Page 58 of Stuck with the Grump

Camille’s sigh came through the line again. “Of course, she does, Clarke.”

Before I could ask her anything else, Camille ended the call. I put the phone down on the arm of the chair and watched the fire as it danced toward the sky.

Someday soon, I would be in a house of my own and watching the logs in the fire pit burn. All I could do was hope that Leigh would be beside me by then.

27

LEIGH

“Heaskedaboutyouagain,” Camille said as she walked into the gallery.

She had traded her usual jeans and a blouse for leggings and a baggy shirt. When I had asked her to come over and help hang some of the pieces, I thought that she would have refused but she had said she would leave work early to come help.

Camille placed two pizza boxes on a table in the corner before running to her car and returning with a case of beer. I walked over to the stereo system as she locked the doors. Music pounded through the gallery, filling the room, and shaking the windows.

“Should I be bothered to ask what he was asking about?” I tried to ignore the hammering of my heart as she told me about Clarke.

“That depends. Are you ever going to relax and let him into your life?”

“Ready to hang art?” I asked, grabbing a hammer from a pile of tools. The subject change was quick, but it was needed. I still didn’t know what I wanted and it wouldn’t be right to tell her before I told him.

With a grin, she took the hammer and grabbed a box of nails, heading to one of the walls where I had marked spots with green dots. She worked quickly, driving nails into the walls while I followed behind her, hanging the pieces that were meant to be there. I laughed and danced with her, popping open beers and grabbing slices of pizza.

We had just finished the first box of pizza when there was a knock at the door. My foolish heart leaped to my throat for a moment, thinking that Clarke would be on the other side of the door. Instead, Tyson was standing there in jeans and a t-shirt with another case of beer in his hand.

With a grin, I unlocked the door and let him in before locking it behind him again.

“Welcome, big brother, how is life treating you these days? I saw all the stories flooding the media about the trial. Are any of them true?” I asked, taking the case of beer from his hands and setting it with the other one.

“Very little of it is true and the days since the news broke have been nothing but a fucking shit show. I can’t wait until this trial is over and then I am taking off out of this damn city for a few months.”

I grabbed another painting and hung it up before looking at him. “Leaving the state? You’re not still hung up on finding Haley, are you?”

Tyson grunted as he grabbed a painting. “I don’t know. She’s just been on my mind ever since we saw each other again. With all that has been going on lately, I haven’t had time to go after her but once Jared is in jail, there will be plenty of time to take some time off.”

I nodded and bit my lip. “I liked Haley, she would sneak me snacks when you two would hang out after school. She was always nice to me even though I was just a little kid to her then. Mom still talks about her sometimes too.”

“Well, I called her after Mom was diagnosed but she never returned the call. I don’t even know if she got it. The only phone number I have for her is the one for the old vet clinic she works at.”

“That’s better than nothing, I guess,” I said, abandoning hanging pictures to get another slice of pizza. “Mom won’t let me into her hospital room anymore. Says that I depress her.”

“She said the same to me,” Tyson said, frowning as he cracked open a beer. “She says that she wants to get through treatment without us standing over her.”

“I think that’s fair,” Camille said, grabbing a beer of her own and opening it. “She’s your mom. She doesn’t want you to see her suffering. Especially when she is doing her best to hide it. Having the pair of you hover over her like she’s some kind of invalid is only going to make her feel worse.”

“Why are you always the smartest person in the room?” Tyson asked, his tone teasing as he sat down on the floor with his pizza and beer.

“My mom always said that if you’re the smartest person in the room, then you’re in the wrong room,” Camille said, perching on the edge of the table. “But you also pay me to be the smartest in the room.”

“So,” Tyson said between bites of pizza. “Should we address the Clarke-sized elephant in the room or are we going to pretend it doesn’t exist?”

I nearly choked on my food, coughing and sputtering as I tried to down enough beer to dislodge the pizza that was trying to get stuck. When I finished coughing, Tyson was smirking and shaking his head.

“You’re… not mad?” I stared at him disbelieving. “I meant to tell you. I’m sorry I didn’t, but I just didn’t know how to bring it up.”

We had never talked about how Clarke and I spent our time at the lake house, I’d always tried to avoid the topic. But I knew that Tyson probably had a sense that something had happened between us.

“Well, at first, I was pissed. I wanted to wring his neck and yours. But we talked and actually had a good conversation about it. The more I thought about it, the more the idea started to grow on me. I mean, he’s my best friend and I know he’s a good guy. He could do a lot worse. And I could tell you were the happiest you’d been in years.”

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