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She opened her eyes and saw Steph sitting on the grass, right at Laszlo’s grave.
Reese killed the engine. “There she is.”
“I should have known,” Josie said. “I’m sorry I bothered you, Reese.”
Josie climbed off the motorcycle. Reese hurried to grab her wrist. “Hey, sweetheart. I’ll go with you.”
Reese took her hand again and they walked toward Laszlo’s grave.
Josie couldn’t imagine what Reese was feeling. He and Laszlo had been best friends. From the time they were little kids. Everything was Reese and Lasz. It was always a packaged deal. Even when they were teenagers, Josie would try and get one of her friends to come along on dates because Reese could never go anywhere without Lasz at his side.
Now they were separated. By a bullet and six feet of dirt.
“Steph,” Josie said.
“I don’t want to hear it.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I said I don’t want to hear it.”
Reese winked at Josie and broke away. He crouched down and put a hand to Steph’s shoulder.
“He was a crazy son of a bitch, Steph,” Reese said. “And I miss him every day.”
“Me too,” she said. “He’d be so mad at me right now. I let him down.”
“No, you didn’t,” Reese said. “Shit happens in life. I shouldn’t have ragged you the way I did. I haven’t seen you in forever, Steph. I should have been around more. Seeing you makes me think of him. You were a pain in the ass as a kid. Always in our way.”
Steph smiled. “You guys were my heroes. I had a huge crush on you, Reese.”
“I know you did. You used to write things about me. Creep.”
“Shut up,” Steph said, blushing.
Reese put a hand out for Josie. She inched forward, and Reese pulled her down.
Steph looked at Josie and then looked away.
“I’m sorry, Steph,” Josie said. “For what I did. The way I did it. I was shocked.”
“So was I,” Steph said. “I really had no idea. I didn’t pay attention to myself. Things that were changing. All I noticed was that the last few weeks I haven’t felt good. When I would try to drink, I would get sick.”
Josie cringed at the idea of Steph trying to drink while being pregnant. But she didn’t know she was pregnant. Not that it made it okay, it just made it… whatever.
“You’re not alone,” Josie said.
“I know that,” Steph said. “I don’t want to live off you.”
“You won’t,” Josie said. “But you’re not living on the street. Pregnant or not.”
“Hey,” Reese said. “It’s life. It’s never perfect. Right now, you need to take care of your body and that baby.”
“How’d you know to come here?” Steph asked.
“I didn’t,” Josie said. “I was in a panic. Reese came right here.”
“I just knew,” Reese said. “I’d do the same. I have done the same. When you feel at your lowest, you want to go back in time and figure it out. I’d give anything to change what happened. But we can’t.” He stood up. He offered his hand to Steph. “We can only go forward. And right now, going forward is taking care of that kid.”
