Long Way Home by Carolyn Gray (33 page)

record wasn’t that good with relationships, but then again, that was because he had always

compared every guy he met to Lee.

Turning on his side, Gev willed his mind to blank. For right now, at least, everything was

okay. He was safe, Lee was downstairs, and no one knew where he was. He hoped.

* * * *

been good to talk to Brandon for a while, let him know what was going on. Lee still had a hell of

a lot of regret for how he’d treated him, though Brandon had forgiven him. Still, it’d been Nick

he’d hoped to get hold of, but he’d been out.

He’d also called Margot. She’d left a message for him, wondering if he’d heard from Gev,

worried because he wasn’t answering his phone. The last call Lee had made was to Detective

Ramirez. He’d wanted to wait until he was alone to talk to her and see if they’d managed to

figure out anything else. The answer had been no.

He hated hiding things from Gev, and he suspected Drew knew he was doing so. He

plumped the pillow under his head. He’d rather have been upstairs, but Gev needed undisturbed

sleep and lots of it. Lee wasn’t sure he’d give that to Gev if he joined him. Better to stay down

here.

Khyra jumped on the couch at his feet, forcing him to curl up a bit. He didn’t mind. He

should get a dog, maybe. Gev had a cat… He knew his tired thoughts were getting ahead of

things, but for the first time in a while, he kind of thought a real home, not some hotel room,

would be nice to have. This house was nice; the brief glimpse of Gev’s had impressed him too.

He didn’t have a lot, but he had more than Lee did.

Lee wasn’t sure how long he’d dozed before the dog woofed quietly at his feet, then

jumped off the couch. Seconds later, the back door opened, and Trish came in, carrying some

bags. He got up and went into the kitchen, feeling kind of awkward again. “Need help?”

“Please. Drew needed to run into the office for a few hours and left me to get everything

ready.”

“I’ll help.”

“She was counting on it,” Trish said. “If you’ll empty the car, I’ll start putting stuff away.”

Lee did as she asked. It felt good to do something useful. And there were a lot of groceries.

“You said you were having a party tonight?” He put the last bag down as he closed the door.

“What’s the occasion?”

“It’s a just-because party, started out to invite a few friends over. Gev.” She hesitated.

“Chad. Manny, some of Drew’s coworkers we like. We went on an Alaskan cruise, and Drew

wants to force them to see all the pictures she took.” Trish pulled several boxes of party crackers

out of a bag. “If you’ll empty that into the fridge?” she said, pointing to a bag full of vegetables.

“Or if you want, you can make the vegetable plate.”

“Been a while since I’ve done one of those. But sure.”

“Fantastic.” She moved quickly, pulling out a knife, cutting board, and tray, then

motioning him to the island. “Sit on a stool there, and see what you can do with these.”

Lee looked inside the bag—lettuce, little tomatoes, radishes, celery, carrots, cauliflower,

sugar snap peas. He pulled them out and started to work. The dog wandered into the kitchen and

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sat at his feet as Trish turned on some music. She made them both iced tea and tossed some

biscuits to the dog. Lee found himself relaxing, enjoying the mindlessness of cutting up

vegetables while Trish talked about the people coming that night, where she and Drew had been,

about Khyra, anything. Anything but what he and Gev were dealing with, which he appreciated.

“You’re a teacher?” he asked at one point.

“Was. I quit this year. I’m a kept woman, and I like it.”

He didn’t doubt that. “You don’t miss teaching?”

“Sometimes, but not as much as I thought I might. It’s really quite a full-time job, taking

care of Drew.”

“How so?” he asked, arranging celery neatly in rows.

“She’s diabetic and tends not to take care of herself as well as she should. She’s a

workaholic, driven, like Gev.”

She’d made some chocolate-chip cookie dough and started to plunk blobs on a cookie

sheet. “Catch!” She tossed him some dough. He hesitated. “Go on. Eat it.”

