Page 12 of The Other Side of Green

I kept my gaze firmly away from the house just next to theirs. There was nothing there to see.

Letting go of the brake, I cruised the Audi away from childish memories and looked out for the next place I needed to visit.

I’d talked this through with myself the whole journey.

If I was coming back—and part of me didn’t know if this was the right thing, but the other half knew I had to try—I’d need to do it right.

That meant going to the one place that most people in our neighborhood tried to avoid… if they possibly could.

The police precinct.

Four years of guilt banded around my chest, tightening and cranking until my ribs no longer wanted to expand. Only when my cell rang through the hands-free did I manage to take a breath.

“Whatsup,” I answered, Evan’s name flashing on the console.

“Did you make it back?” He sounded hungover. I tried to work the time difference out.

“Just arrived.”

“Home sweet home, right?”

I peered up through the window. “Well, there aren’t any flags waving from windows.”

“You know, she might just have got freaked out. I mean, her Grams had just died, and even you’ve told me what a rock-solid part of your lives she was.”

My throat tightened at the thought of Grams. How many times had she given me a hot meal when my mom couldn’t?

“Yeah,” I replied noncommittally. “What’s happening at the bar?”

“Nothing.”

“What do you mean nothing?”

“I mean, nothing. No sign of a Collins. No bailiffs coming to tell me to get out because the place isn’t mine.”

“Right.” That didn’t sound right at all.

“We are just going to wait and see.”

“We?” I quirked my lips.

“Well, you know, Rhian and me.”

“Please tell me you finally grew some balls and asked her out.”

“How very old school of you, Jack. We sank a bottle of Jim Bean and fucked like rabbits.”

“Cool.”

He snorted. “We didn’t. Wish we had though.”

“Admit it, you’re scared of her.”

“In a ball shriveling way you can’t contemplate.”

I grinned. I needed this. Like magic, Evan eased some of the intense frustration I’d had coiled up tight the whole journey.

“I gotta go. Keep me updated, yeah?”