My gears start turning. I have money. All she’d have to do is ask, and I’d do anything to help her make her dream come true, but I know she never will, and I can respect that. She’sso fucking strong, and I never want to make her feel like I don’t believe she can’t do it on her own.
“You’ll make it happen. I know it.”
“Maybe.” She smiles softly. “So, what would you do if you could do something else?” she asks.
I hesitate before answering her question. Logan and Jacks are still the only friends who know I was offered the bar, and after her confession, mine seems silly and unimportant.
“I don’t really have a choice. I’m a Mitchell, and Mitchells work at Austere.”
“You always have a choice,” she says. “Come on. I told you my dream, and I know something spurred this conversation, so what is it? What would you do?”
I breathe in deep and then say it fast. “I’d buy The Local.”
“Like, the bar?”
“Yeah. A month and a half ago, the owner offered to sell it to me, but then my brother quit, and you know the rest. I think it would be cool to own The Local and make it my own.”
“I mean, that seems like a no brainer,” she says without hesitation. “I think you should do it.”
“Ha!”
“I’m serious. I think your family would want you to be happy, and it’s not that hard to see that you hate your job.”
“I don’t know about the first part, but is it that obvious that I hate being at Austere?”
She pulls into the driveway of a small, brick ranch and puts her car in park.
“It’s very obvious.” She unbuckles and turns to face me, pushing her sunglasses onto the top of her head. Her ocean eyes find mine, and the golden hour sun pouring into the car makes her look like some sort of goddess. “As your friend, I think you should do what makes you happy.”
Friend.
CHAPTER 20: WE MAKE A GOOD TEAM
WREN
When Tanner said he wanted to come with me to hang with Cody, I wasn’t sure. The last guy I brought home was my ex, Chad, and after months of pretending like he cared about my brother and what my family and I was going through, he broke up with me so that he could experience college life to the fullest.
Fucking jackass.
I almost told Tanner not to worry about it when I got to the apartment after work, but when I walked in, he was on the couch petting Dolly, wearing a Captain America T-shirt, and the framed comic was already sitting on the coffee table ready to go. He looked so excited that I didn’t have it in me to cancel our plans, and so here we are, about to walk into my childhood home, together.
He’s my friend, so this isn’t the same thing as bringing Chad around, but I also know that not everyone has experience with brain injury like I do, and I never know whether to over prepare people or just let it happen naturally.
The car ride has been interesting. I’m quickly learning that there is more to Tanner than meets the eye, and that terrifies the shit out of me. We also didn’t have time for my normalbrain injury spiel because he distracted me with talks about our dreams.
“It’s very obvious.” I say, unbuckling and turning to face him. I push my glasses onto the top of my head. “As your friend, I think you should do what makes you happy.”
I don’t miss his jaw ticking when I say friend. His baby blues lock on mine, and I have to physically shake myself to break our eye contact.
“I’ll think about it,” Tanner says, offering me a small smile.
“Good. You ready to go inside?”
“Hell yeah, let’s go,” he says, climbing out of the car with his comic. We follow the sidewalk up to the front door, and I pause before opening it.
“I should’ve mentioned it before, but my dad was a little weird about us living together. He knows you’re coming, but please just ignore anything he says. Also, Cody likes to give me a hard time, so if you could just ignore everything he says too, that’d be great.”
Tanner laughs. “And your mom? Am I allowed to listen to what she says?”
