Page 18 of Text Me Baby One More Time

“How’s Zach doing? YourTitanicparents?”

I smile at the thought of my mom and how happy she is with Jack, but that old familiar sting of missing my father hits me and it hurts so fucking bad.

“Mom and Jack are good. Zach and I…well, I’m not really talking to Zach right now.”

She laughs dryly. “Of course you’re not talking to your brother. What’d you do, Shep?”

Annoyance tickles at me. “Why do you assumeIdid something wrong? Why can’t it be his fault?”

“Because I know you better than that. You’re the king of screwing things up.”

“King of assholes, king of mistakes—no matter how you look at it, you’re still calling me the ruler, Den.”

“You’re obnoxious.”

“Yet here you are.”

“Desperation, Shep. Desper-fucking-ation.”

“Whatever you need to tell yourself, Denny.”

* * *

“You can pull in right here.”

“Huh.” I pull the truck up to the window of the security checkpoint. “I didn’t realize we lived so close to each other.”

Her eyes widen. “You live here now?”

“Yeah, while I’m…taking some time off.”

“Oh.”

I can’t tell if that’s a badohor a good one.

With Denny? Probably bad.

She leans over the center console and waves to the old man sitting inside the hut.

His eyes narrow as he tries to get a look inside the cab.

“Roll your window down, dumbass,” she hisses.

I comply because I’m truly afraid she’s about to murder me.

“You know him?”

“Of course I do.” She rolls her eyes. “What? Think he’s going to attack me?”

“You never know these days…”

“I’m fairly certain he served in World War II. He wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

I glance over the old man again, noting the patriotic hat he’s sporting. Fine, he seems harmless.

I roll the window down.

“Hey, Captain.” Denny beams his way.

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