Page 67 of Erik's Salvation
He laughed. “Can anyone?”
“Just you.”
Evenhecould only handle Rachel for short periods of time. She may be the closest thing to a best friend he had, but she was also spontaneous and liked to do dumb, dangerous shit way too often.
“Honestly though”—her tone softened—“I’m sorry I haven’t checked in on you more since you’ve been back home. You doing okay?”
He blew out a breath and looked up at the sky. A small collection of stars scattered across the black canvas. “Most days. Every so often, I’ll be walking down the street and I’ll remember walking down the same street with Vicky. I’ll remember how easily I smiled back then. My hope for a future that was so different to what I got.”
Rachel sighed. “Shit. I’m sorry.”
“But I’m here.”
“You are. And your family must be loving that. How are they?”
“Mom calls every day, and I’ve started going to their place for dinner on Sunday nights. It’s not as painful as I thought it would be.”
She laughed, and he remembered the sound so well. It was a throw-the-head-back, put-the-entire-body-into-it kind of laugh. “You want painful? You should sit down with my train wreck of a family. You’ll get a lifetime of trauma in the span of one meatloaf.”
This timehelaughed. Her parents weren’t that bad. Sure, they talked a lot and asked invasive questions. They also gave shit advice, but always with the best intentions.
He moved toward the side of the building—and frowned when he heard a distant voice.
James. And he sounded angry.
Rachel said something, but his focus remained on James’s voice.
“I’ll get you the fucking money. Back off!”
Erik muted the call for a moment and peered around the side of the building. James stood in profile, phone to his ear, and he looked jittery as hell. His movements were jerky as his head swiveled to look around, his foot tapping so damn fast that it looked unnatural.
Then Erik saw what dangled from his hand. A small transparent bag of white pills.
* * *
Hannah twistedher hand in Erik’s. Words bubbled just under the surface as he drove them home. Questions. But she didn’t know how to ask them. How did you ask someone why they didn’t want kids, especially someone you were barely dating, without making it sound like you were desperate?
It had been on her mind since Brigid’s poor choice of joke. It wasn’t so much what he’d said, but the way he’d said it, like the very idea of having children of his own both scared him and made him angry as hell.
Just do it, Hannah. Ask the hard questions. You won’t die.
She cleared her throat. “Was it an important call?”
Okay, not the question she wanted to ask. She’d ease into it.
“It was an old friend of mine. Her name’s Rachel.”
Hername? Suddenly, a million more questions rushed to the surface. How had they met? How close were they? And most importantly, had they dated?
Jealousy skittered in her chest that he might be friends with an ex.
“I met her my first year in the Marines,” he said quietly, as if reading her thoughts. “We’ve been friends ever since. She lives in Arkansas.”
Friends…just friends. Still, the stab of jealousy was there, and she hated it. Not just jealousy over their history, but the way Erik’s voice softened with affection when he spoke about her.
“She was just calling to check in,” he added.
She nodded. “I look forward to meeting her one day.”
