Page 49 of The Path To Us

He follows my lead, taking a bite of his hash brown. He groans and drops his head back. “Holy shit, these things are good. I’m going to gain so much weight now that I’m done playing.”

“Didn’t indulge in junk food much, huh?”

He shakes his head, taking another bite. “Only on rare occasions.”

We sit eating our breakfast in the parking lot but not saying much else. Until…

“I’d kill for one of Mama Suzie’s big loaded breakfasts,” he says. “Remember those? With the big chunks of potatoes and sausage, eggs, and cheese. Sometimes she’d put peppers and onions in it, too, and we’d always complain.”

I look at him with my head turned, wondering if he’s just musing or if he really didn’t hear the news that she passed away.

“Yeah.”

“How is she? Fuck, I had such a boner for her. Well, Addy, too, but, man, Suzie…”

Okay, so he didn’t hear. “You’ve been gone a long time, Ty.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

I look around the parking lot and while it’s not crowded, it’s not necessarily the place to catch up on our lives. Especially when that includes telling him about the people in our past who are no longer with us. “I think we need to have a conversation elsewhere.”

His expression grows alarmed and he puts his food down beside him, wiping his hands with a napkin. He leans an elbow on the edge of the window sill, eyes wide “Why? What’s wrong? Is it Addy? Is she okay? Fuck, man, please tell me she’s okay.”

I nod once. “She’s okay.”

He blows out a breath, hand to his chest. “Thank God. Holy shit, don’t scare me like that.”

“But, um, Suzie… she got cancer a while back.”

I don’t say anything else. He’s a smart guy, he understands what I’m getting at and can read between the lines that Addy’s mom is no longer with us.

“No.”

“Yeah. It was a rough time for Addy.”

He drops his head back against his headrest, using his thumb and pointer finger to rub his eyes. “Fuuuuuck. Why didn’t my parents tell me that? I can’t believe this shit.”

“Nothing you could have done there. The cancer couldn’t have been stopped.”

He removes his cap and drops it in his lap, leaning his forehead against his steering wheel. He takes several deep breaths and sniffs. Once he has his composure, he sits back, returning his cap to cover his short black hair. The faraway look about him makes me assume he probably needs time to process all that’s happened in the last ten minutes. I pull my phone out of the cupholder and hand it over to him. “Put in your number. I’ll give you a call, set up a time to get together.”

He does as I ask and hands it back to me after texting himself so he has my number. “And Addy, too? I’d like to give her my condolences. You two are together, right?”

I scrunch up my face in confusion. “Addy and me? No. Why would you ask that?”

“Uh, because it’s you two? I just assumed you’d end up together.”

If only.

I shake my head, wishing that my answer was different. “Still single.”

“And Addy?” he asks, not hiding the twinge of hopefulness in his voice.

Fuck, is he asking because he wants to ask her out? Back home for a hot second and he’s already trying to get with Addy?

I shake my head and admit, albeit regrettably, “She’s single, too.”

“Wow. Totally expected her to be off the market by now. How’d that happen?”

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