Page 22 of Second Chance

“She okay?” Tony asks in what he hopes is a light but not flippant tone.

Daniel laughs without humor. “No. She’s freaking out. Poor kid is retaking Lawrence’s stupid class, and when she tries to be nice and go looking for her, she finds a bloodbath.”

Lily attempted suicide last year, Tony remembers. She was in the hospital for a long time recovering. He doesn’t want to ask about Lily’s method. It seems like a gross question, but he hopes it wasn’t bloody.

“I thought she was trying to get her classes from last year counted?”

“Mm-hm. Lawrence said no, and there was no summer school equivalent. Now Lily thinks people will assume she did it because she found the—because she found Professor Lawrence.”

Tony winces. “I would say she has nothing to worry about, but…”

“But.” Neither of them mentions Colette’s arrest. They don’t need to.

“What a shitty first week back for her.” Tony wraps his arm around Daniel’s middle and pulls him in close. Daniel turns slightly to bury his face into Tony’s shoulder. He exhales heavily, hot against the fabric of Tony’s T-shirt, and his shoulders relax.

For a guilty moment, Tony remembers Gianna, alone in her room in Kingston, taking care of the baby by herself. She needs this too.

“It’s not even Lily’s first week back. She was trapped in summer school trying to make up classes for two months with all the burnouts and drug users who’re close to flunking.”

“At least she met her boyfriend there.” Tony thinks of the fond way Lily mentioned him to Gianna, as if his comfort is really worth something. With Daniel’s body pressed tight to his, Tony can understand how that makes a difference. “It’s good having someone to…having someone.”

“Yeah. I’m glad you’re here,” Daniel says into Tony’s shirt.

Tony lets his eyes close. “Me too.”

Chapter Four

The next day is a Tuesday, and Tony has to go to work in the morning.

Daniel checks his work email in bed, a bad habit Tony tries to wean him off whenever he can. These are exceptional circumstances. He announces campus is still shut down until further notice and flops back into the sheets.

Tony brings him tea in bed before he has to go.

He texts Gianna to ask if she’s holding up okay before he leaves because it isn’t one of her workdays, and he might not see her otherwise. But then he finds her sitting in reception when he gets there, rocking Lia in her stroller with one hand while she types with the other.

She looks up briefly when he gets in. “I’m fine, nerd. Stop worrying.”

Suitably rebuffed, Tony spends most of the day buffing. He’s grateful Gianna’s here as it saves him the customer service work, but he’s also not sure he wants to be as alone with his thoughts as he is.

He should be glad she’s doing fine.

It’s weird he isn’t.

Mrs. Cooper’s car has never looked so good.

He clocks out at five on the dot, stops for gas and groceries, and heads to Rhinebeck again.

Daniel and Colette are already halfway through a bottle of wine when he gets there.

“Do you want help?” Daniel calls as Tony brings the food to the kitchen and starts unpacking.

“That’s okay,” Tony answers. “Salad all right?”

“Please. You’re a miracle.”

Rolling his eyes at nothing, Tony starts on dinner. He cooks on Tuesdays, although he’d probably have volunteered today anyway, with the day Daniel’s had. Distantly, he hears chair legs scrape and Daniel’s voice moving farther away as he talks on the phone. Tony’s in the process of chopping a bell pepper when Colette comes in with her wine glass, pulls all her rings off, and sets them next to the sink before washing her hands and grabbing a cutting board.

He offers her a cucumber. “You holding up okay?”

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