Owen
Look, no pressure, but we have questions
Seth
A lot of questions
Adam’s name just kept popping up with three dots, showing he was typing, then disappearing again.
Will
When you said you had a brief marriage that was annulled…it was with that woman?
Seth
And was she a woman when it happened?
Owen
Seth!
Seth
What? She looks like she just graduated college. We’re going to talk about it at some point, right?
Owen
Not the most pressing question.
Adam
I don’t know. If Josh married someone who is a decade younger than me, I think that’s of immediate interest.
Josh clicked out of the app, his knuckles turning white from the intensity with which he was gripping his phone.
Then, heart pounding, he stabbed his thumb on the screen to go back to the chat.
Josh
Don’t talk about her like that.
He didn’t want his brothers to talk about Monica at all. He wanted her to leave, and for everyone to forget they ever got a glimpse of the young, beautiful, so-far-out-of-reach-it-hurts woman who once used him for a good time, and shoved him away when it all got a bit hard.
Josh
She’s gone again. It’s over and done with. Now I need to go do a tow, so stop being dicks about this.
Owen
Shit, I’m sorry. I just heard about the MVA on the radio. Stay safe out there.
There was nothing to be sorry about. Not now. The regret? That was three years in the past.
He shoved himself up and off the floor. Dusted off his jeans, yanked on his work parka, and grabbed the keys to the tow truck.
* * *
Monica’s head was spinning,but she hadn’t lost consciousness. The guy in the pickup truck had stopped, and called 911. Then he climbed down the embankment to get to her and keep her company while they waited for an ambulance.
