Page 76 of Small Town Firsts
“Shit,” I muttered. It was worse than I thought if he was dragging out the jazz already. “What is going on with you?”
Kain squatted down to pick through one of my crates. “I just needed to get away.”
“That’s not all of it.”
He tapped his heavy silver ring against the old milk crate a few times, flipped another few records then sighed. “The old man died.”
“What? When?”
“Four weeks ago.”
Shock laced my voice. “And you didn’t call me? I would have flown out.”
Kain dropped onto his ass on my floor and sat cross-legged. “Yeah, I know. It was a fucking mess.” He scooped his hair back away from his face. “He just dropped dead on a work site.”
“Jesus.” I sat next to him. I wasn’t quite as flexible, but I leaned on the sturdy shelves and kicked out my legs. “Was he sick?”
“Jackie? Nah, at least not that he told anyone. Too stubborn to actually go to the doc if something was wrong anyway.” He tipped his head back against the rough-cut wood and closed his eyes. “We hadn’t spoken in more than a year, man.”
“Hell.”
“Yeah.” Kain glanced over with a half-smile. “Some things never change, hey?” He shrugged. “After all the will bullshit was done, I couldn’t concentrate at work. Malia told me to take off—get my head straight.”
“Insert bike.”
“My ass feels like it. I’ve been driving for weeks.”
I laughed because he needed me to. And I needed it too. I’d never met Kain’s father, but I knew they had a lot of issues. Two big personalities who needed an ocean to be between them to live peacefully. Kain wanted to prove himself and started up his own company in California and blew up before he hit thirty years old.
“I’m sorry, man.”
“Me too.” He looked around. “I need alcohol for this.”
I glanced out the door to the deck where our booze was. “It’s so far away.”
He tipped his head back for a deep chuckle. “That it is.”
I reached above my head for the small bottle of single malt I’d stashed there.
His eyebrows shot up. “Magic bottle?”
“My old man gave it to me for my last birthday. Seems right.”
“God bless Erik for our lazy asses.”
I cracked the seal. My dad would approve. “No glasses. Like old times.” I handed him the bottle.
“To Jackie.” He took a healthy swig. “Even if the bastard left me his empire.”
“Oh, fuck.”
“Leave it to the old man to have the last word.” Kain took a deep swallow and coughed before handing it back to me.
I lifted the bottle to the sky. “To Jackie.”
After a slug or two from the bottle, things were definitely feeling warm and tingly.
“Hey, we should go look at your laboratory.”
