Aaron’s throat ached.
God. Everything was such a mess. Would he have said it back? Maybe. He didn’t know. He was pretty sure he felt it, that he’d always felt it for Quinn, but there was so much between them—so much history and antagonism and bullshit—that Aaron wasn’t sure he could lay himself bare by saying the words aloud. Quinn had always been the braver one in that way.
He checked his watch. It was just past seven in the morning. Shit. He needed to get to Charlie’s before she sent Lennox to school.
He hobbled toward the front door, wincing as he took his weight badly on his prosthetic and pain jarred through his stump. Any other day and he might have gone back for his crutches, but he didn’t have time for that now. He pulled the front door shut behind him and moved as quickly and carefully as he could toward his truck. He started it, and backed out into the street.
Charlie had grown up in one of the trailer parks around Spruce Creek—a big part of why she’d spent so much time hanging at Aaron’s house—but Aaron remembered she’d said she was now living in the green duplex on Connor Street. He didn’t need more of an address than that. He might have been gone for a decade, but nothing ever changed in a town like Spruce Creek.
He pulled into Connor Street a few minutes later, at the front of the green duplex. He climbed out of the truck and headed up the cracked concrete driveway. He figured Charlie’s was the one on the right, with the football and the bike lying in the front yard. And then the door was pulled open before Aaron could reach it to knock, and he was left in absolutely no doubt at all.
The kid staring out at him was all Quinn. Well, the Quinn that Aaron remembered from around fourth grade. He was a little carbon copy of the boy that Aaron had always been aware of growing up, but took until he was sixteen to admit that he truly saw.
“Hi,” he said. “Is your mom in?”
Lennox squinted at him suspiciously. “Mom!” he bellowed, without letting go of the door. “Some guy is here!”
In a suddenly flurry of movement, Charlie was standing behind him, her arms around him. Her stance relaxed as she saw him. “Aaron! What are you doing here? Come in.”
Aaron stepped inside.
The house was small and rundown, but it was neat.
“Lennox, this is Aaron,” Charlie said. “I’ve talked about him before, remember? We grew up together. Aaron, this is Lennox.”
The kid stuck his hand out, so Aaron shook it.
“You knew my mom when you were kids?” Lennox asked, tilting his head on the side.
“Yeah,” Aaron said. “We were best friends.”
“How come I never met you before now?”
“Because I moved away,” Aaron said.
Charlie swatted Lennox on the backside. It was more playful than serious. “Go and pack your school bag and don’t be rude.”
Lennox headed into what was presumably his bedroom.
Charlie folded her arms over her chest. “It’s a little early for a social visit, isn’t it? What’s going on?”
“Ian MacGregor got shot early this morning,” Aaron said, keeping his voice low. “Quinn phoned to tell me. We gotta be ready to go, Charlie, the second Quinn tells us.”
“Holy shit. Ian’sdead?”
“No,” Aaron said. “At least, not yet, but I think he’s in a pretty bad way. And I know there’s no such thing as a good MacGregor, right? But at least Ian’s not a psycho. Not like Jimmy.”
“Not like Quinn’s dad,” Charlie said softly. She reached out and put her hand on his shoulder. Squeezed. “Okay, so what do we do here? Do I phone into work? Do I take Lennox out of school?”
“What?” Lennox barreled out towards them. “Am I getting the day off school? What for?”
Charlie held up her finger. “Go and pack your school bag, Lennox!”
His face fell. “I thought you said I was getting the day off!”
“Go and pack your bag!”
Lennox glowered, looking exactly like Quinn, and then stomped back into his bedroom.
