Page 95 of Wayward
“There’s no way in the world we are doing anything here. Not after that nice woman did my hair. And Easton’s dad is out there.” Haley gives me a quick kiss on the top of my head and rolls off me.
Chapter 41
Calling Shore
Sam
Ihang up from talking to Charlie. He’s in shock. To him, I’ve come back from the dead. He gave me Sis’s number, but he’s going to call her now. There’s no way I have time to do it before the interview.
“You want to phone next?” I hand it to Zane. He stares at it. “Do you need a number? I could have Charlie look it up in my records.” He’s got my backup laptop at his apartment. In fact, he’s got everything I own at his place. Which is a considerable bit less than when I left last year—he apologized over and over for giving away a lot of my stuff. Charlie never apologizes. Charge-ahead-Charlie, my mom calls him. He packed up my apartment after I’d been missing six months. My clothes have been tossed. Though he said there’s a few boxes of things our sister wouldn’t let him throw away in her basement. I don’t care. It’s just stuff. Replaceable. We’re here and alive. Haley’s alive . . . all those days alone with Penny on theRock Candy, that’s all that mattered to me.
What comes next? That’s been something I’ve thought about my whole life. What’s next? And now I don’t care. Just as long as I have Haley and Penny somewhere safe. Together. I want us to be together. Though I don’t have unrealistic expectations that it will be the same as on the island. No fucking way it could be the same. But with a hell of a lot of work, it might be better?
“I don’t need the number,” Zane says. “I know Mum’s and Ruby’s, the pizza joint, fuck, I know the number from my best mate’s old landline from when I was a kid. Numbers I’ve got stored in my head forever. I’m just nervous about what to say.”
“Nervous? From everything you’ve told me, they’re going to be thrilled.”
Zane twists around, and Haley grabs his hand. “I know . . . I know—” There’s a knock from the main room.
“Yeah?” I check behind me to make sure everyone’s decent before I open the door.
Rocky’s got his hands in his designer suit pants pockets. “We’re ready when you are. Hank will be up here soon.” Of course Rocky knows Henry Goodstone well enough to call him Hank.
“Do we have a minute?" I ask. "Zane and Dante haven’t called their families yet.”
“Of course.” Rocky nods at the phone in Zane’s hand. “Your mum’s a lovely lady. Ruby too.”
“Yes, they are. Thanks.” Zane stares at the floor, then back to the phone.
“What?” Rocky asks, before I can.
“It’s nothing. I was sending money to Ruby for school. I know they’re going to be thrilled with me being home. I just feel guilty about not being able to help them for the last?—”
“I hope you don’t mind, son. I know how important it can be to take care of your family yourself. But I— Or rather, I had a team making sure your families were taken care of. I made thecalls, though. Ruby’s schooling was paid for. She’s been sending in her marks to the office. It’s rather adorable. We never asked her to do that. She’s smart. So smart we’ve offered her a paid internship in the Birmingham office this summer.”
“You’re shitting me?” Zane’s smile returns.
“Uh, no.” Rocky puts his hand on Zane’s shoulder. “It’s the very least I could do.”
“Thank you, Mr. Rockwell.”
“It’s Rocky. And thank you for being such a good friend to Easton.”
“He’s family to me now. We’re all family.”
“It’s nice to have more sons.” Rocky tips his imaginary hat at us. “I don’t mean to rush such an important phone call, but Hank’s on a time limit.”
“Of course,” Zane says.
“You want to go first, Dante?”
“Sure, toss it over.” Dante catches the phone. He punches in a number. “Hey, Shortstack.” A scream comes out of the phone, followed by a loud cry and an unintelligible jumble of words and loud music.
“Yes, I’m alive. No, I didn’t disappear on purpose . . . I’m safe and can’t talk long. But I’ll be in touch as soon as I can get a phone of my own. Tell Mom. Gotta go. Hug those rugrats of yours for me.” There’s a long stream of mumbling. “I’ve got to go. Everyone needs to use this phone.” The screaming stops. “Yes, everyone is alive . . . yes, Zane is alive . . . yes, he’s going to call Ruby if you let me go.” Dante looks at the phone. “Well, Zane, I’m using your sister as an excuse to get off the phone with my sister from now to the end of time. I guess she likes Ruby. Catch.” Dante tosses the phone back across the room.
“I’ll be as fast as I can.” Zane gives Haley a hug and ducks into the large walk-in closet that I talked to Charlie in.
The bright lights shining down on us are hot. And despite the efforts Rocky’s team went to get matching polos, the news producer had us change out of them. The white was too much for the integrity of the shot. And Calvin’s didn’t fit, even with taking a slice out of the back of it to give him some room to breathe.
