Dad visibly paled. “Cody, there is no such thing as a small fall, especially when it comes to your kids. For the love of God, please promise me you’ll never do anything like that again. And that you’re being honest, and it doesn’t need medical attention.”
A shitty retort was faint in the back of my mind, an echo of something I would have clapped back with before.
Before.
Before I’d understood more. Before I’d lived a little more life and started to see more layers to the people around me.
I let that edge dull and rolled my lips inward before agreeing, “I promise.”
He watched me closely—for what, I wasn’t sure—but then he eventually seemed satisfied with that and nodded, gesturing to the garage. “Well, let’s see what I’m involved with now. Maybe I can use some old law school knowledge to make whatever is about to happen a bit less….” He made vague circling gestures with his hands as he trailed off and then dropped them with a huff.
I clapped him familiarly on the back as we walked out to my truck. When I lifted the tarp back, we both wrinkled our noses at the smell of smoke. He stared at it all, his eyes seeming to catalogue every piece of it.
“It’s notsobad, right?” I asked.
He looked for one more moment before meeting my gaze with a smirk. “Not for me. But I’m also not the one who has to tell Bree what you did. She’s not here, so I’m guessing you haven’t told her.”
My stomach sank, and I stared at my dirty feet.
“Hey.” He clapped me on the back. “It’ll be okay. But I do have one stipulation to helping you with all of this.”
“Oh?” I frowned at him. I shouldn’t have been surprised. This was also the man who made me promise to work toward a degree while also working at Fortuna before he put in a referral for my jobs there.
But then again… that promise was the only reason I’d taken that art class last year.
It was the only reason I’d met the angel-voiced LL.
Liem.
Ti Bet.
MyLittle Beast.
There really wasn’t anything about Liem Lott that broadcastedlittle,despite his shorter height and lithe frame.
He was all-encompassing. Unmissable.
And I’d still managed to miss him.
A waft of acrid-smelling air brought me back to the present as Dad lifted the tarp fully off the bed, making us both grimace.
“It’s been a long night,” he started as he began folding the tarp, speaking loudly over the annoying sound of the material being manipulated, “but if we get this unloaded and sorted quickly, you should get home well before nine.”
I frowned at him. “Seems specific.”
His answering smile was almost… savage. “Well, that’s when you have to get home and go to bed in order to get a full eight hours of sleep. Which you’ll need, since you’ll be meeting me for a run at half past five.”
I gawked at him. “In the morning? Why would I do that?”
Dad finished folding the tarp into a tidy triangle before he answered. “Because, son,” he said as he tucked the tarp into an empty storage shelf in the garage. “That’s what we’re going to do every weekday until summer. Deal?”
I watched him for a long moment before nodding. “Deal.”
“Do you have a preference where you’d wanna run? We can go up the beach or just make a circuit around the neighborhood.”
Humming, I made a show of thinking it over, but I knew there was only one place I would be that close to sunrise.
“Downtown Bay Springs?”
