Chapter Text
2010 - El Paso
Eddie’s hands worked quickly to remove the steering column cover on the blue Jeep he’d scouted. In under a minute, he had the cover removed and the wires exposed. He cut, stripped, and twisted the wires, his hands sure, his nerves steady, and then he touched the exposed ends together. There was a spark and the engine roared into life, his heart roaring with it. He was along the side of a convenience store, just outside the pool of a street lamp, and he was taking a huge risk, but Benny and Johnny had dared him and life was too boring to pass up an adrenaline rush like this.
Finally, he disabled the steering wheel lock and the wheel turned under his hand. He wouldn’t drive it far, just back to a park near Benny’s house. The owner would get it back tomorrow. No harm, no foul. Meanwhile, the thrill of victory sang through his bones. Benny and Johnny were going to owe him $50 a piece, All he had to do was drive away.
“Hey, what are you doing?”
The frantic voice came from a big guy, about his age, with dirty-blond curls. He raced towards him with a bag of snacks flopping forgotten in his hand.
Shit. He threw the car in reverse and backed into the aisle.
“That’s my Jeep!” He was closer now and panic revealed the whites of his eyes, a birthmark dotted over his left eye. Eddie wasn’t sure why that stood out in the chaos of the encounter but he would always remember the first time he saw that birthmark.
He threw the Jeep into drive.
The guy reached the side and banged a hand on the window. “Shit, man!”
That’s all Eddie heard before he hit the accelerator and drove off into the night.
That was close. The closest he’d ever come to getting busted. He felt sorry for the guy, he’d looked pretty freaked out, but oh well, the kid could call his parents and get a ride home. If the cops didn’t find the car in the morning, he’d call it in as an interested bystander. The adrenaline retreated as he drove across town, and his breathing returned to normal; his hands slowly stopped shaking. Yes, he’d done it!
He thought of the panicked look on the guy’s face and his foot let off the accelerator. He punched it back down again. It was fine. It was just a car. Twenty minutes later, he pulled into Benny’s driveway and honked the horn. Benny and Johnny came tumbling out of the house.
“You actually did it, you son-of-a-bitch,” Benny said. He had been a football player before he gave it up as too much work. He’d played quarterback. Had promise, they said. But his senior year of high school had convinced him he had better things to do than team sports. LIke convincing others to steal cars for joyrides.
Johnny pulled his beanie down over his stick-straight hair. “You’re crazy,” he said in a soft voice.
“First things first. $50. Pay up,” Eddie crowed.
Johnny dug out his wallet while Benny dug through the car instead. Typical. Trying to get out of his bet.
Benny pulled out a big duffel bag from the back and unzipped it. “Why is he carrying around a bag of dirty clothes?”
Taking a closer look, Eddie noticed that the back seat of the Jeep was removed and a sleeping bag lay scrunched against the tail gate. A small camping stove and cooler sat in the corner next to a row of canned beans ‘n franks. Oh shit. He flashed back on the sheer panic that had blanketed the guy’s face and his stomach cramped. Fuck.
He may be a smart ass but he wasn’t an asshole. But he had just done one of the most assholish things he could have done. He had stolen a man’s house. He grabbed the clothes and started shoving them back in the duffle bag. “Knock it off. That’s somebody’s stuff.” He threw the bag in the back and slid into the driver’s seat. “I gotta run.”
“But we gotta ditch this car at the park. Don’t you need a pick-up?” Benny protested.
“It’s under control,” he bit out, then jumped back into the driver’s seat and threw it into reverse.
He drove across the city with a roiling stomach. The guy lived in his car and he had stolen it. His crazed look made sense now. He couldn’t just call his parents and get a ride. He may not know anyone in the whole city!
If he hadn’t just seen the proof with his own eyes, he never would have imagined him as homeless. He looked like he belonged on Benny’s football squad. Big, tall, muscular… Even his hair had a tousled, careless air to it. Now he knew it was just the lack of money for a haircut. Well, homelessness looked good on him.
He drove up to the convenience store, his eyes darting back and forth. This was crazy. He could get popped for vehicular theft. But all he had to do was think back to the guy racing to the side of his Jeep and pawing fruitlessly at the window and his determination came flying back. The guy’s whole world was in the back of this Jeep, and he knew he had to at least check.
