Page 54 of Keeping Secrets

“You don’t know that,” Travis protested.

“On the contrary, I could get worse very quickly.”

“Did they…” he started, stumbled to a stop, tried again, “...the tests?”

“Nothing conclusive yet, but none of the options are hopeful. When they figure out what’s happening, they might be able to slow it down, give me some idea of how much time I have… but this is only going to get worse.”

“It might get better, though. You might get better.”

“I won’t,” Scot snapped. Then his voice softened again. “I won’t. I know it in my bones. And it’s time I looked reality in the face. I want you to have the bar. And I want you to take over sooner rather than later.”

Travis shook his head and stood. He set the beer down on the table, still mostly full. He picked up the paychecks and tucked them back into his jacket.

“No, you won’t run the bar for me?” Scot asked.

“I already am. We can just keep going as we are.”

“Not for much longer.”

“You don’t know that!” Travis insisted. His throat hurt with suppressed emotion. “You don’t know that. Just wait a while. See what the doctors say and get back on your feet. We don’t have to decide anything today.”

“Soon, though.”

He just shook his head. “What do you want for dinner?”

Scot sighed and let the subject drop. “Whatever’s hot.”

“Mike’s making clam chowder today.”

“Perfect.”

“I’ll bring it over around six.”

“Sounds good.”

Travis nodded curtly and moved toward the door. He was halfway out when Scot spoke.

“And Travis?”

He turned to look at him, and the depth of emotion in Scot’s eyes hit him like a boulder to the chest.

“Thank you.”

CHAPTER 17

Keely’s pulse fluttered and her hands shook as she walked across the police station parking lot. She had nothing to fear, no logical reason to be nervous, and yet for some reason, she could hardly breathe.

She didn’t like to think about the time she had spent with Adam, how completely she had lost herself.

To this day, she didn’t understand why she had been such easy prey. She had two parents who loved her. She’d always had a good life. So how had she fallen so fully into substance abuse and a toxic relationship?

She had turned away from her family, her studies, her life. Worse than that, she had forgotten herself. Her values and self-respect, everything that made her her. Anything for that next hit – not just of the drugs, but of Adam’s approval.

Her legs trembled as she walked up the concrete steps to the police station, and she clung to the smooth metal railing.

All of that, those lost months, she had tucked them away in a lead box deep in her soul. Always there, always heavy, but put away. She never took the memories out and examined them, and she had more or less gotten past the constant self-recrimination that had nearly driven her mad.

She never forgot that she was in recovery, but beyond that, she largely pretended that those dark months had never happened. A shaky coping mechanism, maybe, but it got her through.

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