Page 41 of Forced Proximity
My lips twitched. “And she’s really hungry.”
“Overly.” She nodded seriously.
“There’s a Raising Canes just past that red light,” Webber said. “Then we can get on the road.”
Webber walked us over to his truck and without words, Dru climbed inside the back seat and buckled herself in.
“I like her,” Webber murmured quietly.
I looked at him over the hood of the truck and said, “I do, too.”
We got Dru her Raising Canes, and I was impressed by how much she put away.
“I was hungry,” she said when I looked at her with a grin.
“I know,” I murmured as I took a swig of sweet tea. “You gonna finish that last chicken strip?”
She picked it up and took a large bite of it, glaring at me over her box.
Webber laughed. “Told you to get a second meal.”
“I truly didn’t think that she’d finish it,” I told my friend.
“She said she would,” Webber pointed out.
“Yeah, but she’s the size of a child. I honestly didn’t think that she would be able to,” I admitted. “It’s okay. I’m not that hungry anymore.”
Dru finished her food in silence, and then leaned over until she was laid out on the back seat, and closed her eyes.
I wanted to do the same, but I had other things on my mind.
Like getting a new phone.
“Need to stop at the nearest phone store,” I muttered.
“Already ahead of you.” He jerked his chin toward the console. “Got you a phone and a computer at Apple on the way out of Dallas. That’s why I was late.”
“Thanks,” I said as I dove into the console and pulled everything out. “I have to get an idea of what’s going on, and it’s driving me crazy not knowing.”
“You think that there’s more to that plane crash?”
“No,” I admitted. “I saw the lightning strike it myself. There’s no way that anyone can plan that. But I’m going to get onto the flight manifest and do some erasing. I want no mention of there being a baby on board at all belonging to that woman.”
Webber stayed silent as we drove, allowing me to do what I needed to do.
I’d just finished up when we hit traffic outside of Dallas.
“Why’d you need me home?” I asked, thinking about the timing of getting onto that plane in particular.
If I hadn’t gotten on that plane, Dru would’ve been all on her own.
“I just wanted you home,” he admitted. “Feel kind of shitty now asking you to get on a plane that crashed. Fuckin’ terrifying that you could’ve died, and it’d have been my fault.”
“I’m glad that I was on it,” I mumbled as I looked out of the window, noticing the traffic starting to pile up. “Home sweet home.”
Webber scoffed. “You know you love it.”
I thought about what he said for a long time before I admitted, “Being around the brothers makes me physically sick. Seeing all these kids being born or coming in from the outside…it makes me fuckin’ hurt.”
