Page 37 of Keep

CHAPTER NINE

Curtis

I poked my head into Cord’s office. “You need me for anything else tonight?”

He looked up from the sketch he’d been working on. “Damn, is it really after six already?”

“Unless all the clocks are lying.”

He tossed his charcoal pencil on the desk and stretched with a wince. “Lost track of time.”

Cord was forever an artist at heart and whenever his creative instincts took over the rest of the world kind of faded away.

“So it’s all right if I take off?” I pressed.

“Sure. Did I tell you Deck’s planning to be back on Monday?”

“Yeah. I’ve missed his ugly mug. Seriously though, I’m really happy Izzy’s home and doing well.”

“As are we all.” Cord picked up his pencil again and twirled it between his fingers. “You and Cassie have plans tonight?”

“No, she’s got a class this evening. And Breck’s hanging out with some friends.” I paused. “I need to ask you, do you think it would be weird if I stopped by Chase’s house?”

“Why would it be weird?”

“I know they’re going through some serious shit right now. But they’ve always been so good to Brecken. I thought maybe I could talk to Derek, tell him I know what it’s like to fuck up in life.”

Cord nodded thoughtfully. “I think that would be a good thing to do.”

After a moment he noticed that I hadn’t moved from the door. “Is there something else you wanted to say, Curtis?”

There was. The same thing that had been bothering me since the accident.

“You might have heard this already but I caught Derek hiding out and drinking at the wedding. I could have stopped the accident from happening if I’d followed up to make sure he didn’t get behind the wheel.”

Cord stopped twirling his pencil. “My nephew’s not a child. I love Derek and I constantly pray that he won’t have to go to prison but he’s got to live with the consequences of his choices.”

“I know. But I feel responsible somehow anyway.”

Cord was already shaking his head. “Don’t beat yourself up. Because if you’re responsible then we all are.” He gave me a hard look. “We can’t always save people from themselves no matter how hard we try. You know that.”

I got the feeling he was talking about Tristan. Cord knew the whole story. He was telling me I needed to quit blaming myself for the path Tristan had chosen.

“I do know that,” I said. “But nothing will ever stop us from trying, will it?”

Cord gave me a sympathetic smile. “No, I don’t suppose it will ever stop us from trying.”

“See you tomorrow, boss.”

“Drive safe, Curtis.”

The last time I’d been to Chase Gentry’s house was for a family birthday party. Chase and Stephanie and their three boys always struck me as a happy, raucous bunch, always a blast to be around. As I rang the doorbell I wondered if I was imagining the new gloomy mood surrounding their family home.

The door was opened by the middle son, Kellan.

“No soliciting,” he declared and promptly closed it.

I waited, wondering if it was possible he didn’t recognize me. That would be really weird. I hadn’t changed much lately.

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