Page 59 of Free Heart
She knows he’s waiting for a reply, Bella had explained read receipts to her not long ago.
Looks like a start,she fumbles out one-handed. Amelia Rose begins to cry, and Peggy Jo drops her phone to the coffee table. She stands up and walks the sobbing baby around Bella’s Pottery Barn-infested living room.
She clutches her shiny new grandbaby and blinks away tears. She believes in Dan. He’ll recover. He’ll train well. And, if he doesn’t come to his senses and give up on Heart Route, she believes he’ll conquer this goal.
No matter what, as the closest thing to his mama, she’ll keep the faith.
A newpingannounces Dan’s response.
Onward up the wall!
INTERLUDE 2
Rye’s curled upnext to Lowell on the sofa, tucked into the curve of his body, feeling warm under the weight of his big, strong arm. He’s scrolling social media when a notification pops up that an Instagram account he’s following has posted a new Reel. A glance shows that it’s Dan, and the caption of the video has him sitting up instantly.
“Oh, no,” he whispers, horror lacing through the frustrating, high-pitched giggle that escapes him. “Oh,Dan, no.”
“What now?” Lowell asks.
Rye turns up the volume and holds his phone so Lowell can see.
“Hi, my name’s Dan McBride, and I fell off El Capitan while free soloing and survived to tell the tale.”
Over the last few videos, this has become Dan’s go-to opening line. He’s sitting on the sofa in Peggy Jo’s living room, and he waves a little robotically, like he thinks it’s expected of him and not because he really means it.
“Anyway, my boyfriend’s working all day again, and I’m bored as S-H-I-T.” He waggles a finger at the camera, a gleam coming into his eye. The robotic vibe drops away. “Ah-ah-ah, you think you’ll catch me saying naughty words again, algorithm? You think you’ll shadow ban me or worse?Think again.”
He raises a brow like a cartoon villain. Muggs leaps into view, crossing the back of the couch to perch behind Dan’s shoulder, staring balefully into the camera. Dan ignores him.
“Anyway, I saw there’s a popular trend called Get Ready With Me and, since I’m bored to near insanity, I thought why the heck not.”
He grins, and it’s piratical and cute, and also scary as hell because who knows what Dan’s about to say or do next. Rye clenches Lowell’s arm.
“Get Ready With Me?” Lowell repeats.
Rye touches the screen to stop the video and explains. “It a trend where folks film themselves getting ready to go out somewhere. Get Ready With Me to go to work. Get Ready With Me to go to the club. They usually tell an interesting story while they do it or maybe explain the products they’re using.”
“Ah, okay.”
Rye lets the video roll again.
“What am I getting ready for, you may ask, given that I’m stuck at home, alone, with a broken leg? I’m getting ready to watch some raw doggin’, slick and sloppy, fingerlicking-goodcorn.” He slaps his hands together rhythmically making an obnoxiously sexual sound with his palms.
“Oh, Lord.”
“Watch corn?” Lowell murmurs, confused.
“Slang for ‘porn.’ Algorithms have been trained to block anything with certain words in it, like porn or dick or ass, and so people use other words or emojis instead. Like corn, or eggplant, or, I don’t know, peaches.”
“Peaches…” Lowell sounds mystified.
How strange it must be to be basically old and not know anything about how this new world works. How strange that Rye’s currently bossing around and screwing a man who’s nearing forty-six. How strange indeed…
The video plays on.
“So…” Dan pauses dramatically, and then raises an arm to show what he’s holding. “Here are the sweatpants I’m going tobe wearing today. They’re Fruit of the Loom brand. Soft. Blue. Boring.” He shows the tag. “Where did the cornucopia go? We all know it was there. Is it a worldwide, brainwashing conspiracy? Or proof of the Matrix? And what about the Berenstein Bears? Stain, my ass.” He huffs.
“Wow.”
