“We stopped by a little while ago, but you weren’t there,” he said, leaning back in his chair.
“I’d gone down to get JJ some food from the cafeteria for when she was finished with her visit.My mom and dad caught me on my way back up.”
“We saw those little ones.Cute as a bug.They have names yet?”
Baz chuckled.“JJ can’t decide, so no.”
Brantley considered asking what names they were tossing around, but he’d done that once already, and it hadn’t gone over well.Apparently—at least to JJ—choosing names was a sentimental process and required a lot of thought.Brantley was fairly certain that wasn’t true for everyone since he was named after a small town in Alabama.To hear his mother tell the story, they’d been passing through there on one of their earlier vacations, and she loved how small and quaint it was.Since Brantley considered himself pretty much anything but small and quaint, he didn’t see the sentimentality.But to each his own.
“JJ mentioned ten to fourteen days in the NICU.”
“Yeah.If we’re lucky.The doctors are optimistic.It all depends on how they progress.”
“Is there anything we can do in the meantime?We can run to the store, pick stuff up, and take it back to the house.”
“My mother’s got that covered.But thanks for the offer.”
Brantley smiled.Of course she did.
“How’re things there?Did you talk to Simon?”
Brantley relayed the conversation they’d had, giving Baz the high-level details.
“Wow.That’s … wow.”
“My thoughts exactly.I’m gonna talk to the team tomorrow, get their input.I want their buy-in before we venture down this road.”That was only partially true.Brantley had every intention of seeing this through to the end, but he wasn’t going to force the team to go along if they didn’t want to.
“Would you mind if I came by when you talk to them?”
“Why don’t you call me in the mornin’, let me know a good time.We’ll plan it around you.”
“I don’t want you to have to do that.”
“I don’t have to do anything,” Brantley said with a gruff chuckle.“I want to.”
“Thanks.I know JJ’s gonna want to know all the details.”
That was an understatement, but Brantley didn’t bother telling Baz as much.
“Well, give JJ a hug for us, and we’ll see you at some point tomorrow.”
“Will do.”
Brantley set his phone on the desk and stared at it while he mentally replayed all the information back as best he could.He kept getting stuck on the photograph of Jessie and Kate at the funeral.It was one of the pictures that had been featured in the newspaper shortly after.The first time he saw it, he thought of his cousin Travis.
Before he realized he was dialing, the phone started ringing.Brantley figured it would go to voicemail since Travis hadn’t answered any of his calls as of late.
“Yeah?”
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Brantley grunted, sitting up.“I thought you’d blocked my number.”
“It hadn’t crossed my mind, but I won’t argue it’s a good idea,” Travis said in that infamous monotone of his.
Brantley took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, buying time to gather his thoughts.He hadn’t anticipated Travis answering.
“What’s up?”Travis asked.“Why’d you call?”
Had he always been that blunt and to the point, Brantley wondered.Or was this the new Travis?TheafterTravis?
