Page 47 of About Time

“Remindme why we’re working on your truck at your house in the pouring rain when I own a garage with all the tools we need? You don’t even have the right set of wrenches here,” Griffin says.

“Relax, we’re under my carport. I’m sure I’ve got all the tools we need somewhere.” I search through my large tool chest and see that he’s right, I’m missing an entire set along with another set of sockets. We aren’t going to be able to finish changing the alternator without them.

I groan. “I loaned them to Martin.”

Griffin winces. “You let Martin Parker near a set of tools?”

“He was working on a riding lawnmower for Mrs. Howell. It’s not like I’d let him work on a vehicle alone. We can go and see if he’s home and get them back,” I suggest.

We jump in Griff’s truck since mine has parts missing and drive the few blocks over to the Parker house. “Did you know Liam would be over here?” I ask him.

Before he has a chance to answer I look around and realize that Elisa’s car is gone. I forgot tonight is their monthly datenight. “They’re alone by the way,” I let him know, and point to the empty spot in the driveway.

Griffin shrugs. “He’s been dating Wren for over a year. I imagine they spend a fair amount of time alone. We’ve had ‘the talk.’ He’s already made it past high school without making me a grandpa, so he’s doing better than his old man already.”

“Yeah? Then why is there a cop car in the driveway?” I point to the cruiser.

“That’s a good question. It’s never good when there’s a cruiser in front of a house at this time of night. Let’s go find out what he’s doing here.”

My stomach drops with the fear that he’s right. Officer Mike Windsor is sitting in his car, and I can see his shoulders shake. Griff and I walk up to his window and wait for him to notice us. He’s distracted, so after waiting for nearly a minute, I tap on the glass.

When Mike looks up at us, he doesn’t hide his emotions, and wipes his eyes. Griff and I exchange a look.

“Fuck,” Griff mouths.

I nod, and I motion to the porch with my thumb. It’s coming down in sheets, and we’re already half-soaked in the minute we’ve been standing out here.

“What’s going on, Mike?” I ask when he finally joins us on the porch.

He exhales a weary sound. “I’m trying to find the stones to go inside and tell the girl I watched grow up, that her mom and dad won’t be coming home. Usually, I have another officer with me, but we’re a small department and everyone else is still on the scene.”

Harriston is such a small town most of us know everyone. Mike was in the same graduating class as Martin and Elisa. He has played softball with us for years.

All those years unfold in my head like I imagine they are in Mike’s. Elisa pushing a stroller up to the dugout to wish us luck. Martin pitching a wiffle ball to Wren as soon as she could hold a plastic bat. Memory after memory flashes through my head showing me visions of Wren up to today.

I have to blow out a breath and wait a second while I try to compose myself. This isn’t fair. We shouldn’t be here trying to figure out how to tell a seventeen-year-old girl that her parents are dead.

My voice wavers when I am finally able to speak. “What happened?”

He gestures to the sky and the torrential downpour still coming down. “As you can tell it’s been raining really hard. From what we can tell so far it appears that the rain impaired visibility and caused them to lose traction. They spun out and slammed head-on into a tree. I can’t even let that girl go see them to say goodbye. The only thing giving me comfort is that the paramedics said they died on impact.”

I pat him on the shoulder. “Do you want me to come in with you?”

Taking care of Wren at this moment is the last thing I’ll ever be able to do for my friends. I’ll only be able to do it until Hattie comes back to town. I lost the right to interfere in her life when I shoved her out of mine.

Griff jerks his thumb over his shoulder toward the garage. “I’m going to look for those tools to give you some time. She doesn’t need her boyfriend’s dad hovering over her right now. You let me know if you need me though.”

I nod. It’s the right choice. This is going to be the worst moment of her young life, and she should be given space to deal with it. She shouldn’t have to face all of this under the watchful eye of people she only kind of knows. Not that I’m super close to her, but at least I’ve spent a lot of time with her parents.

The person she really needs is her aunt, Hattie. I don’t know if I’m strong enough to see her again, but this isn’t about me. It occurs to me as Mike knocks on the door that Wren is a minor. Someone is going to have to take care of her. I hope I didn’t push Hattie away only for her to end up trapped in this town with a kid anyway. If she stays I lost her for nothing. I’m not sure what the alternative is, cause more upheaval in Wren’s life?

Wren opens the door laughing. She has pulled the door open, but her head is turned still carrying on a conversation with Liam in the living room. He sits up straighter and goes on alert, but Wren still hasn’t clued in that anything is wrong.

“Did you lose your keys, mo—” Her eyebrows scrunch together, and I can see her knuckles turn white by the way she’s squeezing the door knob. “Officer Mike? Did you come by to see my dad, because he's out with my mom right now.”

Hope is a bitch. It can lift us up when we need it, but it can also help you bury yourself in denial. This is the last moment Wren can hold the belief that her parents are going to come home. After he tells her what he came here to say everything will change.

“No, sweetheart. Can I come in?” he asks her.

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