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“Uh, okay. Did you two have a fight or something?”
After another swallow of coffee, I lowered the mug to the table, tracing my thumb along the handle. “Not really. She’s got this thing going on with this guy who threatened her back at her old job. It’s complicated, and that’s not even the point. Anyway, I fucking lost my shit and took the phone from her this morning when he called and told him to fuck off.”
“Well, that makes sense,” Graham said calmly. “All details aside, if somebody’s threatening a friend, I’d tell them to fuck right off.”
I cocked my head to the side. “Agreed, but it wasn’t that. It’s just how angry I was. Before the shooting, I was an easygoing guy. Since then, it’s either I keep everything buttoned down or I feel like I’m about to explode.”
“Ahhh,” Graham said slowly. “I get it. Makes sense.”
“It does?”
“I don’t mean I get it, get it in the sense that I’ve experienced that, but it’s a lot to handle. Have you talked to a therapist?”
I let out a sigh, thinking it said something about Graham that he had enough life experience to ask that. “Yeah. She said this is normal, and it’s about figuring out how to deal with it.”
“How did Alice handle your reaction?”
“I didn’t really give her a chance. I left and came here.”
“Oh, and worked out like the devil was chasing you.” Graham’s tone was dry as dead grass.
I could at least chuckle at that. That tight sense of panic that morphed into anger this morning had loosened in my chest, and I could breathe a little easier.
“Seems like Alice might be important to you,” Graham observed, yet again proving he could be more perceptive than I preferred.
I was in deep with Alice. I loved her, and that couldn’t last.
That afternoon, I stopped in to check on my grandmother. My parents were there, along with Dennis.
“How are you?” Gram asked, leaning up to press a kiss on my cheek.
I smiled down at her, kissing her cheek in return. “Doing all right,” I replied noncommittally.
“Your parents are going back to Seattle for the week. Your father needs to take care of a few loose ends, and then he’ll be back until I go,” she said, way too matter-of-factly for my sanity.
My heart burned. “Do you have to be so casual about it?”
“It’s not casual. It’s reality. I am glad they’ll be here until I go.”
My father rolled his eyes when I glanced over. I knew how much he loved her, so I knew this hurt him, but he tended to rely on dry sarcasm to get through clutch moments like this.
“When do you leave?” I asked him.
“We decided this on short notice just this morning. We’ll check on things at the house, I’ll stop by the university, and then we’ll come back.”
“If you need the cabin, obviously, it’s yours for the week,” my mother offered.
My grandmother was feeling nosy about Alice and looked over at me curiously. I ignored her.
“Ah, well, I’ll check with Alice, but I might use the place for the week. That gives her some privacy.”
Later, I took the cowardly way out and texted Alice while I knew she was still at the clinic.My parents are heading back for a week. I’ll be at the cabin.
I intended to figure out other arrangements before she returned because I had to find a way to get back on stable emotional footing. I needed to fall out of love with her, which didn’t seem likely. I was relieved Honey was at the clinic with her when I swung by her house to get my things.
ChapterThirty-Five
Alice
