Guide Me Home by Attica Locke

Author:Attica Locke [LOCKE, ATTICA]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2024-09-04T00:00:00+00:00

14.

THE THREE years since he’d left the Bureau had apparently been good to Greg.

It had almost been that long since Greg and Darren had last seen each other.

Oh, there’d been texts here and there, birthday voicemails, neither willing to go totally radio silent. When Greg had heard through the grapevine — the vine holding a single grape named Lisa — that Darren’s uncle Clayton had had open-heart surgery last year, Greg had made contact, only to find out that Darren was not in fact bedside at St. David’s in Austin, had, in fact, never left the farmhouse in Camilla. Darren had been getting regular updates from Clayton’s wife, Naomi, and once he was assured Clayton was in recovery, that he would live, Darren had resumed not speaking to his uncle. Darren was angered by Clayton’s extreme disappointment over the breakup of Darren’s marriage, pressing his nephew to make right “the best thing that ever happened to you.” He had gone so far as to call Darren a tomfool for cutting ties with Lisa for some ol’ gal he didn’t really know. It was, in Clayton’s opinion, an even stupider decision than quitting law school years ago to become a Texas Ranger — which only stoked Darren’s grief over the death of his uncle William. The man he most admired, in whose footsteps he had set his life’s path. Darren hadn’t wanted to talk to Greg then or since. About Clayton or his marriage. He had pointedly dodged any attempt at an airing of grievances between them. Mostly because he didn’t have any. Not deep down, not when you got past his ego. Greg and Lisa fucking and not telling him about it was so low on his list of reasons he and his wife didn’t work out that it wasn’t worth getting too agitated about, not when he could just pour another glass of Jim Beam. But as he was now into his second full day without drinking, without that sloppy skirt around his feelings, he said, “You should have just told me, man.” Greg stopped in his tracks at the base of the porch stairs, one foot on the first step, one still in the marshy grass. He was in ropers — something Darren had never seen Greg wear — jeans, and a sweater that Darren took for cashmere. It was a heathered charcoal gray. It lightened Greg’s green eyes, drew attention to the feathered lines around them. He looked older than Darren now.

“That’s it,” Darren added. “That’s all of it.”

Greg did not advance, did not move at all, as if he wasn’t sure that either of them was ready for him to come closer. He scratched at the stubble on his chin, a patch of gray. “I wanted to,” he said. “All these years… I wanted to say something, brought it up to Lisa many times, but she always said it would only hurt you over something that wasn’t anything real. It happened only once, and every year put more distance between it and your marriage. Not that I’m trying to put it all on Lisa.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.