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“Out?”
He let his laughter out, and he met Nate’s eye, the other man smiling in return. “Yeah, Ma,” Ted said, still chuckling. “They approved my request for the Residential reentry Program, and I went to Hope Eternal Ranch yesterday.”
“Oh, Teddy.” His mother began to weep, and Ted sobered a little bit.
“I want you to come visit,” he said. “It’s not nearly as far to Sweet Water Falls as it is to River Bay. A couple of hours.” He cut a glance to Emma, who sat on the fountain wall, her attention seemingly only on her phone. Her fingers flew across the screen while Ted waited for his mother to confirm or deny.
“I’ll call Britta,” his mother said. “We’ll come.”
“Thanks, Ma,” Ted said, his chest expanding in a whole new way now. It felt like he’d broken through an invisible band that had prevented him from taking a full breath. “I don’t have her number memorized like I do yours. I can call her too,” he said. “Or could you give her my number and have her text me everyone’s numbers?”
“Yes,” his mother said. “Yes. Let’s see…let me get a pencil….” A moment later, she told him to go ahead, and Ted rattled off his phone number from the cell phone contract he held in his hand.
He felt…powerful standing there on the sidewalk, talking to his mother at whatever time he wanted. They could talk for as long as they wanted too, and Ted barely knew what to do with himself. He was so used to having conversations in code or in under fifteen minutes.
Nate did tap his wrist a few minutes later, because getting a cell phone wasn’t the only task they needed to accomplish that day.
“All right, Ma,” Ted said. “My friend says we have to go. I have to go buy a bunch of clothes and stuff too.”
“Teddy, do you need some money?”
“No, Ma,” Ted said. He would not take her money. “I’m fine.”
“Okay,” she said. “I have a little extra.”
“It’s not necessary, Ma.” Ted told her he loved her and couldn’t wait to see her, and then he ended the call.
“How is she?” Nate asked.
“You called it, brother,” Ted said, holding out his fist for Nate to bump. He did, and they chuckled. “She cried.”
“Are you going to call your dad?” Nate asked.
“I will tonight,” Ted said. “He’ll be in the back, and he doesn’t answer the phone when he’s in the racks.” His father still ran the dry cleaning shop, despite the amicable divorce that had happened a year before Ted had gone to prison.
He’d barely adjusted to his parents not being together, and with the long separation between all of them, he barely knew how to have two halves of a family that had once been whole. “Do you think I should invite him to come alone?”
“Maybe ask Britta?” Nate asked. “Emma, do you want us to run you back to the ranch? Ted has a ton of shopping to do.”
“No,” she said, looking up from her phone. “I’m fine to wait here. Jess is on her way to get me.” She looked at Ted on the last few words.
“We can wait with you,” Ted said. He wouldn’t just walk away from her and hope she made it back to the ranch okay.
“Yeah, we’ll wait,” Nate said, and he sat down on the fountain wall too.
Ted sat next to him and slipped a glance in Nate’s direction, who said, “Let’s go to the bank first. I have a guy who’ll set you up nice.”
Ted couldn’t argue, and he had very little money. He wasn’t sure how he’d be able to pay for the items he needed, and he’d already let Nate buy his phone.
The noise of the water splashing from the fountain to the pool was the only conversation, and Jess pulled up in a ranch truck several minutes later. “Thanks for bringing me to get a new phone,” Emma said as she reached for the door handle. “And thanks for waiting with me.” She glanced at Nate, because the rest of her words had been directed at Ted.
He couldn’t say anything, so he just tipped his hat at her again, and he really knew why Nate liked this cowboy hat. It was growing on Ted too.
Emma got in the truck, closed the door, and Jess eased away from the curb.
“What was that?” Nate asked.
“What?” Ted stood up, glad to be off the hard cement.
