Total pages in book: 191
Estimated words: 182070 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 182070 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
All right, I’d still give it to him, but I’d give it to just about anyone if they really needed it and only had me.
Things changed. People changed. Life changed. I knew it and accepted it.
His phone started ringing then, and he broke our connection and stepped away.
I met his gaze. “Let’s go. You can take your calls while I drive.”
Zac, who had seemed so happy to see me thirty minutes ago, stuck to nodding as a response, the rest of his features totally sober.
I sent my sister another text real quick before I got back into the car.
Me: Driving to Austin and back. I’ll let you know when I get home.
The man in my passenger seat talked, but only on the phone as he spoke to who I guessed were his agent, his manager—who was some guy named Trevor that I’d met once and thought he was a jerk, who was also the man who had texted him, now that I thought about it—and my cousin Boogie. He’d basically relayed to the first two that his grandpa was in the hospital and that he was going back home to be with him.
“I’m not sure when I’ll be back,” Zac had told Trevor, who, from what I had gathered, wasn’t very happy with his decision to leave Houston. I managed to hear bits and pieces of him replying to Zac using a sharp voice and saying words like “time” and “can’t afford to” and “what are you doing?” To which Zac responded by gritting his teeth and replying to him in an annoyed voice that “this was Paw-Paw” and “family comes first, Trev” and “yeah, he’s at the house; don’t worry about it.”
Their conversation had interested me the most, honestly. But I reminded myself again that it wasn’t my business what happened and I just wished Zac the best, like I always would.
Then he called someone who lived with him, based off the clues.
“Hey, I left the house. My grandpa is in the hospital, and I gotta get home to see him…. Yeah…. Look, kick everybody out when you’re ready. The cleanin’ crew will be there tomorrow; I called them this mornin’, so you’re gonna be good…. Yeah. All right. Sorry, Ceej…. Sure. Bye.”
After those calls, Zac hardly said anything, even when I stopped at a big gas station with a beaver logo on the way out of Houston. He just sat in the car and waited for me while I went in. I bought two sausages on a stick and a couple drinks, intending to share one with the man waiting in the car, but when I tried to hand him one, he gave me a tiny smile and shook that dark blond head of hair. He did take the bottle of water I’d got him.
The Zac I had known would have never turned down a sausage on a stick—or any food really. It was just a reminder that, in some ways, he wasn’t the same person. Even my cramping stomach agreed.
That or he had a really strict diet that didn’t include processed meats. Who the hell knew? I was going to go with option B to make myself feel better.
I drove with my wrists, hands full while I ate both the sausages because they weren’t about to go to waste, and we—at least I—listened to a podcast about affirmations and the history of beans.
But, yeah, the entire ride was spent without us saying a word to each other. When before we both would have run our mouths nonstop about everything and anything. He was a talker, and so was I.
It was just another reminder we were different people.
Luckily, I hadn’t expected anything, especially not this—driving him a couple hundred miles back to the area where we’d grown up. At least I was off work the next day. I contemplated staying at Boogie’s, so I wouldn’t drive home in the dark, but immediately decided against it. I needed to film tomorrow, and Deepa had warned me she had something to do in the afternoon, so we had to start early.
The hours went by fast at least, and Zac eventually mentioned what hospital Paw-Paw was at once we got close to northern Austin and had to use the navigation app to get there since I couldn’t remember.
“We’re here,” I told him when I pulled in front of the medical center.
Zac lifted his head off where it had been resting against the window for the last hour and sighed. It made my heart hurt a little. All right, maybe more than a little.
Reaching over, I set my hand on his shoulder, giving it a quick pat for what would more than likely be the last time in a very long time. “Do you need anything else before I go?” I asked him gently as I tried to take in that familiar-not-familiar face one last time.