Living in your car was illegal, too. Maybe not as illegal as stealing a car—he’d never checked homelessness on the illegality scale—but he figured you had to have an address and possess a driver’s license to make a report. Did he even have a driver’s license? Maybe he hadn’t even called the cops.
Though once your whole house was stolen, did you have any other choice? He’d be sleeping on a bench tonight. Or in a jail cell. Whatever way this fell out, the guy was screwed.
Still tossing all the what-ifs and could-bes in his mind, he approached the convenience store at a steady pace. He didn’t see any flashing red and blues so he pulled up to the side of the convenience store. His lights splashed on the sidewalk and the dirty-blonde sat on his butt, his knees pulled up to his chest as if in comfort, and his head dropped limply onto his knees.
Eddie pulled up in the aisle and leaned over to pop the door open.
“Hey. Get in.”
The guy’s head sprang up at his words. He looked lost, then he noticed his Jeep and just looked confused.
Eddie tried again. “Hey. Get in the car before the cops come.”
At the word “cops”, the guy leaped up and slid into the passenger’s seat. “Go.”
A quick look in his rearview mirror showed a cop car turning into the other end of the parking lot. He kept his pulse steady and slowly drove off down a side street, so as not to call attention. He drove mindlessly for the next five minutes, putting valuable real estate between him and the cops.
The man next to him was so quiet it was eerie. If he was confronted with the man who had just stolen his home, he would be ranting and raving, threatening bodily harm… hell, he’d probably be inflicting it. This man was… he looked over. He was crying. He pulled over to the side of a residential street, underneath a dim street lamp. Eddie could see the tears sliding down the guy’s face.
“Hey, man. You okay?”
The man wiped his face on his t-shirt. “Yeah. Just… I’m just… shit, I don’t know. Relieved, I guess. I didn’t want to talk to the cops.”
“No driver’s license? No address?” Eddie ventured.
“Well, no, I still got my parent’s address on everything, but I would have had to call them. And I really didn’t want to talk to them. I kinda left a little abruptly.”
Holy shit. He wasn’t the down-on-his-luck vagrant he had assumed. He could have called family. While it didn’t sound exactly loving, even assholes would help you if your car got stolen, wouldn’t they? Eddie was one lucky son-of-a-bitch.
But he looked again, eyes wandering over the birthmark, then to his reddened eyes. The poor guy really did look like he’d been put through the wringer. Eddie braved a pat-pat then pulled his hand back. Probably best not to push his luck.
“You got anywhere you want to go?”
“No, I’m just passing through. Going to San Diego. Going to BUD/S training for the Navy Seals.”
Holy shit, squared. Not only had he just ripped off someone who could have turned his ass into the cops, he was a do-gooder on top of it. Those angels he no longer believed in were looking down on him today.
“Where do you sleep?”
“Big box store, industrial park, church parking lots…” He shrugged. “Hadn’t gotten that far yet. Then some asshole stole my Jeep.”
Fair.
“Wanna sleep in my driveway? I can’t invite you to sleep inside, because my father would tan my hide but you can stay in the driveway. It’ll keep the cops off your back.” He wasn’t sure why it felt so important but he suddenly wanted this man to say yes. “You can come in for a shower. It’s the least I can do after I stole your house.”
“Your parents aren’t there now?”
“My dad’s on the road for work. My mom took my sisters up to visit Grandma. I’m taking care of the place.” The way his dad had gone on about him taking care of the place, you’d think he was gonna burn it down the minute his back turned. He was just fine. And the smoke alarm had only gone off once due to a forgotten grilled cheese sandwich.
“How old are you?” the guy asked.
“Eighteen,” Eddie said. “You?”
“Nineteen.”
He was right about being close in age. It made him feel more secure about inviting him in. He wouldn’t invite a forty-year-old man in but this guy was like just another one of his buddies coming over to hang out.
“So, about that shower?”
The guy ran his hand through his hair. “I have been on the road for a few days. And you do kinda owe me.”
Score. He wasn’t sure when it had happened but he had made it his mission to get this man cleaned up, relaxed, and maybe even fed.
He pulled away from the curb, mentally filing through his fridge for leftovers. He’d probably appreciate some soup. Fifteen minutes later, after a quiet, relaxed ride, neither feeling the need to fill the air with empty small talk, he pulled up in front of his parent’s house.
“Big house,” the guy said simply.
