Page 40 of Yard Sale

He snorted. “Yeah, I do. I mean, not this car. Alexio has one just like this.”

I’d never seen Alexio’s car. I barely knew the guy, but it was big, public knowledge he was dating a guy from Tiago’s team.

“This was a gift from my dad,” I told him as I put the car into drive. “When I turned twenty-three, he decided I was responsible enough to drive something nicer than his old ’97 Honda Civic.”

Tiago grinned. “My older brother had one of those. I kind of always hoped I’d get it when he was done with it, but, well…ah.”

“Did you ever drive?” I asked, then felt like an ass. I bit the inside of my cheek as I pulled out onto the main road and headed west.

“No. I got diagnosed pretty young, and by the time I was old enough to think about a permit, my peripheral vision was gone, and my night vision was absolutely terrible.”

“I kind of want to say sorry, but I don’t know if that would make me a dick.”

He laughed softly. “It’s fine. It sucks, you know? Not getting to do that normal teenage thing—like a rite of passage. My brother got to do all the joyriding shit on his breaks, and I got to take occupational therapy lessons during the summer where I learned to cut cucumbers blindfolded.”

I had no idea what to say, so I changed the subject. “So, uh…your house?”

“My parents’ house. It’s on Quarter Moon Drive. It’s the last house on the cul-de-sac.” He was silent as I pressed the gas harder, and then he said, “Sorry if that makes you uncomfortable.”

My brows furrowed. “What?”

“The…you know. All the talk about blind stuff.”

I fought the urge to bash my face against the steering wheel. “It doesn’t.”

He scoffed. “Aravind⁠—”

“No, look. I—” I stopped and took a deep breath.

As much as I didn’t want to talk about my shit-for-brains ex with him, of all people, he deserved to know why I’d been in the worst headspace.

“This isn’t an excuse about before,” I started, because it wasn’t. “What I said was wrong, and I know you forgive me,” I added when he sucked in a breath, “but that doesn’t mean I don’t feel like shit about it.” I took a single moment to try and shove Leon’s face out of my memory. “I was in the middle of a really bad breakup when I got the assignment with the PPHL.”

Tiago was so quiet I had to look over at him, and he seemed a bit surprised. “Oh. Okay.”

“Like I said, it’s not an excuse, but I really wasn’t myself.” I squeezed the wheel until my knuckles ached. “I met my ex when I was in grad school. He was, ah—fuck, this is going to sound so bad.”

Tiago cleared his throat. “Let me guess. Your teacher?”

“Well, not mine, but yes. He was a teacher. Is a teacher. We fooled around during my last semester of grad school, and then right before I was about to graduate, he asked me if I wanted to make things official. Then, a year and a half ago, he started floating the idea of living together. He got a job at the college and asked me to pause my applications for my PhD program and move in with him.”

“Well. That’s fucked-up,” Tiago blurted.

I nearly laughed. “I guess. I was kind of already on the fence about whether I wanted to keep doing school. I was feeling lost and still struggling with the grief of losing my mom, and it didn’t sound like the worst idea in the world.”

Tiago was quiet for a second, then asked, “What happened to her?”

I was a little surprised by the question. “You don’t know? ESPN did a whole thing about it on the profile they did when my dad took the Glaciers job.”

Tiago grimaced. “ESPN isn’t my favorite.”

That was fair enough. I took a breath to brace myself, but in reality, it wasn’t hard to talk about anymore. “It was six years ago. She was at a stoplight and was T-boned by a car that started hydroplaning. It wasn’t anyone’s fault.” My throat got a little tight because it was a reminder that I had no one to blame. Not really. “The storm was sudden and unexpected, and there wasn’t anything she or the driver could have done. She ah…she was in a coma for a while, but eventually, her body started to shut down.”

“Fuck,” he whispered. “I am so sorry.”

“Yeah.” My voice cracked, and I hated that. I took a second to recover. “I was really close with her. My dad took it really hard. I think it was one of the reasons he took the job in Boston. He wanted to be somewhere different—to move away from all the heavy memories of life before. You know?”

Tiago licked his lips. “I could see that. I’ve never lost anyone, but I think I might want to do the same.”