Page 88 of Homecoming for Beginners

He snorted. “For leaving in the middle of my shift with no notice.”

“The middle of your shift where your kid’s school and all your family members called the office because they couldn’t get ahold of you and they never once picked up?”

A muscle twitched in Ollie’s jaw. “Same one.”

“Can they do that?”

“I’m—I was—still on probation. Or I was. They can do whatever they want.” Another swig of the bottle. It had one-third left now.

“What the fuck.” Ty uncapped his bottle. “I could call Eliza, if you want. I mean—she’s your aunt actually, so—”

“No.”

Okay… maybe Ty was approaching this the wrong way. He took a sip from his own bottle. “Look… you hated that job anyway, right?”

Ollie grunted.

“So what’s the problem?” Ty didn’t get it. It wasn’t like this had been Ollie’s dream job. It kept him away from Theo all the time. The air-conditioning in the truck broke regularly. The pay sucked. The hours were terrible. It wasn’t like Ollie needed the money.

“Aside from my parents being right about me?”

Whoa, whoa—what? Didn’t Ollie just make up with his parents? Or at least his mom? Ty took a quick swig and put the bottle down. “Ollie—”

Ollie put both hands over his face and dry-washed it again. “What am I even doing if I can’t raise my kid and hold down a job? With all the help I’m getting?”

Ty’s mouth went dry. Ollie didn’t really think like that, did he? “I think you’re being kind of hard on yourself. Didn’t you mention the other day this company was having trouble retaining their employees?”

“Yeah, because peoplequit.” There were bags under his eyes that hadn’t been there yesterday. “And they still fired me, so what does that say?”

“Well, for one thing, they’ve got their priorities backwards. Not to mention they lied to you when they hired you.”

Ty was getting frustrated, and the words came out sharper than he intended. But they finally seemed to get through, because Ollie dropped some of the attitude and groaned.

“I know. I know. I’m sorry. I just—I thought I finally had everything sorted out, things were going my way, you know? Sure, I didn’t love my job, but Theo was doing well. I had you. And now….”

“Hey, I get it.”

Ollie shot him a look.

“Okay, Idon’tget it. Not exactly.” Ty’s dad not wanting him after his mom died wasn’t the same as being rejected for prioritizing yourkid. Ty kind of thought his situation was worse, but Ollie wasn’t exactly in the mood to be reasoned with right now. “But it isn’t the end of the world. There are other jobs. You can take some time to figure out what you want, you know? Go back to school if you want to. That was the whole point of going into the Army in the first place, right?”

“And do what?” He shook his head. “I’m thirtywhatever years old. I don’t want to start over. But I don’t—”

I don’t want to shoot anyone.

Ty didn’t know how he knew, but he knew. “—and I can’t be a pilot and be there for my kid.”

“So why not take some time off? It’s not like I’m going to kick you out of the house.” Actually, wouldn’t that be kind of amazing? “You could spend all the time you want with Theo. And you wouldn’t have to take time off to come see me in Chicago. I can show you around. We can take Theo to see the Nats when they’re in town—”

“Ty. I’m not just going to, what, sit around all summer on my ass.”

“Why not?”

Ollie was getting red in the face now. “Because I’m—I can’t. I need a job. I’m not going to be a—a—”

“Stay-at-home parent?” Ty suggested.

“A freeloader.”

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