Eddie looked at the large, white house with the wrap-around porch through his visitor’s eyes. After living in his car, it probably looked huge. It was a nice house. His dad made a good living. But Eddie had been thinking of heading out on the road, maybe moving out. He just needed to save a little more money.
He looked at Mr. Navy Seal. He seemed to be doing okay and he didn’t even have enough money for a hotel room. Eddie frowned. Maybe he’d gotten soft. He suddenly didn’t feel like the beneficent saint helping out the down-trodden. He felt like the constrained being shown the way by the truly free.
He parked in the driveway. “Come in. Grab your clothes.” He looked down at the mass of wires between his legs. “I’ll fix your steering column in the morning.”
The blond looked too tired to care. He just nodded and reached in the back for his duffel bag. Eddie led him up the porch and through the airy living room to a spacious 3/4 bath.
“Shampoo, conditioner, body wash, it’s all in there. Use as much as you want. My mom buys that shit by the truckload.” The more he looked at their conspicuous usage, the more it felt like wastefulness.
Blondie simply grunted and entered the bathroom. Eddie bustled around the kitchen, putting some tortilla soup in the microwave. As the drone of the microwave went on, he had a dangerous thought—an out-of-nowhere, ‘this may never happen again’, ‘there’s a buff, hot, naked stranger in my shower’ thought—and he put it into action before he chickened out. He grabbed some sweats and a t-shirt from the laundry room and knocked on the bathroom door. At the answering “Yes?,” he figured now or never. He’d already stolen a car, he couldn’t get much crazier.
He grasped the knob, twisted the handle and walked into the bathroom, catching the outline of a built man through the glass shower doors. His back was turned to the door and his skin was pinkened from the warm shower. Eddie stood, cemented in place, and drank in the curve of his back, the dip over his ass.
“The fuck?” he heard.
He lost his bravado and dropped off the sweats and t-shirt. “You can wear my clothes. I’ll wash yours,” he said as he grabbed up the dirty clothes and made his escape.
They say teenagers didn’t have fully developed frontal cortexes till they were twenty-five. In other words, it was hard-wired in him to make stupid decisions. He’d been using that excuse for everything from joyriding to the sky-dive he’d made the day he’d turned eighteen. Walking in on a handsome stranger was just another in a long line. He thought of the eyeful he had gotten and couldn’t feel too remorseful. He would remember that sight for a long time.
Having dumped everything in the washing machine, he pulled the soup from the microwave—he was being downright domestic; man, Benny would give him shit—just in time to see Mr. Navy Seal walk out into the kitchen. He cleaned up good. Water dripped from his hair onto his shoulders and his t-shirt was strained across Blondie’s larger muscles.
“Look. I know I’m just a drifter, but walking in on me naked, man... I may not have a big house or a new car, but I’m still deserving of respect.”
He was upset. And now Eddie thought of how it all looked. “No, no! I wasn’t thinking like that.” He’d actually been thinking that this was a situation offered up on the Skinemax channel, situated in the line-up right before “Here Comes the Plumber” and right after “Pizza Delivery!”. They liked their strangers at the door. And here he had his very own stranger.
He’d been messing around with girls since he was fifteen. Once the initial thrill was over, it had become old hat. While others squeaked and whispered their way around their first times, Eddie’s had been so long ago, he couldn’t remember the girl’s name. He’d had a lot of them. He was ready for something new and exciting. And Mr. Navy Seal was unequivocally, ‘body like a god’, Penthouse-letter hot.
“I honestly didn’t mean it that way. I just wanted to get the clothes started right away, so you can get to sleep sooner. You’re probably tired.” That got him a tired affirmative and he mentally wiped the sweat off his forehead. Best to just keep things moving. “Here, have some soup.”
Hottie eyed the soup with greedy eyes. “It looks good.”
“We got tons.” LIke everything else they had, Eddie would never look at the way he lived the same way again. “So what is it like out there?” He was ready to lap up any story with enthusiasm.
Hottie blew on his soup before answering, “Hard. But good.” He sipped off his spoon.
“That’s it? ‘Hard, but good’? Weak, man.”
“What were you expecting? EuroTrip?”
It took Eddie a second. Raunchy road trip movie with Michelle Trachtenberg? Sign him up.
“Kinda?”
Hottie just shook his head. “Anything is better than what I left but there’s no sex with hot babes, no. It’s just a constant race to stay ahead of the cops and find a place to shower. Thanks for that, by the way.”
