ADAM
It should have bothered me that I was about to cry in front of the girl who had my heart, but it didn’t. That had as much to do with Daniel as it did Jolene. He clapped me once more on the shoulder and then pulled back. And just as quickly as I’d been about to cry, I was laughing. It was so good to see him. It felt like going back in time, and I half expected to see Greg walk up behind him.
Daniel didn’t join in my laughter, but he did smile.
“What are you doing here?” I hadn’t seen my brother’s best friend since Greg’s funeral two years ago. My laughter faded with that realization.
“I’ve been gone some.” Daniel had tossed his coffee into a trash can before reaching me, and he shoved both hands into his pockets, but not before I noticed that the knuckles on his right hand were split.
He and Greg had been friends for as long as I could remember, and we all knew how messed up his home life had been. He was old enough now that he must have moved out, but things were apparently still bad. Growing up, my parents had called the police more than once when Daniel had shown up hurt on our doorstep. It had never gone anywhere, because Daniel’s mom refused to press charges even when it was clear that her husband was beating her, too, and Daniel cared too much about her to contradict whatever stories she invented to explain their injuries.
As he’d gotten older and bigger, Daniel’s injuries had become less frequent, but I doubted his mom had fared as well. I knew that, for Daniel, his mom getting hurt was worse than getting hit himself. But she wouldn’t let him help her, would even blame him for making her husband angry in the first place.
I think that was why he’d helped Greg rescue injured animals. He couldn’t help his mom, but he could help them.
“How’s everyone?” he asked, drawing my attention away from his hand. “Your mom?”
I’d never been jealous over the close relationship Daniel had developed with our mom. She’d taken him under her wing as much as he’d allowed and had been the only one he’d take any comfort from when things went more wrong than usual at his home. When Greg was alive, Daniel had spent more nights at our house than he had his own. Mom had been talking about turning the attic into a bedroom for him until Daniel made it clear that he couldn’t leave his mom. Still, I remembered plenty of nights when I’d woken up to find the two of them talking over tea in the kitchen, and once, when he’d been much younger, he’d even let her hug him while he cried. Greg had been like a brother to him, but I almost think he loved Mom more.
“She’s, um... Yeah, she’s okay. We’re okay.”
Daniel didn’t nod. He knew me well enough to know I was lying.
“How’s your mom?” I didn’t ask about his dad, because while I hoped he was dead, there was a new scar splitting Daniel’s left eyebrow that told me all I needed to know. Daniel’s hands tried to push deeper into his pockets. His silence was answer enough.
Jolene joined us then, glancing between us with a cautious smile on her face. “I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess you guys know each other?”
I had to stop myself from reaching for her hand. I felt so overwhelmed by seeing Daniel again that I needed something to ground me, and I suddenly felt nervous and proud all at once that she’d get to meet Greg’s best friend. She’d never know my brother—and one of these days, I was going to tell her everything about him—but having her meet Daniel, who’d been like a brother to me, too, somehow made it feel like I was getting to share a part of Greg with her.
“Yeah, this is Daniel. He was Greg’s best friend.” Daniel flicked a glance at me when I said Greg’s name without having to include the fact that he was my brother, and I saw him turn back to Jolene with more interest than before. “And this is my—this is Jolene.”
“Hi,” she said, and Daniel returned the greeting.
“I haven’t seen Daniel in a while,” I explained.
“I guessed that, too,” Jolene said.
Right. I didn’t exactly go around launching myself at strangers.
“So, are you going to college somewhere or...?”
Daniel ran a hand—not the one with the busted knuckles—through his hair. “No, I’m actually getting ready to move. My mom... She’s in the hospital and, um, when she gets better I’m taking her... We’re leaving. She always wanted to go somewhere warm, so we’re gonna try Arizona.”
I swallowed. I was more sorry than I could say that his mom was hurt. I glanced toward the hand still concealed in his pocket, and I prayed that he’d busted each one of the knuckles on his bastard of a father. Greg would have been happy, too.
“Arizona sounds good,” I told him. I would have said something more if Jolene hadn’t been there, but he met my gaze and nodded, understanding.
Jolene glanced between us, then made a show of shivering. “Wow, I am cold. I think I’m gonna head back to my apartment.”
“I guess we have been walking for a while. We can go.”
Jolene put her hand on my arm. “Stay,” she said in a soft voice. “It’s not like I don’t know the way by myself.”
Daniel ducked his head. “Actually, I have to get going. But I can give you guys a ride.”
I was glad for the excuse Jolene’s presence gave me not to explain about the apartment I had Daniel drive us to. He’d assume Jolene lived there and I was hanging out with her.
We climbed into Daniel’s Jeep, me in the back, Jolene in the passenger seat, and I felt such an overwhelming sense of déjà vu that I couldn’t breathe. How many times had I sat back here with Daniel and Greg in the front? Greg had never minded when I wanted to tag along with them. Or, I don’t know, maybe sometimes he had and I couldn’t remember. A lot of the time, Jeremy had been there, too, and the two of us would push at each other, fighting to lean forward between the front seats.
Jolene and Daniel were talking while I drifted back to the past, and I liked the sounds of their voices mixing together.
Greg would have liked Jolene. I knew it with such a strong bolt of conviction that my heart skipped a beat. And then it skipped another as I realized that moment was the closest they’d ever come to meeting each other.
Jolene glanced back at me, took in the moisture I could feel in my eyes, and went back to talking to Daniel. Without being obvious about it, she extended a hand between the seats and found mine.
The whole drive back to the apartment she held my hand, releasing it only when Daniel parked.
“I’ll meet you inside,” she told me before saying thanks and bye to Daniel.
We watched her go. Well, I watched her go. Daniel watched me.