Page 75 of Holding On to a Hero
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Excerpt from transcript of interview with Ingrid Von Grimmelshausen,former business rival of William Graham:
Von Grimmelshausen:Will Graham? What a lovely man. It was so sad how he was too injured to continue working. I told him, ‘Don’t worry about your clients. I’ll take good care of them. Just worry about getting better.’
Agent Wainwright:Before the accident, didn’t you compete for the same clients?
Von Grimmelshausen:Of course. But, Agent Wainwright, it was just business. Are you single?
Agent Wainwright:No, ma’am. How would you characterize your relationship with Mr. Graham now?
Von Grimmelshausen:I haven’t spoken to him since he left town. Now, since you’re in a relationship, have you considered having a couple’s portrait done? I also specialize in boudoir photos – very tasteful, of course.
Chapter Forty
Jason
We were about halfway through South Dakota by late morning. I-29 was the most obvious route toward home, but the shooter would have had to have tailed us from the airport or the motel to find us among the thousands of cars on the road, so I felt reasonably safe. I planned on taking a little jog to the east or west at some point just to make us harder to track.
We made use of the time to get to know each other a little better. Starting with music preferences, because thiswasa road trip after all. All three of us were fans of the 80’s radio station that was, for whatever reason, the station that came in the clearest when you drove through Bent Oak. Will was into singer-songwriters, but we both shared a love for power ballads. I was pleased to learn he liked classic rock, which is my favorite but Cole is not a fan. He prefers songs from the current century. Cole and I both tried and failed to describe Kinky Friedman’s songs to Will. His laughter was the best music I’d heard since we’d left Austin.
Cole told Will about our journey to get to northern Minnesota via a Midwest road trip and a tour of the Great Lakes. I’d made sure that we stayed overnight within a couple of hours of a decent-sized airport no matter where we were.
Finally Cole got around to the question I’d been waiting for him to ask Will. Particularly since Will hadn’t volunteered the information himself.
“What happened last night? Brian said that asshole shot at you? And a friend of yours was there?”
Will groaned and leaned his head back on the seat. “Okay, so, it’s been six weeks since we’ve seen each other, right?”
“Right.”
“And I’ve been pretty lonely.” Oh, shit. I clenched my hands around the steering wheel.
“You were on adate?” Cole must have realized how accusatory he sounded, because he immediately started to backtrack. “I mean, you had every right to, of course. It wasn’t like we’d said we were exclusive or anything. Um, is he, like, a boyfriend?”
“No! No, not at all.” Will looked down at his lap. “I wanted to meet some people. Make a friend maybe. I still want to date you two. If you, uh, still want to date me.”
“Yes! Yes, we do, Will.” Cole twisted himself around to reach between the seats. I couldn’t see what he was doing but I guessed he was holding Will’s hand.
“Will,” I met his gaze in the rearview mirror. “I know you haven’t been around us much, but Cole and I really like you. We talked about it while we were on the road –“
“We want to get serious,” Cole interrupted. “We’re ready to be exclusive whenever you are.”
Will looked stunned. His mouth was open but he wasn’t saying anything. I was debating whether I should pull over when he finally found his words.
“Wow. I didn’t expect…are you sure?”
Cole and I both nodded. “We are. But we know it’s fast, so you don’t have to give us an answer right now.”
“But you can if you want to!” Cole was doing something that required him to wriggle even further back between the seats. The seatbelt had to be cutting off his circulation.
I was trying to focus on the road ahead while still monitoring Will’s reaction in the mirror. I finally relaxed when I saw the slow smile bloom across Will’s face. “I’m in,” he said. “Let’s do it.”
Cole and I cheered.
“Okay, we’ll celebrate when we stop for the night.” I needed to get the topic back to last night’s shooting before Cole started listing all of the dirty things we’d be doing tonight. “But, Will, can you please finish your story?”
Cole coughedNo funinto his hand.