“No problem. And sorry. For walking in on you. I didn’t look at you. Naked, I mean. Like, I wasn’t looking at your muscles or anything.” Smooth, Eddie. He’d been with more girls than most guys could count at his age and he was making a fool of himself over another dude.
Hottie gave him a second look at that. An interesting second look. Had he finally caught on to where Eddie’s teenaged, ever-horny, sex-obsessed brain had been residing? He held Hottie’s gaze looking for an answer.
Eddie had spent his teenage years bouncing from one enthusiastic escapade to another. He’d had sex in the high school parking lot, sex with two girls, a blowjob in the back row of the nearby theatre. He’d never thought of a man, and may never again, but he wasn’t one to turn down an opening when it was dropped in his lap.
Well, fuck it. If he was going to get an exciting new sex adventure, someone had to take the first step. Sky-diving. Car-stealing. Shower-lusting. Just one more step. He gave his most alluring smile.
“Wanna fuck?”
Hottie broke out laughing.
Eddie shut down and his face flushed hot. “Fuck you!”
“No, that’s not what I mean. I’m just saying…” Hottie ran his hand down his face. “I’m exhausted and you’re looking at me like I’m the hot neighbor who came over to borrow a cup of sugar.”
Actually, the pizza delivery guy, but close.
“You didn’t need to laugh, asshole.”
“I’ve been hit on in campgrounds, gyms, and truck stops just trying to have a shower and never once considered it. You are by far the hottest, so take it as a compliment when I say I’d actually consider it with you. I’m just tired.”
Eddie felt a little mollified, but his dreams of a hot one-night stand—with a man, wow, his pre-frontal cortex was working over-time there—flew out the window.
“It would have been wild,” Eddie said with a sigh. But he took his rare rejection with grace. “Look. It’s stupid of you to sleep out in that little Jeep when we have a whole guest bedroom free.”
“Thought your father would ‘tan your hide?’”
“Fuck him.” That was a very freeing thought. This new stranger was bad for his world-view in more ways than one. “I’ll show you to the room. I’ll make pancakes in the morning. Take the offer.”
Hottie paused, then nodded. “Okay.”
Eddie slept poorly that night but he had offered pancakes. He pulled down the pancake mix and squinted at the directions. Just add water. He could do this. He poured and stirred. His dreams of showing up naked in the stranger’s room had been flushed down the toilet by that tired laugh and he had felt a blow to his ego but he could get up and make pancakes. He wasn’t that insecure.
Blondie walked into the kitchen, and Eddie offered him a Coke. At his weird look, he added, “I don’t drink coffee but I could probably figure it out.”
Blondie looked disappointed but said, “No, this is fine.” He popped the top. “Can I help?”
“No. I got things totally under control.” He flipped a pancake to find it burned. Well, kinda under control. He shoved it under the bottom of the stack and brought over the butter and syrup.
“Man, if you do this for no sex, I can only imagine what you would have done for sex.”
“Who knows? I might even have learned how to use the coffee machine.”
They shared a smile. He looked better today. His eyes were full of mischief and he smiled more. The corners of his mouth were curved upwards in merriment.
“I’ll eat this then get out of your hair.”
“You could stay.” He could? Eddie had no idea where that came from. It wasn’t even his Skinemax dreams. He just liked his company.
Blondie stopped mid-scoop. “Uh, okay.”
Eddie smiled. The day was looking up.
This day sucked. He came back into the house to find Birthmark Babe sitting on the couch watching Oprah Winfrey.
“I’m sorry. I can’t get your steering column back together. I need a new part.”
“So we go get it.”
“I already called. They won’t get it in until Thursday.”
“Guess I’ll have to stay then,” he said and smiled.
Eddie smiled back. The day was looking back up.
“You know the test results are gonna come back that he’s not the daddy.” Hottie was sprawled out on the couch and Jerry Springer was on the TV. His feet lay stretched out just inches from Eddie’s thigh.
“I’m not taking that bet. They’re never the daddy,” Eddie said
“Damn, I was hoping to make some money, too.”
That stopped him from their careless banter. “Speaking of… How do you make money? I mean, usually.” He was thinking of his talk of being hit on by truck drivers. He was imagining sordid get-togethers in the back of a Peterbilt and he wasn’t happy with the picture.
“I usually do day labor jobs. Hang around the home improvement stores.”
