I wouldn’t forgive him for imploding our friendships and treating Bree so heinously, but when I thought through the list of people I could call to help with this errand, and he happened to already be on my mind as I psychoanalyzed him, I took it as a sign that he was the best option.
In this isolated instance.
And maybe I’d get some semblance of closure so I wouldn’t have to leave space for him on my theoretical future plate.
“Cody,” he huffed. “I can hear you having a mental tangent. Get your ADHD ass out of the clouds and tell me what’s up. I have a feeling this isn’t a social call.”
“You are such an asshole, Ace.”
He sighed. “There’s nothing I could say to make you think differently, but I’m also not wrong.” Then he surprised me by adding, “And yeah, you’re not wrong either.”
He did know me, unfortunately—to a degree, at least. Better than most, which was probably why the hurt caused by his actions was so sharp.
I turned into the Fortuna parking deck, pulled into a spot on the second level near the elevators, and took the phone off the magnetic holder on the dash and held it to my ear. “Yup. Nothing but a time machine and a fuck ton of therapy could make me think you’re not an asshole. Now, if you want to make the tiniest bit of amends without any expectation of forgiveness, meet me on Level B within the next ten minutes.”
“Jesus,Cody,I’m working. I don’t have time for whatever scheme you’ve got planned.”
I held back a full-body twitch as I rejected the onslaught of memories of our adolescent escapades, relieved when the large corner of my mind reserved for nostalgia remained a void.
“Don’t Jesus, Cody me. I’m leaving in ten, regardless,” I replied before pressing End on the call. That switcheroo on the day’s theme didn’t provide near the satisfaction it should have.
Taking a moment to check my messages, I opened a text from Bree with an update about her grandmother. Even as vague as it was, it didn’t sound very positive.
Which, weirdly enough, relieved some of my guilt about what I was about to do.
Slapping my phone back onto its holder, I scoped out the parking lot. There were quite a few people milling to and from their vehicles, but AJ wasn’t one of them. I wasn’t really surprised, but when Dad said he’d been asking about me, I thought it might mean that he’d be interested in this offer.
Restarting the truck, I put my arm behind the headrest and looked both ways before easing slowly out of the spot, lest a buzzed gambler suddenly appear behind my tailgate. I turned the truck toward the exit, but then a loud boom shook the truckas if I’d hit something, and I about jumped out of my silky boxers as I slammed on the brakes.
“What thefuck,”I hollered, looking wildly around the parking deck for a victim or perpetrator and nearly jumping to the next life as AJ’s blond head came into view outside my passenger window. “Oh, Jesus,” I muttered to myself before throwing the gear into Neutral, engaging the e-brake, and then leaning over to manually unlock the passenger door.
It swung open the next instant, and then AJ was beside me, his dark-blue stare incredulous. “Dude,what the hell. It hasn’t even been five minutes since you hung up on me.”
I relaxed at that and smiled. Finally, there were some of my petty chickens coming home to roost. Shifting the car back into first gear, I started back toward the garage’s exit.
“If this is going to work, there are going to be rules,” I stated as soon as we turned onto the road.
“Cody, the last time I saw you, you tackled me between a row of Larry the Lobster slot machines, punched me, and then elbowed me in the eye. I had a shiner for two weeks.”
I threw my head back and laughed, almost swerving off the road. “I’m so sorry—would it have been better for you if I’d beat your ass in the high-rollers room? Or maybe in the million-dollar bathroom? The buffet?”
In my periphery, he dragged his hand down his face and his shoulders sagged. “What’re the rules?”
Stopping at a red light, I turned and raised an eyebrow at him, pushing back all my emotions and focusing on the task at hand. “They’re simple. Don’t talk about her, don’t banter with me, and tell no one what we’re about to do. Assuming you agree to do it, that is.”
His expression pinched. “And you’re not going to tell me what that is?”
The light turned green, and I drove under the Fortuna sky bridge and toward our destination. “You’ll see soon enough.”
We spent the rest of the laughably short drive in humorless silence. I pulled onto the side of the road and partially into some woods, and when I glanced over at AJ, he had paled, and his eyes were shifting to the door as if he was about to fling himself out and make a run for it.
I had to take a beat to grieve the fact that I couldn’t tell Bree about this yet. She would probably enjoy the humor of it—if she could ignore everything else about this messed-up situation like I was trying to do.
“I’m not going to murder you in the woods and bury you under a willow tree, AJ.”
He straightened his shoulders and rolled his eyes. “I know that.”
I smiled sardonically. “You sure about that?”
