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“Maybe you should think about finding another place to live.” Mitch tossed the empty beer bottle into the yard where it shattered against a large rock. “Maybe my lifestyle isn’t good for your holier-than-thou attitude.”
“Maybe so.” Michael tried to keep it cool on the outside but was panicking. He had nowhere to go. He didn’t make enough money to afford to rent a place. He had to have a good address for parole. “I’ll let you sober up so we can have an adult conversation.”
He went inside and immediately tried to call his parole officer. It was best to be transparent and report things as soon as they happened. A part of him thought he should wait and see if Mitch would have a change of heart. Drunk words were sober thoughts and being surrounded by his brother’s bad habits was starting to wear him down.
The phone rang a few times, and someone answered. “Rosie Kemp.”
“Officer Kemp, I’m so sorry to call you after hours but I need to report something. This is Michael Brennan.”
“Hi, Mr. Brennan. What is going on?” Her tone was neutral. He couldn’t tell if she was annoyed or okay with his phone call. She had the best poker face he had ever seen and her voice was no different.
“I think my living arrangement might be changing.” His voice shook a little. Was this something she could revoke him for? He hadn’t done anything illegal.
“Why is that?”
“I’m currently with my brother. His uh…” Mitch walked through the door and Michael wanted to keep the call private, so he padded back to his bedroom and shut the door. “It’s just not the best living situation for me right now.”
“Do you have another place lined up?”
“No. I mean, I possibly have a place to stay while I’m looking for something to rent.” He thought about Haize. Would she let him temporarily stay at her place? That would put their relationship out in the open and people would learn about it. “I just wanted to give you a heads-up that I’m probably gonna have to move.”
“Parolees with no established residence are required to move into a halfway house, Mr. Brennan. If you refuse the halfway house, you will be considered absconded, and we will send you back.”
He sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed his eye. Those were not the words he wanted to hear. “A halfway house would be far worse for my recovery than staying here with my brother.”
“Then you might want to weigh your options, Mr. Brennan. I am glad you called me. If you officially move out of your brother’s place, I will need the updated address of where you’re staying before you take up residence there. I will have to investigate it and interview anyone who lives there. And if that doesn’t work out, you will be assigned a halfway house.”
“Where would the halfway house be?”
“Depends on who has open beds. Could be close to here, could be across the state. I’d have to check around for availability.”
Michael felt like he had swallowed a brick. Move away from Haize? Lose his job? Be sent across New Mexico into an extremely toxic environment? It was a fast ticket back to prison. After all the progress he had made, he wanted to punch a hole in the wall.
“Let me reconsider all this. I’ll get back to you if anything changes.”
“Thank you, Mr. Brennan. Have a good evening.”
He ended the call and laid back on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. Could he convince Mitch? Was his heart set on kicking him out? Time was against him – from his brother sobering up and thinking clearly, to the months he still had left on parole.
“What in the hell am I gonna do?”
Chapter Twenty-One
Haize was surprised to see Michael standing by his truck in the parking lot when she got out of work. He was holding a couple of flowers bundled up at the stems, his baseball cap pulled low as he waited.
Hoisting her bag on her shoulder, she glanced at her watch. It was a little after five, and the AA meeting was in a little over an hour. A part of her was excited – butterflies coursing through her stomach. And a part of her was worried. Despite the flowers, he looked tense, like something bad had happened. She looked around the parking lot, wondering if anyone was watching, but they were the only two out there.
“Is everything okay?” She approached him, and he extended the flowers for her to take. They were wildflowers, likely picked from the meadow at the park where they had made love a few nights ago.
“I’ve…” He lifted his cap and ran his hands through his hair. “I’m sorry to come to your work like this. I just… I have a situation and I need to talk to someone about it.”
Her first thought was relapse, though he didn’t appear to be drunk or high. Maybe one sip? That would still be considered a backslide he’d have to work through. “Sure. Let’s talk. But not here.”
He drove her back to her place, where they sat on the back patio. The view of the mountain range behind the town was beautiful – the higher elevations had already gotten snow – the ridge was lined in white and as the sun set on the other side, lent a sparkling contrast against the rocky terrain.
She put the flowers in a glass vase and added some water. “I love the flowers. Thank you.” She patted his hand and sat across from him at her wicker table. “So, what’s the situation, Mikey.”
He hesitated and took his hat off, looking at the view before them and not at her. “My brother is kicking me out of his place.”