He did as she said, and it was absolutely fantastic. “I never think about eating it like this.”

“You’ve never eaten cookie dough?” she said, incredulous.

“Once or twice, at St—” He stopped himself, hating the slip. “Gev’s mom used to make

cookies every once in a while, but she wouldn’t let us eat the dough.”

Trish watched him for a moment. “Drew might not let on, but she’s ecstatic that you’re

here. She’s a huge Dream fan.” She gave him a sly look. “Any chance your friend Nick is

coming back to Dallas?”

“Possible, actually. I called a while ago to let him know what’s going on, but he wasn’t

home. He’ll call back.”

Her eyes lit up. “Would he talk to Drew, do you think?”

“Of course. He loves talking to people. He’s a great guy. Both he and Brandon are.”

“I always preferred Brandon myself.”

“Don’t tell Nick that.”

“Are you kidding? I don’t even dare tell Drew that. I know how to keep a relationship

happy. When Nick disappeared, Drew was beside herself. You would’ve thought she was

thirteen again, she was so devastated.”

“She wasn’t alone in that,” he said softly.

“It must’ve been hard for you.”

He looked straight into her eyes. “It was the worst time, for all of us.” Lee set the knife

down and took a deep breath. He liked Trish, was comfortable with her, glad they’d ended up

here. “I thought I’d never have to live through anything like that again, but here it is. Again.

Someone I care about is in danger, and we don’t know why. The only difference is, Gev is safe.”

“He
is
safe here. I promise that. Drew was on the phone the entire time we were out

shopping, calling everyone. The neighbors know to look for anything suspicious. We got hold of

Manny—he owns the coffee shop and is one of Gev’s best friends here—and oh yeah, by the

way,” she said, eyeing him, “seems someone donated money to cover funeral expenses for

Chad’s friend. No one knows who it was, Manny said, but the family was grateful. You wouldn’t

know anything about that, would you?”

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“Is this enough carrots, do you think?”

She watched him silently, then said, “Half these people are vegan. More.” She reached

across the island countertop to touch his hand. “You’re a good man, Lee Nelson.”

“Not really. Not as good as I could be.”

“We all could be better. Do you mind if I ask you something?”

He hesitated. “Sure.”

“When you were talking to Drew earlier, I was watching your face. There’s something you

didn’t tell us, isn’t there? Something you don’t want Gev to know about.”

Lee nearly dropped the knife. “I don’t know what you mean.”

She leaned forward, eyeing him with such intensity, he found himself leaning back. “I

taught ninth-graders for thirteen years. I learned early that when a kid says, ‘I don’t know what

you mean’—or rather, ‘what you talkin’ ’bout?’—something is up.”

Lee cursed mentally. He’d escaped the lawyer, but now the teacher had him pegged. It felt

like days since he’d had to pull a poker face, but he did so now. “No, there’s nothing.” Her gaze

didn’t waver, but she tilted her head to the side a bit and raised one eyebrow. She knew he was

lying. “Nothing I can say right now, at least,” he admitted with quite a bit of reluctance. But it

was killing him not to tell Gev about what he and Detective Ramirez had talked about.

She sat back, folding her arms. “And why not?”

He took a deep breath, hating this, hating that she’d nailed him for it. He was glad Gev was

upstairs, fast asleep. “I’ve been asked not to,” he said evenly.

“By the cops?”

“Yeah.”

She dropped her arms and scowled, then reached over and grabbed one of the carrot sticks.

“Why did they tell you in the first place, then?”

“I don’t know,” he said, lowering his voice. Not that Gev could hear—he would be out for

hours yet. “I wish she hadn’t said a damn thing to me, but she wanted me to be aware.” He

grimaced. “Not that that helped keep him from nearly getting hit.”

She tapped the countertop with the carrot stick. “Maybe she told you to see your reaction,

to see if you knew what was going on.”

He hadn’t thought of that. “To see if I was hiding anything from her?”

“Sure. That’s how they work. What did you tell her?”

