Page 159 of Unforgettable

I suppressed a half laugh, half groan and stepped into the kitchen where I could talk slightly above a whisper while still keeping an eye on Zach.

“That’s actually a funny story. I picked up Zach from school.”

Silence greeted me on the other end of the line, likely Josh processing my statement.

“You picked my son up from school?”

“Yes.”

“Why? What happened?” It wasn’t my intention to put panic in his voice.

“He’s fine, I promise. He is sick, but he’s doing… better. Sam was a few hours out for work, and you had your meeting with Rhonda. Apparently, I was the only one that picked up the phone.”

In the background, there was the definitive sound of the car door slamming closed and then the rumble of his truck engine. “I saw Sam called, but she didn’t tell me it was urgent. She didn’t text me either. What’s wrong with him? How sick is he? Does he have a fever?”

“Whoa, okay. Hang on there a second. I know you’re concerned, but I swear, I have it under control now.”

“Now? Like you didn’t before?”

I grunted and fought back the urge to call him overprotective. “As much as I love Zach, I’m not his dad. And he’s the only kid I’ve ever really been around, so it was a little…messythere at the beginning. He has a stomach bug or maybe the flu, I think. But I just cleaned him up, and he’s finally asleep.”

Josh sighed, and I couldn’t tell if he was relieved or annoyed. “Thank you for picking him up.”

“I’d do anything for that kid. It wasn’t a problem.”

Zach had one arm flung over the side of the couch, with his chin tilted to the ceiling and his mouth partially opened. It was bizarre to me how much he looked like Josh sometimes. It wasn’t just the light-blond hair and tanned skin—it was everything.

“I’m on my way home now. I’ll be there in fifteen—shit,” he groaned.

“What’s wrong?” I asked while pouring myself a well-earned drink. The slight burn at the back of my throat as I swallowed the two knuckles’ worth of whiskey was followed by warmth in my stomach.

“I told Amanda I would help her with her classroom—something about moving a few things around. But I don’t want to leave you by yourself with Zach.”

I chuckled and replaced the bottle back in the liquor cabinet. “I’ve survived this long, I think I’ll survive a little longer. Otherwise, we can trade off—you come take care of Zach and I’ll help Amanda.”

“Guess that makes sense now why she said you didn’t answer when she called earlier. You were too busy taking care of my kid.”

“Yeah.” I shrugged. “This is the first free moment I’ve had for a while. I’ll call her and let her know that she lucked out and got the better end of that deal. I’ll take care of her, you take care of him.”

Josh’s laugh echoed over the line, and my own smile widened. Everything within me lightened.

“Okay, you keep telling yourself that. Just keep my kid alive for the next ten minutes and keep your big head to a moderate size.”

“Too late.”

FIFTY-TWO

Amanda

The sun was nearingthe horizon, and with all of the aggressive overhead lights turned off, my classroom was cast in a dim, warm light. I actually preferred the few lamps I scattered around the room to the fluorescent ones mounted to the ceiling, but they were not conducive to lab safety.

Everyone else in the building had long since left. I was the only one that was crazy enough to try to change up their room the first day back from spring break. And as the minutes ticked by, I became more and more creeped out.

Every once in a while, I’d hear the custodians moving through the halls or a toilet flush. But eventually they moved to the other side of the school, and I really was alone.

When my phone finally vibrated on my desk across the room, I was in the midst of contemplating leaving for at least the twentieth time. It wasn’t necessary at all—rearranging the tables and moving a few other odds and ends—but I’d been wanting to do it for a while, and it was something to keep my mind off the chaos that was my life.

I hadn’t spoken to my brother in a week. All of the updates I received on his situation were through Reed, who got them from Will. And I’d told myself that I wouldn’t reach out to Adam—that I was no longer responsible for his mistakes. I wasn’t going to continue to try to fix his problems and insert myself into every situation in which he needed me. In the nearly twenty-two years he’d been alive, he hadn’t once actually heeded my advice except to get him out of trouble in the moment.

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