“Oh. Do you need to go do that?” He felt sad but if he was keeping Mr. Sexy Nickname from earning a living that would be uncool.
“Nah, I got enough to get by.” He dug in his pocket for an old wallet that had seen better days. “Here, by the way. For the food.”
Eddie shut that down right away. “Are you kidding? My mom left me so much food, it’s just gonna go bad and I’ll have to throw it away. Keep it.”
Hottie looked unsure but thankfully put his wallet away.
“Wanna do something?” Eddie said.
“Sure. What?”
Everything Eddie thought of involved money. Arcades, trapshooting, golfing, paintballing, poker night with the guys… he’d never noticed how much his life revolved around money.
“What do you usually do?”
“I go to the state parks. They’re usually really cheap and they’re amazing. I was on my way to Carlsbad Caverns. It’s been on my bucket list forever,” he said, enthralled. ”The caves are four million years old, can you imagine? But the stalactites and stalagmites are really delicate.” His eyes lit up and Eddie found himself entranced by the striking blue color.
“There’s a trail you can hike, the Big Room trail, where you can walk past all these amazing formations.” He swung his hand in his excitement. “There’s an area called the Hall of Giants where there are these huge columns. The Giant Dome is sixty-two feet high and sixteen feet in diameter!”
Eddie could picture it in his head. Had he seen it when he was there with his parents? He hadn’t been paying much attention; he was just a kid, trying too hard to be cool, and he’d made jokes to his friends about having to see a hole in the ground. Now he wished he’d paid attention. He made a note to look it up after Hottie moved on.
The thought of him leaving left a hole in his chest. He knew he had to leave sooner or later. He had the Navy Seals to get to. He had a whole life of crazy adventures. And the one thing he wanted now was the Caverns. He could give that to him.
“We could go tomorrow,” he said carefully, worried about being laughed at in his face.
Instead, Blondie looked cautiously excited then his face fell. “The part for the Jeep is coming in tomorrow.”
That was easy. “Screw the part. The Caverns first.”
Hottie’s easy grin lit up his face. “Okay.”
Eddie had gone from dreams of a sexy hook up with a stranger to hiking around nature with a friend. How the mighty have fallen. But he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Okay, for today then, video games?”
“You’re on.”
Benny called him on his iPhone. He sent it to voicemail. They settled in to collect the bounty on a gang of outlaws, because even in Red Dead Redemption, Mr. Too Good to be True always played a good guy.
They’d just finished up a multiplayer match when someone rang the door bell.
“Hang on,” Eddie said. He bounced to the door and swung it open to find Benny and Johnny, Benny’s fist raised, ready to bang on the door.
“Hey,” Johnny said in his concerned, soft voice. “Are you okay? We thought you were in trouble.”
Benny simply slapped him on the arm and pushed past. “Good to see you haven’t kicked the bucket. Your mom still have those cookies I like?”
He paused in the doorway to the living room. “Eddie? There’s someone on your couch.”
“Uh, guys. This is…” He’d never got around to getting his name. At first, it had been kinda sexy. Two strangers, not even sharing their name. Then it had become a thing, like a contest to see who would give in and ask first. Then it had become an internal game to see how many nicknames he could come up with.
“Hi, I’m Buck,” he said, standing and putting out his hand. Buck. It was a cool ass nickname.
Benny looked at him, then at Eddie. “Hey, man. Benny. And that’s Johnny.”
Eddie was worried about how they would respond to Buck, but he didn’t look like a homeless guy when he was all showered up and wearing clean clothes. His 6’2” frame would demand respect even if he didn’t have a body like a bronze god.
“That car out front, kinda looked familiar—” Benny said.
“Buck’s my cousin. From Wisconsin,” he said hurriedly.
Buck gave him a hesitant look. Almost hurt. But Eddie didn’t want the guys to know where he came from and tease him. They could be complete assholes and he didn’t want Buck to be hurt.
And he’d hurt him anyway.
“Yeah, from Green Bay,” Buck recovered, and said smoothly.
“Cool. The Packers. Respect, man,” Benny said, with a follow-up nod from Johnny. And like that, he was accepted as one of them.
“What are you guys doing here?” Eddie said, anxious to find out and send them on their way.
“Eddie, we were supposed to go golfing today.”
“I can’t today guys. Maybe next week.”
“Come on, asshole. You’ve been blowing us off all week. Karla said you missed your date last night.”
