The Road Home (Lost in Austin Book 2) by Christina Berry

Author:Christina Berry [Berry, Christina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Black Rose Writing
Published: 2021-08-04T16:00:00+00:00

9—Sunday July 31, 2005

I’m too close. Like I’ve crossed into the Exclusion Zone surrounding a nuclear meltdown, the fallout from ground zero still colors the air. The past still falls from the sky in a shower of ash. It never stopped. I’ve just been ignoring it for a couple decades. But now, for whatever reason, the tinge in the sky, the scent in the air—it’s all part of some nostalgic lure that’s pulling me back home.

Home.

Sitting in this fast-food joint in the Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta, I can look out the window and see the road that will take me home. My head throbs with tension. My skin feels too tight. I shake my head and drop my hands into my lap, clenching them into fists beneath the table, trying to stop fidgeting, even as my foot begins to tap against the floor.

“Hey guys, how would y’all feel about a home-cooked meal?” I speak the words before I can change my mind. No going back now.

They all perk up, setting down their mediocre coffees and bland breakfast sandwiches as they raise their eyebrows.

“Since we have the day off, I thought…you see…I grew up not too far from here, and…maybe we could pay a visit. Margie used to always fry chicken and bake a pie on Sundays. I don’t know if she still does, but if I call ahead—”

“Do it,” Sean demands. “Call ahead. Tell her to bake a pie—”

“Sean—” Aidan starts.

“Fuck’s sake, Aidan, don’t be a git.” He picks up his breakfast sandwich and tosses it back down onto its wrapper. It lands with an unappetizing thud. “I’m sick of this shite. I want pie.” Sean points at me. “And he gets to see his mum.”

“She’s not really my mom, but she’s close,” I clarify.

Glenn shrugs, and Aidan asks, “It won’t be a bother?”

I laugh. Fat chance. Margie thrives when she has a house full of boys to feed. She’ll be delighted. “Only thing is, the route we’d have to take to Charlotte goes through the mountains…”

Aidan leans over to the table across the aisle, where Bruce is reading my copy of The Dark Tower. The whole bus has been reading my books. More of that weird Irish hazing, I guess, or they forgot to pack their own. “Bruce, we’re considering a detour, but the route would take us through the mountains—”

“Let’s do it.” That’s the most I’ve heard from the guy in four days. “I’m bored with the interstate.”

Aidan nods at me. “Crack on, then.”

I call Greg’s mom, and she answers in one ring. “Jake? Is everything okay?”

Yesterday, we’d chatted about Greg. He answered her call, and she described him as sounding “tired.” He still hasn’t answered my calls. But that’s not what this call is about. I put a smile in my voice. “Hiya, Margie, everything’s fine. I’m actually calling because, well, I’m in Atlanta.”

“What?”

“I’m on tour with a band, and we have the day off.

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