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Mike hadn’t even known they sent or received perishable materials, and when he’d admitted as much, Hunter had looked at him like he had four heads.
Hunt came from the labs at HMC and MIT, so of course he worked with things that needed to be refrigerated and preserved. Mike had learned then to phrase his musings as questions. Then he could learn what he needed to learn without seeming like he’d made ignorant assumptions.
By the time he left the office and started down the hall toward his secretary’s desk, dusk had covered the city. That meant Mike would be returning to his cabin in the dark, and exhaustion pulled through him.
A sharp pain ran through his artificial shoulder, and Mike rotated it as he got on the elevator. He hit the button for the private, executive-level parking garage and pulled his phone out of his pocket.
An array of notification icons sat at the top of the screen, and Mike didn’t even want to check them. But they couldn’t stay there. They caused him a great deal of anxiety, and he started with the texts. Daddy, Hunter, and Gerty.
She’d sent four, and a twinge of guilt that he hadn’t been checking his phone dove through him. She hated it when he didn’t answer her, and she wouldn’t call.
Where are you? I’m at the truck rental, and they won’t let me leave my truck here.
He frowned at her first message, sure she’d meant to send it to someone else.
I’m going to lose the truck. You must be in a meeting.
Then she’d said,Keith is coming to get my truck. Call me when you can, would you?
She’d called too, and Mike started thumbing out a message to her.Just leaving the office. I had that call with France this afternoon. Did you switch the date you were picking up the truck? I thought it was tomorrow.
Gerty was moving into the farmhouse on her farm tomorrow. She, Travis, her daddy, and Mike whenever he had time, had been working on it for the past three weeks, and her bed had been delivered yesterday afternoon.
Mike had only seen pictures of the last several days of progress, because things at HMC had picked up considerably. Hunter said this was common in the fall, and Mike had wondered briefly how he could possibly have a family and be busy every fall. But he’d been too busy to worry about it.
Having a family wasn’t the closest fire burning in his direction, and he and Gerty hadn’t even started talking any more about marriage yet.
She’d gone to Montana to get her belongings, but James had stolen them. She’d been working like a dog at Pony Power, and then going out to the farm every afternoon and evening to get things livable for herself and her animals. She and her mother had been purchasing the items she needed to live on her own, as the generational house had been furnished.
He couldn’t get his message to go through, and frustration pulled through him, only adding tension on top of his tiredness. When he stepped out of the elevator, Bobby rushed toward him.
“Sir,” he said. “Your truck has a flat tire, so Trevor is prepping a company vehicle for you. We’ll get the truck sent out to be fixed tomorrow.”
“No.” Mike slowed his step and looked over to the younger man. “That won’t work. I’m not coming into the office tomorrow.” Gerty was moving, and he’d promised her the use of his truck.
Even as he thought it, he reminded himself that Gerty owned her own pickup truck. Her daddy had one. Every cowboy on the farm owned one. She’d also rented a moving truck, and surely she could make do without him.
Mike hated feeling indispensable, but he certainly was.
“I’m sorry, sir,” Bobby said as the sleek, black, oversized SUV rolled up to the curb, Trevor behind the wheel. “You can keep the SUV as long as you want.”
That wasn’t the issue, though Mike was sure he could never return the SUV and be just fine. He didn’t see another solution, and he hadn’t eaten and still had an hour’s drive in front of him. “Okay.” He tried to smile at Bobby. “Thank you, Bobby.”
He nodded and smiled at Trevor and tossed his briefcase onto the passenger seat, where it would ride out to his cabin.
As he made the drive home, the roads became less and less busy. The noise inside his soul got louder and louder. On nights like these, he normally stopped and got something to eat, but tonight, he didn’t.
He was sick of eating out, eating in the truck, or eating alone.
As he drove past the brightly lit farmhouse where his aunt and uncle lived with Jane and Deacon, Mike realized he was lonely.
“Surrounded by people and lonely.” He scoffed. That couldn’t be right.
And yet, it completely was.
He pulled up to his house, noting that Gerty’s truck sat out front. No lights illuminated his windows from the inside the way they did the other cabins on this lane, and he peered through the windshield as he reached to turn off the SUV.
He collected his briefcase from the passenger seat and got out, a sigh escaping from his mouth. He didn’t see Gerty sitting on his front steps until she stood.