Buck’s gaze shot towards him and he winced. So not cool. That made him look like he was desperate to stay with Buck, not at all smooth and composed like he was trying to portray. It dinged his dignity. He had to get them to leave.
“I gotta watch my cousin, sorry guys. I gotta pass today.”
“He’s not like a toddler. Invite him along.” Benny never did know how to read a room.
“No thanks, guys. I don’t golf,” Buck said.
It didn’t surprise Eddie. Buck looked like the type who played football, not golf. A contact sport seemed right up his alley. Rough. Rugged.
“Paintballing then?”
Eddie knew he didn’t have the money for that. “It’s too late today. And we’re out of town tomorrow.” He kept it vague and hoped they didn’t ask where. He’d be mortified to say he was going to a park.
“Fine, asshole.” Benny was pissed. Tough shit. He only had a few more days of Buck—such a cool name—and they could fuck right off.
“Let’s go, Johnny.”
“Bye, Eddie. Nice to meet you, Buck.”
“Bye, Johnny.”
They took off out the door with a slam and Eddie tried to think of what he could have done better, but whatever. He got them out with minimal damage.
“Your cousin from Wisconsin?” Buck raised an eyebrow at him with a disgruntled air.
Perhaps the damage wasn’t so minimal. “I just figured…”
“Yeah. Look, we don’t have to go to the park tomorrow. I should get on the road anyway.”
“Oh, okay…”
“Yeah, I gotta get moving. I got big things happening. Gotta get ready for my Seals training.”
“Sure, I get it.” Eddie kept his face impassive but inside his heart broke.
Buck gave him a strange look, a wounded look, and said, “I’m gonna go to bed.”
This was fucked. But what else could he say? “Good night, Buck.”
The next morning, Eddie put the steering column back together and the Jeep looked just like it had before. Buck carried his duffel bag out to the vehicle. He held himself stiffly. “Thanks for the pancakes.” And with those last words, he slid into the driver’s seat and pulled out of the driveway without ever looking back. He just drove away.
Eddie realized he didn’t know his last name. For that matter, he didn’t even know his first.
Eddie was seated with his crew at the diner. It had been a triumphant showing of Inception at the theatre and Benny and Johnny were busy rehashing every scene with animated expressions. Eddie knew they’d be going back. He picked at his french fries. A show that once would have left him as excited as Benny now barely moved the needle. Maybe he just had to give it another chance…
“Eddie. Hey, asshole,” Benny said.
He pulled himself from his thoughts. “Huh?”
“What’s the matter with you lately? You’ve been spacing out, ignoring us, blowing us off. Not cool, man.”
He’d been in a funk ever since Buck had left. Every night when he laid down to sleep, he ran through all the different things he could have said, instead of the one he chose. It was an endless game of ‘what-if’ that sent him spiraling.
“Just got a lot on my mind. Sorry, guys.”
“I was asking what you think of that Shannon chick. She’s got some great tits.”
“Yeah, great.” He’d done her. Another checkmark in the completed column, as if once he got enough marks, he’d get a certificate that said ‘No Longer Thinking of Him’.
He’d passed on her once she’d become clingy. She seemed nice enough, and maybe if he ever slowed down, he might choose someone like her, but there were too many others out there to wade through, a whole list of checkmarks that might be the one to break him out of his funk.
“And an ass that won’t quit.”
He yawned. “Ass. Right.”
“You know what? Fuck off, man. It’s like you’re not even listening.”
Johnny, always the voice of reason, interceded. “Benny, calm down. Sometimes people have shit going on.”
“Well, that’s what we’re here for. To talk to. But he’s too good for us. He’s been like this for months.”
“Fuck you, have not. I just don’t have time for this.”
“You asshole!”
“Hey. Walk it off, Benny. Eddie, why don’t you go home,” Johnny said, not unkindly.
“Yeah, I…” He shrugged. “I’m going home.” To a too-big house, stocked with too much body wash and a mother that cooked him pancakes that weren’t burned. Maybe it was time he got out on his own trip. Set out on the road like Buck.
His phone rang. “I gotta grab this. It’s Shannon.” He’d have to turn her down again. It made him uncomfortable but he didn’t want to lead anyone on. “Hey.”
“Eddie?” Her voice was strained. Unnatural.
“Shannon? What’s wrong?”
“I’m pregnant…”
~