Page 23 of Coming Home

“Ben, I got something,” Will yelled.

I walked over just in time to help him pull in a large trout.

“Looks like we have lunch for today, boys,” I said with a hoot.

Will beamed, but Troy was still being a bit standoffish to me.

“Troy, look at this thing,” I said, trying to encourage him to join in.

“It’s a fish. What a shocker,” he said sarcastically.

I didn’t know how to get through to him, but I was determined to keep trying.

I made a small fire right next to the stream and cleaned and cooked the trout. We had packed a lunch just in case we didn’t catch anything. I took the downtime to talk to the boys. As suspected, Will talked like he had diarrhea of the tongue, while Troy answered in clipped, direct short answers.

By the time we were back home, nothing had really changed, and I hadn’t made any real progress with Troy, but I hoped that just having memories with me would help in the long run. I grabbed a quick shower and dressed for the evening.

“Where are you going?” Will asked when I came downstairs ready to leave.

“I’m having dinner at the Alpha house,” I said.

“Really? Cool!” Will said. “We’ve never had dinner there before. Will Thomas be there?”

I shrugged. “I’m not sure.”

He crinkled up his nose like maybe my evening wasn’t as impressive as he imagined it to be.

“So you’re having dinner with his parents?” he tried to clarify.

“Yes.”

“Will Ms. Shelby be there?” Troy asked.

“Yes, or at least I hope she will.”

“You were an asshole to leave her the way you did. She was supposedly your best friend. She’s a really good person, and you’re just going to hurt her again. It would be best if you just stayed away,” Troy said, staring me down.

I was taken aback by the venom in his voice. Was that really how he felt? Did everyone feel that way?

“Troy,” I started, but he just stood up, shook his head, and dismissed me as he headed for his room and slammed the door shut. I looked over at Will. “Do you feel that way too?” I asked out of curiosity.

He shrugged. “We were pretty little when you left. I don’t remember it all that much. Ms. Shelby has told us a few stories about you growing up. She says Caroline and I remind her a lot of you guys. Was Ms. Shelby really your best friend when you were my age?”

“Yeah, she was. She’s been my best friend my entire life.”

Will frowned and shook his head. “Maybe she was, but I’m pretty sure you blew that badly.”

“What do you mean?”

He shrugged again. I was beginning to hate that shrug. It seemed like it was his go-to answer to everything. I stared him down until he caved.

“It’s just, whenever we mention you, she gets sad. It makes Troy mad. It makes me extra cautious not to hurt Caroline. I don’t ever want to see that look on her face.”

“What look?” I asked before I could stop myself.

“Like you died and took a piece of her with you.”

His words gutted me. Was that really how Shelby felt? More than ever I needed to get over there and see her now. Will left the room while I was deep in thought, trying to figure out exactly what to say to her. I had considered myself a confident guy, but I was terrified to face Shelby knowing how badly I’d screwed things up. I didn’t have a clue how to even start to fix it.

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