Page 91 of The Best Shot

I shook my head and kept walking, lifting a hand to his caretaker on the way out. He nodded back from behind his book.

By the time I hit the sidewalk I was already calling her.

“Hey,” she said.

Her voice was steady but there was strain under it.

“What’s wrong?”

“Everything’s fine. Mostly.”

“What happened?”

“Nothing really.” A quiet exhale. “Nothing new.”

“Your family?”

“My mother had CeeCee over for dinner. Shaun was there. They hadn’t planned on me being there and we had… words.”

I slowed to a stop. “Are you okay?”

“Yes.”

“Come over,” I said. “Stay with me tonight.”

“I’m fine, Hale. I just wanted to hear your voice for a second.”

“Come anyway. Let me pick you up.” I wanted her close. Close enough to touch. Close enough to know the steadiness in her voice wasn’t costing her too much.

I waited.

Then, finally, “Okay.”

“Thirty minutes?”

“Okay. I’ll be ready.”

The line clicked off.

Across the park, Harry caught me standing there like a fool. I shook my head and started walking.

Serious.

27

“HOLD ONTO ME INSTEAD.”

HALE

She’d been talking for ten minutes.

Words stacking over words the way they always did when something sat heavy on her chest and she’d rather circle it than cut straight through.

Her mother’s house. Her brother showing up. The old hurt she’d finally dragged into the kitchen and set between them.

She stopped at the window, turned back toward me, and picked up right where she’d left off. Her hands wouldn’t settle. She pulled at the hem of the shirt, bit at her lip, picked up her phone and set it down again.

I didn’t interrupt.