Page 4 of Summer Holiday Lifeline

“Oh. You, feeling less isolated. You’re half a country away from everyone important to you.”

“Not you.”

“Pfft.” She waved him off. “I am not who you need right now. You need those people who kept you alive after you came back, Myles. You need your people.”

“You are my people.”

“Yes, I know, honey. But they understand you. They know what you went through, and they have their shelter, so they’ll know how to help you help these kids. At least with Jet. You deserve their support right now, as much as Jet and Shelly deserve yours. Please get it through your thick skull that you need to take care of you before you can take proper care of them.”

“I know.” And he did, which was why he was going to Griffon’s Elbow and his friends. His family. Even Ozzy, because whatever their differences, however they had parted, deep down, he and Ozzy were family of the soul, and he needed those connections more than anything right now.

“Thanks for taking care of this place while we’re gone.” He wasn’t sure if it was his imagination that the lights flickered as he said that. “I swear since Nat… I mean, the house is just…” He sighed. He’d been about to say it didn’t like him, but that sounded too off the wall, so he let it drop.

“Thank you for giving me a place to stay while my place is being built.” She twinkled at him and petted a nearby door frame. “I’m going to enjoy the space while I have it.”

“If you don’t want a tiny house, why⁠—”

“I do, though. It will be small, but it will be luxurious. And portable. You know Sharon. She needs portable.”

Pat’s partner was a musician by trade but a nomad at heart, and Myles was glad Pat would finally be able to stay close to her lover, despite Sharon’s inability to stay in one place long.

“You guys need to get on the road,” she said after a minute. She turned him and pointed him at the door. “You go load the car. I’ll round up the animals.”

He didn’t imagine that the door slammed on his heels as he limped out with Jet’s heavy suitcase.

CHAPTER TWO

The road trip across the country turned out to be as painful as Myles anticipated. Shelly couldn’t sit still. Jet had forgotten how to smile sometime in the first year of being a teenager. Myles’s bad hip ached by the end of the first day of driving, making every day after that both feel longer and actually be a shorter drive than he would have hoped.

The five-day trip he’d planned took them eight, and he could not get away from the kids fast enough when he pulled into Griffon’s Elbow. In fact, he didn’t even take the time to find the parking lot of the Oaks B and B, but pulled up on the street at the foot of its front walk.

Guilt brewed, thick and chunky in his gut as he shut off the car, making him wish he hadn’t downed that last extra-large double-double as he’d passed around the northern edges of the city. He’d stopped at an ONroute, and then, in a last-minute fit of cowardice, deaked around the outskirts rather than turn south towards the city center.

Of course, Jet had been furious. It was the one part of the extended car trip he’d been on board with—a trip into the city to the Eaton Centre, and, for a little while, get himself lost in the press of people after more than a week of being cooped up with his sister and uncle.

He hadn’t spoken to Myles since realizing he wasn’t going to get the chance to visit the shopping mecca after all. That had been going on four hours ago, because when Myles deviated from his planned route, he’d gotten turned around and driven for over a half hour in the wrong direction, unable to easily correct on the divided highway.

“You two stay here while I go figure this out,” he said, opening his door.

“But Uncle My-my!” Shelly snapped off her belt, then wriggled over the side of her booster seat to stand on the car’s leather upholstery in her hard-soled sandals. “I wanna⁠—”

“Stay,” Myles barked. “I’ll be back. And sit down before you mark up the seats.”

She plopped onto her ass and crossed her arms over her little chest, bottom lip stuck out.

“This is bullshit,” Jet muttered.

Myles ignored him and crawled out of the car. Just putting his foot on the ground was enough to tell him he wasn’t getting across the sidewalk without his cane. Not after eight straight days of driving. Pushing his head back into the car, he reached over the console to get it from the passenger seat.

“You going to let us take the dog for a pee?” Jet asked, voice lead-lined and heavy with resentment.

Myles growled at him, saying neither yes nor no as he pulled out of the car and slammed his door.

Way to meet the teenager on his level.

Stumping towards the front of the house, Myles grumbled to himself as he psyched himself up to take the steps to the porch.

He’d only just reached the top when the door flew open.