Chapter Twenty
Since Riley was focused on working on the porch, Brent had decided that they needed more than ice cream and leftover hamburger rolls to live on. He hadn’t been into town in a while, and Riley had been subtly hinting that it would be good for him to get out.
As usual, Riley was right. Brent had been reluctant to leave the house, which meant it was important that he did so. He couldn’t afford to become a shut-in.
Even in the familiar surrounds of the grocery store, Brent was a little more anxious than he liked to be. This was exactly like when his parents had died, when everyone had given him sad looks, whispered to whoever they were with about how unfortunate he was.
He knew it was because people were uncomfortable with tragedy, but they could havetried, at least.
The fact that no one had died this time was the only thing making being in public alone bearable.
He should have asked Riley or Emily to come with him.
Just as Brent finished forming that thought, he saw Tom walk through the front doors.
The world seemed to slow to a stop. All Brent could do was stare at him, his stomach going cold, his feet refusing to move. He wanted to duck behind the nearest shelf, stay out of sight until Tom left, but he couldn’t quite make himself do it.
He’d convinced himself that he was okay, but he wasn’t evencloseto ready to face Tom yet. It wasn’t as though he wanted to yell at him, or even confront him at all, or anything like that, but he didn’t know what was going to happen. He hadn’t planned out what he’d say.
And now it was too late to plan, and Tom was going to look over and see him staring any second, and…
“Hey, Brent,” Owen said from behind him.
It was just enough to snap Brent out of his frozen state, his feet finally letting him turn around to face Owen.
That was good. He wanted his back to Tom. He didn’t want to meet his eyes.
“Are you in a hurry? ‘Cause I’d like to run something by you real quick.”
“Uh.” Brent wet his lips. He was still busy panicking, but Owen was a good client, and he needed to keep as many good clients as he could right now.
Besides, Owen was Riley’s brother. Brent would have done anything for Riley.
“Sure,” he managed. “Yeah, I’m not in a hurry. What’s up?”
“Come through to the back,” Owen said, holding his arm out for Brent to go ahead of him.
It took a serious mental effort to get his feet to move, but once they did, Brent found it easy to stride toward the back room as quickly as he could without running.
As soon as Owen closed the door behind them, he breathed a sigh of relief. Tom was out there, and he was in here, and that meant he wasn’t going to have to face him right now.
“Better?” Owen asked.
Brent looked up at him, his throat still tight.
“I saw Tom come in,” Owen explained. “I figured you probably didn’t want to be in the same room as him right now, and it’s not the world’s biggest grocery store or anything.”
Understanding dawned on Brent, and a wave of gratitude washed over him. Owen had been looking out for him.
“Much better. Thanks,” Brent said. “I guess I wasn’t doing a great job of hiding how much I was freaking out.”
“You looked a little tense,” Owen said. Brent could tell that was an understatement, but he didn’t care. He wasn’t embarrassed to be upset in front of Owen.
“I appreciate you looking out for me,” Brent said. “You always were a good kid.”
Owen snorted. “Yeah, well. You’re family.”
Brent blinked at him. He’d never heard that before.
