I shouldwhat? “How the hell am I going to convince him to talk to the surgeon who removed your heart? Isn’t all that shit kept confidential?”
“Google it. I gotta run. See ya later, Avery.” She was gone in an instant.
That was easy for her to say…
Researching the rules, regulations, and laws pertaining to transplants, both giving and getting, left me with a ton of information I needed to try to unscramble. There were a lot of rules surrounding private medical information that even transcended death.
From what I understood, Happy’s family didn’t know who had received her organs, though as far as I could guess, the other recipients hadn’t had a visit from Happy because she never mentioned anyone else.
I was at a loss regarding how to approach Holden with the information that I’d received Happy’s heart, so, as snow and freezing rain blanketed the Baltimore area during the first two weeks of January, I stewed.
Kyle and Brooke returned from their holiday, and we’d fallen back into our normal routine. Happy hadn’t been haunting me for the two weeks after New Year’s, and I thought just maybe she’d moved on.
I walked out of a meeting with a potential client near the National Aquarium when Happy appeared in front of me wearing a tan shearling coat and matching snow boots over navy tights and a navy knit wrap dress.
“You look fabulous. I thought you’d made your decision to move on.” I kept walking down the street to a bus stop.
Brooke’s car had been totaled, and she’d been cashed out by her insurance as they pursued a case against the trucking company. Brooke’s attorney was sure they’d win, but her insurance company refused to continue to cover her. She’d decided she wasn’t ready to get another car, and every morning when we climbed into Kyle’s Jeep, I felt awful.
The guilt I felt over that stupid accident was overwhelming. I couldn’t do anything to make it up to my friend except offer her bus fare if Kyle couldn’t take her somewhere as I attempted to ease my conscience.
Brooke and Kyle where pissed at me because I’d been injured in the accident and hadn’t told them.
“It’s January fifteenth, have you reached out to my brother?” And Happy was back.
I wasn’t thrilled with the tilt of her head or the arched eyebrow as if she was judging me. All this shit was new in my world, and I was trying to make sense of it.
Swallowing my nerves, I glanced around to see people weren’t paying attention to me. “I assumed with the horrible weather, Holden would be busy. I didn’t want to bother him.”
It was a bullshit response, of course, but I wasn’t a member of Mensa, and it was the first thing that popped into my head. If Happy had been haunting me as long as she’d claimed, she should have known I was far from a genius.
“As a matter of fact, hehasbeen busy. Busy sitting around, watching sports, and scratching himself from boredom. It’s one month before my birthday. What are you going to do about it? You know what? You’re a procrastinator, aren’t you? I’m starting to get a little tired of your crap, Avery. I might have to ask Hal to help me out when it comes to you.”
She disappeared without allowing me to respond. That was a not-so-veiled threat, right?
“Whatever.”
I continued to the bus stop. I was sure I hadn’t seen the last of Happy Holly, but I’d deal with her later.
As I boarded the bus to ride to the transfer point, the woven strap of my messenger bag got caught on a screw sticking out of the handrail at the entrance and nearly strangled me. When I jerked the strap free, it broke. My bag fell onto the bus steps before rolling into the street…as the bus was pulling away.
I was able to get off before the careless driver closed the door, but the damage was already done. The back tire on the bus ran over the bag, crushing my laptop.
How fucking unlucky was I?
Chapter Eleven
Holden
Why was it that any snowfall after Christmas was seen as a sin against humanity? People who were giddy with excitement at the hint of a white Christmas were the same ones moaning and groaning about it on December 26.
Homer and Shelby were two of those complainers, which had Steve and me out on the roads servicing any emergency calls for dump trucks and highway snowplows that we’d received during the first few weeks of January.
Very little construction or roadwork was being done around Baltimore due to the snow, sleet, and freezing temperatures, so Homer and Shelby were servicing our contract customers, going to construction headquarters to maintain their vehicles since they weren’t being used on job sites.
Steve and I had taken a call from a ski resort in The Poconos to service and repair the tracks on three of their massive snowplows. Those fuckers were huge.
The rest of our calls were fleet calls—replacing snow tires or fixing flats from ill-fitting chains for our long-haul customers. The boring stuff.
