Page 54 of Torch Songs

Guthrie blinked, remembering all those super-intelligent people talking as they gathered to rescue their friends. “Your family is something special, do you know that?”

Olivia grinned again and wiped her mouth with an offered napkin. “Blame Larx. I mean, Aaron too, because Larx wouldn’t love him if he couldn’t keep up, but my dad… man, I can’t wait for you to meet him.”

Guthrie’s face heated. “I, uhm…I don’t know much about good dads. I mean, the other kind, yeah, but the good kind, not so much. Maybe I’ll just be your friend and hear about him.”

She cocked her head and wiped her hand on the napkin before resting it on his knee. “Honey, you don’t have to know about good dads. You sort of show up and they feed you and hug you and get busy in your life. You and Tad don’t stand a chance. It’s too bad you don’t live up here. There would be family dinners and running into each other in town, and….” She trailed off with a happy sigh, and it hit Guthrie that she was talking abouthim. She wanted to seehim.

“I’d think you’ve got enough company,” he said, thinking about her and her husband’s living arrangement with the two brothers.

She shrugged. “Berto and Jaime are like family. And of course my family is right around the corner. There’s just something to be said about a friend. I mean, I think Mau-Mau could fit the bill, but, you know, she’s got a life down in SoCal, and she’s going for her teaching credential. I, you know, want you up here for my own selfish reasons, ’cause I’m a selfish biotch.”

Guthrie chuckled and, unbidden, came the vision of the sky the night before. No ambient light, just the stars, strewn across the velvet black sky. He’d grown up in a town this size, a town in which the high school graduation was such a big deal two of the town’s most prominent citizens would be there to make sure the kids were safe and celebrated in a big way.

Or would have been if, say, anybody had cared.

Sand Cut, California was a tiny town that had been formed during the construction of a tunnel through the hills surrounding the Monterey Peninsula, leaving a small population of settlers who’d spent a decade supporting the work. Guthrie had been on the road enough to know that there were small towns and small towns, but Sand Cut was one of the smallest, and most of that was in the residents’ minds. When Fiddler and the Crabs broke up, Guthrie had stayed in San Rafael because it was near the city, near the music, near the hope of better things to come, but his dad and Uncle Jock had gone back to the small house he’d grown up in back in Sand Cut.

That moment of melancholy freedom under the stars in Colton had felt like it was galaxies away from the small town Guthrie had known. Like here in the mountains there was a hope the washed-out town by a sand dune had forgotten.

“I like it here,” he said into the sudden silence. “I don’t think you’re selfish. I think you need someone who gets you to make this place home.”

She patted his knee. “Which is a great conclusion, but now we need to get you and Tadhere.”

He chuckled again at the absurdity of it. “Darlin’, I’ll be lucky if my truck’ll take me back to Bodega Bay.”

She teared up suddenly, probably a result of hormones and exhaustion. “I’d rather you were staying here,” she said and leaned her head on his shoulder, like April had.

He let her. Sometimes it was nice to be needed, in any small way.

APRIL EMERGEDabout twenty minutes later, looking drained and disoriented. “He’s asking for you,” she rasped. “But you may have to wait a couple of minutes while the nurses tend to him.”

Olivia stretched her hand out to April as Guthrie got up.

“Come sit with me,” Olivia said softly. “Elton’s coming in a little bit to check on me. If Guthrie’s not done, Elton can take you back to the house and you can sleep some more. You know, Dozer needs some love, right?”

April brightened at the mention of the family’s giant blond retriever mix. “I might have to fight Jaime for his attention,” she said, and Guthrie recalled the smaller, younger boy who’d been at the rescue site.

Olivia chuckled. “Well, Jaime likes a good belly rub too,” she said. She sobered. “This winter, when Jaime and Berto were having a really rough time, I’m pretty sure Dozer saved Jaime’s life. Jaime played with that dog until hebrokehim. Dozer couldn’t move anymore he was so tired. And Jaime couldn’t play with him anymore, so he just… curled up with the dog on a pillow and slept. Sweetest thing in the world. So yeah. They’re bonded. But I think Dozer’s got a big heart—he’ll curl up with you too.”

“Is that okay, Guthrie?” April asked, so needy for it, for the warm family, for the happy dog, for the chance to restsomewherenother halfway house, that Guthrie would have stood guard at the threshold with a weapon to make sure she got that time.

“We don’t pack up until tomorrow,” he told her. “You go chill and rest, and if you can get a ride here this afternoon, I’ll take you back there tonight.” He glanced at Olivia apologetically. “I’m imposing,” he said, absolutely appalled. “If April can sleep on the couch, I can sleep in the truck again—”

Olivia gaped at him. “Over my dead pregnant body!” she gasped. “No. Just… no. The icky boys can share a room like they do over Christmas, and you can have Kellan’s bed. Don’t worry, don’t object—it’s done. I said so, and since both the dads are in the hospital, I’m in charge.” She gave him a smug glance. “You can’t tell me no—it’ll make me appear weak in front of that herd of teenagers. You need to have my back, boo.”

He smiled a little, grateful. “Fair,” he murmured. Then he kissed April gently on the forehead. “Get some rest, sweetheart. I’ll watch after him.”

“Thanks, Guthrie,” she said. “I know you will.”

And with that he ventured down the hall and into the darkened room.

Fools Rush In

APRIL SEEMEDtired but sound.

“You came all the way up here?” Tad asked, his head sort of deliciously swimmy from the pain meds and exhaustion but his emotions in full operation.

“Guthrie’s truck,” April said, stroking his hand. “Tad, you gotta know… he just…. I walked into his work, and he just took me aside and said, ‘Yup. We gotta go.’ I mean… I know you think he’s a little bit gun-shy, but… but he fought for you. You….” She kissed his knuckles. “You gotta know.”

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