He scowled and hopped into the shower. He let it run cold. He was digging a hole here and couldn’t seem to find his way out. Did he go along for the ride or man up, and end things before the situation became complicated?
And it would become complicated. He had no doubt. Could he do casual with Faith and then leave? A good guy would back off.
“Fuck me,” he muttered, leaning against the wall as the cold water poured over him. He decided not to think about her. Notnow. He’d figure that shit out later. In the meantime, he had work to do. A family to deal with.
The parade started at 9 a.m. sharp, which meant the streets in and around the parade route were closed off to vehicles. They were clogged with families pulling wagons, kids on bikes, and the elderly pushing walkers or being pushed in their wheelchairs. For a town that boasted a population close to nine thousand, it felt as if every single one of them were there.
And that made navigating his way to the other side of town dicey. Gus swore when he narrowly missed hitting a teenager who darted in front of his truck on a bike. The young kid, barely out of braces and sporting a whisper of peach fuzz, cycled past without acknowledgment, trying his best to catch up to another group of teens headed downtown.
It brought back memories of another parade, in what seemed to be another lifetime. He had a clear vision of himself in a wagon that was decked out in red, white, and blue, along with Harrison and Ollie, being pulled by . . . he frowned as he took a left out of town.
Sunday? Ford? He couldn’t quite remember.
But the feel of that moment — the joy and anticipation were something he couldn’t forget. It was at odds with the life he’d been told he’d lived here. It made him uneasy, thinking that maybe he’d gotten things wrong. But how could he have? His mother had taken him and his siblings in the middle of a night to escape a monster. If his father was anything but what she’d said he was, wouldn’t he have come looking for them?
His cell pinged just as he was pulling into the Boone estate driveway, and he glanced at the caller ID. Shit, it was his mother. He’d been avoiding her for so long, he knew his time was up. He either took her call or confessed. Since he was pretty sure she’d be pissed to know where he was and what he was doing, he picked up on the second ring.
“Hey, Mom. What’s up?” As soon as the question popped out of his mouth, he knew he’d just opened himself up to the kind of hell only a mother could reign down on her son.
“What’s up? It’s been exactly three weeks since we last talked and that’s all you’ve got for me?”
“I talked to you last week.” He parked near the garage and cut the engine.
“No. We didn’t talk. You told me you were too busy to talk. Said that you were in the middle of a meeting with a new client and would call me back. Which you never did.”
“Sorry. It’s been crazy busy around here.”
“Has it? So busy that you can’t phone your mother?”
“I’ve been chasing my own tail for weeks and—”
“I know you’re not in DC.”
Shit. Fuck.
“Cat got your tongue?” Her tone changed, and Gus visualized her sitting in the chair out back of her place, eyes on the Pacific as she worked out whatever it was going on with her son. She’d always been a bit of a helicopter parent, and even though he was a grown man, she liked to be in the know.
“If I’m not in DC then where would I be?” he asked lightly, eyes on the house he’d spent his first seven years in.
“If I knew that I wouldn’t be calling you. What’s going on, August?”
He winced. Not good. Any sentence that included his given name usually meant the shit was going to hit.
“Look, I needed some time away is all. Nothing’s going on.”
“Are you seeing a woman?”
An image of Faith flashed before him, but he pushed it away just as fast. He couldn’t afford a distraction.
“I’m doing some recon.”
“You’re not a SEAL anymore. What the hell isrecon?”
“Research.” Goddamn was he digging a hole. “A new client and uh, I’m just doing my due diligence. The intelligence community is shady as hell Mom, you know that.”
“Are you in the country?”
Relieved that she had no clue of his whereabouts, Gus tossed his mother a bone. “No, but I’ll be home in a week or so. I promise to come out to California for a visit.”
