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I didn’t regret what I had done or the time I spent in jail. Not for a damn second.
Wren squeezed my hand, bringing my attention back to her. I brought her hand up and kissed the back of it.
“Are you ready?” Wren had to work today, so we decided it was time I show my face. I was coming to Dan’s with her to see everyone.
“You go in without me.”
She nodded, before leaning across the center console and kissing me softly.
She got out of the car and opened the back seat for King to get out as well. She had insisted on bringing him, and I wasn’t going to argue. I watched as they walked inside the office. She still brought donuts in, which made me smile.
I just needed a minute. I just needed to get my bearings.
She abandoned me.
They all did.
But they hadn’t. Like some sick joke, they had all thought I was dead. Wren and I talked about it into the early hours of the morning. She told me about my funeral. The one where they had nothing to bury and could only stand next to the freshly buried grave of my mother, who they had put to rest a week before they got the news of me.
The lies of me.
Trucks started to pull in. Workers climbed out in their Carhartts and work boots. I watched everyone, looking for two familiar faces. I got out, leaning against the hood of a car. I wanted to light a cigarette as I waited for them, but I didn’t. I wasn’t going to be the one to ever break a promise to Wren.
Not on purpose.
Foster’s paperwork said Troy and Gavin still worked here, but they had never been known for their punctuality. Always stumbling in the door at the last minute.
A little black pickup came into the parking lot, parking across the way from me. Their doors were thrown open at the same time, and they were already bickering at each other.
“If you would have gotten your ass out of bed, we could have gotten breakfast,” Troy hollered, a coffee cup in his hand.
“If you wouldn’t have spent the entire night snoring, maybe I would have been able to wake up this morning,” Gavin said.
“I have a deviated septum. It’s not my fault.”
I shook my head, holding back a laugh. They were still the same goofballs. I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. I wanted to believe that there was a reason why they didn’t come around.
I found myself feeling guilty for thinking the worst of them.
“Troy! Gavin!” I yelled at them. They both looked around until Troy’s eyes landed on me. He dropped his cup.
“Nice, dude, you aren’t getting mine.” Gavin said. I watched as Troy reached out, and gripped Gavin’s face with one hand, turning his head to me.
“Alex. . . ?” In Gavin fashion, he didn’t hesitate. He dropped his own cup and ran to me, slowing only when he reached me.
Troy followed closely behind. “How is this possible?”
“Who fucking cares!” Gavin said as he clasped me around my back, hugging me tight.
I hugged him back. Troy pushed his way into the hug and I watched as Gavin turned, seemingly wiping tears out of his eyes.
“Why are you guys acting like you thought I was dead?”
Troy pulled away, looking up at me and then to Gavin. They exchanged a look. It was a cruel joke.
“Because—” Gavin started, but Troy cut him off.
“Have you seen Wren?” Troy held his hand over Gavin’s mouth.
