Page 18 of When I'm Gone

“I wouldn’t have mentioned it if it wasn’t. We’re only going to pick up my friend from the airport, so don’t get too excited, but I’m happy to have the company.”

His nose does that little scrunch again, like I’ve confused him. “You want me to meet your friend?”

A snort of laughter escapes me; this guy is growing on me way too fast for my own good. “Of course I do. Blake will adore you.”

Easton frowns but says, “Uh. Yeah. Yeah, okay.”

The skepticism is understandable, he just got here, and I’m taking him to meet someone new, someone he’s not sure he can trust. But he’ll see once he meets her why I think it’s a good idea to get them around each other. At least, I hope he does. I’m running purely off unclear vibes and about three hours worth of memories with this guy in my decision making process.

“Come on, let’s go then.”

He follows me to my car and gets in, immediately rollingdown the passenger window. I toss him my phone and tell him to put on some music. With the way he looks at me, you’d think I asked him if he wanted a winning lotto ticket. His eyes light up and a grin damn near splits his face in half.

I’m never going to pick out the music around him again.

He finds a folk-ish pop style playlist that is honestly pretty good, but the way he keeps glancing over at me, trying to gauge my reaction, overshadows the music. When I turn it up, a ridiculously cute, toothy grin takes over his face and I feel like I won a prize. About halfway to the airport, he asks me to tell him about Blake.

“Blake is hard to describe, but just keep an open mind.”

Easton runs a hand through his hair as he stares out the window. “If anyone ever described me like that, I wouldn’t be sure if it was an insult or not.”

“You’ll see. We’re almost there.”

He huffs a bit, like a cat that got disturbed from its nap. Slightly annoyed but manageable. I can work with that. A text from Blake comes through saying that her plane is on the ground and that she’ll come find me.

Maybe Brady will be happy with me if Easton makes a friend. He doesn’t seem to have many. I haven’t seen him with a stitch of technology, so obviously he’s not worried about anyone thinking he fell off the face of the planet. That doesn’t mean he wouldn’t benefit from people in his corner though. It’s not like he’s acting ready to fall back into the roll of Brady’s little brother, and he seems… unsettled. As different as they are, Easton is my best friend’s brother, and this has worked for me before. This sudden reappearance sent me into a factory reset and I’m just reverting back to the last thing I know.

My Chaos has his eyes peeled as we pull up in front of the terminal, scanning every passerby with equal amounts of apprehension and carefully veiled insecurity. He’s not surewhere he fits in front of anyone else, and I get it. If I fuck this up, I’m moving to Thailand. Call me Mister Threw in the Towel because I can’t be the guy that messes up Easton’s life twice. I’ll be done. Done, done. Never coming back, done.

Then I see her and it’s too late to turn back. Here goes nothing, I guess…

CHAPTER 6

EASTON

When Chase slows his car to a stop and parks it in front of baggage claim, I’m thoroughly confused. I’ve been looking for his friend, Blake—even in my own head that sounds like a sneer—and I don’t see anyone that would fit the bill. There're families with kids, an older couple and a girl about his age with a backpack slung over her shoulders who is obviously waiting for someone.

He throws his door open and reaches over towards me, wraps his warm hand around my wrist and squeezes gently. As fast as it happened, he’s gone and out of the car, swinging the girl up into a rib crushing hug.

Oh. Maybe I judged the name a little too quickly. Blake does not appear to be a super-hot guy coming to rekindle an old flame with Chase. They get back in the car, laughing about something or the other while mentally, I’m still trying to switch gears and keep an open mind. Whatever that means.

I watch his friend get settled behind me in the rearview mirror. After she buckles the seatbelt, she looks up andsmiles, wide open and as genuine as they come when she catches my eye.

“Hi, I’m Blakely,” she says.

“Blake, this is Easton.”

It takes about three seconds for the recognition to kick in. Watching it dawn on her feels about as good as a swift kick in the ribs. Ask me how I know. I don’t know if it would have been better if no one knew who I was because Brady or Chase never mentioned me, but it sure stings that they did and still ghosted me.

“It’s so good to finally meet you,” she starts. “Are you in town visiting your brother?”

Million dollar question, especially considering I have no idea what they’ve said to this girl about me. Maybe she doesn’t even know we were estranged. “Something like that,” I manage.

She lights up, literally like someone turned on a lightbulb behind her sternum. “That’s so great. You’ll love Seattle, there’s so much to do. There’s an art exhibit coming up that I bought tickets to but I don’t think I’ll be back in time for it. I’ll email them to Chase and you can use them.”

Even mentioning art flays me wide open; I haven’t even so much as picked up a pencil in forever. But Blakely has no way of knowing she touched a nerve so I try to muscle through it. “That’d be awesome, thanks.”

“Don’t mention it. It’s a traveling exhibit so I may try to catch it somewhere else, but there’s no reason for the tickets to be wasted.”

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