Page 37 of Better as It

But when I answer, the voice on the other end hits me like a damn freight train.

“Toon? That you?”

“Little Foot?”

The grin spreads across my face before I can stop it. It’s been too long.

“You good, brother,” I say, shifting the phone to my other hand. “What’s with the unknown number.”

“I like to fuck with your head,” he jokes. His laugh is familiar. Grounding.

“Catawba’s quiet lately. Just checking in. Acadia said that you’d been off the radar since being at the coast and baby sister didn’t like that.”

I wince. “Yeah... I been laying low. You know how it is.”

“You sick from it now?”

Straight to it. No bullshit. That’s Little Foot for you. I pause just long enough for him to notice.

“That a yes?”

I sigh, “It’s not a no.”

“Shit.”

I inhale sharply. “I’m handling it.”

“You got someone with you there or you still staying stubborn and quiet?”

“Dia.”

The pause on his end says a lot. “She’s solid,” he says finally. “Good woman there. Glad y’all are getting things sorted even if it means you won’t come back to Catawba.”

“She’s more than that.”

“Yeah,” he says quietly. “She always was.”

We don’t talk about Clutch. We never really do. That wound’s still fresh in ways that won’t scab over. But hearing from Little Foot now, when the chemo’s dragging me down and the silence in my head’s louder than ever, it hits different.

“I’m not dying,” I say. “Don’t want anyone getting that idea.”

“You don’t have to prove shit to me, brother,” he replies. “But if you need something—anything at all—you say it. You understand?”

“I know.”

“And if you need someone to show up for you the way you’ve done for everyone else, I’m just a few hours down the road.” Again, he’s always keeping it blunt with me.

That hits harder than it should.

“Appreciate it,” I say. My voice catches a little. “Really.”

“I’ll check in again. Stay on this side of the ground, Toon.”

“Always.”

After I hang up, I sit in the garage for a while, staring at nothing. My fingers twitch to text Dia, just to say someone reached out, that the club isn’t as far removed as it may seem.

But I don’t.

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