“The truth. That I didn’t know what she was talking about.” More specifically, that he had

no idea if the guy in the hoodie was Stefan. Had she thought he might? Thought he knew if Stef

was alive? “Fucking hell,” he said. “I think you’re right. She was testing me.”

She bit into the carrot stick. “Yup, sounds like it.”

“Damn.” Now he didn’t know what to do.

She pressed her lips into a line. “I hope whatever it is that you’re hiding from him amounts

to nothing. If it does turn out to be important, and he learns you didn’t tell him, it could damage

his trust in you.”

He picked up the knife, grabbed another carrot, and sliced it in two. There wasn’t much he

could say to that.

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Chapter Eighteen

The chirp of a text message woke Gev. He blinked, reluctantly lifted his head from the

pillows, and tried to discern his surroundings in the dark, confused as to where he was, though

his memory quickly slotted into place. He thumped his head back into the pillows and sighed.

With a yawn, he reached for his cell to check who’d texted him. He wasn’t one who used

his phone a lot. He didn’t even carry it all the time, and his friends, most of whom were dancers

themselves, knew he kept it turned off a lot of the time. They all did—rehearsals and practice

were no places for cell phones. And since normally they were always doing one or the other, or

sleeping, or were together anyway, he simply didn’t use it much.

It was Nina, texting in response to his voice mail. Her message made him smile:
Got it.

You can call me Kissing Kate.

He texted her back to call him in the morning. It was, to his surprise, almost seven p.m.

He’d been passed out for hours, and from the sound of the voices and music wafting into the

room, there were people here having a good time. With Lee. He liked the idea of that. He

wondered what Lee thought of his ordinary life, his ordinary friends. Okay, maybe not so

ordinary life right now.

There was no reason to lie there any longer. He threw the covers aside and stood, but with

his mother’s voice in his mind, he made the bed back neat again. He pulled on his shirt and jeans,

opened the door, and padded down the hallway to peek downstairs. Not too many people, maybe

ten or twelve, but he knew them all.

Manny walked out from the kitchen, two drinks in hand. He looked up and saw Gev.

“There’s the man!”

“Gev, come on down,” Georgie, who owned the bookstore across from Manny’s place,

called out.

“In a sec.” He didn’t see Lee. He hadn’t left, had he? Silly thought, but Gev wouldn’t

blame him, tossed into this mess as he’d been. Gev went into the bathroom to take a piss, fix his

hair, brush his teeth, and then headed down the stairs.

“Hey.” Georgie greeted him with a big hug.

“Have a seat,” said Gary, his partner, patting the couch.

“Uh, hold on a second,” Gev said, then said hello to some of the others, accepting the hugs

offered and assuring all he was fine, he was okay, yeah. Thankfully, only one or two said

something about Chad, though he knew they’d likely already talked about him.

Manny appeared magically at his elbow and handed him a drink as he leaned close to

mutter in Gev’s ear, “Your man’s out back.” The relief must’ve shown on Gev’s face. “Boy, he’s

got you smitten, don’t he?”

“Shut up,” Gev said, unable to keep from beaming. He sipped his drink and made a face.

“What is this?”

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Manny peered into the glass. “Oh, sorry. That’s mine.” He held out the other drink. “Want

this one?”

“Nah, I’ll make one.” Gev moved into the kitchen, where Trish was getting snacks ready.

The whole island was covered with food, including a huge vegetable plate. He grabbed a carrot.

Trish turned from what she was doing and saw him. “Hey, there. Sleep well?”

Gev ran his fingers through his hair. “Yeah, I think I barely moved.” Gev looked out the

window.

“Good. Yes, he’s out there somewhere,” she added, motioning toward the back door.

“What’s he doing out there?”

“Talking on the phone to his friends, I think. Drew got to talk to Nick.”

“Really? I bet she loved that.”

“She went to the store to get more ice, but I think she likely flew there.” She peered into