Cash nodded emphatically.
“So, it’s been a week. Are you ever gonna tell us what’s up with Miller?” Chase asked.
I shoveled a forkful of food into my mouth and said around it, “How long would it take for a dog to mummify anyway?”
Chase smirked. “Man, you don’t want to talk aboutanything.”
“Miller’s leaving for that big city lifestyle,” Wilder said.
I glared at him.
“What? You didn’t say it was a secret,” Wilder said.
“It’s not,” I said. “I just don’t want to talk about it, okay?”
“So he’s actually leaving?” Chase asked. “Like, for real? Can’t you go visit him?”
“Yeah, cause my truck can totally handle the six or seven-hour drive to New York,” I said, snorting. “And I don’t think I’m really a New York kind of guy, you know?”
I didn’t bother to mention the price of gas or that it wasn’t really that I thought I didn’t belong in New York. There were all kinds of people in New York, right? But I didn’t think I was the kind of guy that Miller would want to hang out with in New York. Could you imagine? All those fancy people with their fancy jobs, and I worked the register at Goose Run Gas.
Plus there was the fact he hadn’t asked me.
Which was a pretty big fucking fact.
Wilder changed the subject by telling some dumb joke he’d heard from Steve at work today, and I pushed my rice and beans around my plate, my appetite gone. We got through the rest of the meal without talking about dead dogs or Miller. Then we did the dishes and watched TV for a while. It was nice. I wondered how Helen was doing next door, but she had my number now if she needed anything.
“I’m gonna head to bed,” I said, getting up from the couch and stretching.
“Early shift tomorrow?” Wilder asked.
I shook my head. “Nah, late start. Today was just a lot, you know?”
“Can I get a lift with you tomorrow?” Chase asked. “I swapped my shift with Renata.”
“Sure.”
I passed out pretty quick, and the next thing I knew there was daylight filtering through my bedroom window. I got up and showered, then wandered through to the dining room where the twins were sitting around eating toast and peanut butter. I snagged a slice off Chase’s plate and had just taken a bite when someone knocked on the door.
Chase pushed his chair back and went to answer it. Moments later, a familiar voice, one that I hadn’t ever expected to hear again, said, “Hey. Is Danny here?”
CHAPTER 16
MILLER
My heart was in my throat as I knocked on Danny’s front door, which was lucky because I needed the room in my chest for the knot of anxiety that had decided to move in.
The door was wrenched open, and one of the twins stood there. I wasn’t sure which one it was.
“Hey,” I said. “Is Danny here?”
“Hey, Danny! It’s Miller,” the twin called. “You want me to punch him?”
It was definitely Chase.
Danny appeared a moment later, and it didn’t escape my notice that he didn’t tell Chase no. He stared at me and I stared back as I waited for him to say something, anything. The silence stretched out between us like a tightrope, and finally I couldn’t take it any more. “So, um. Can I come in?”
“I guess,” Danny said. He wrinkled his nose and looked down at his bare feet. “I thought you were in New York.”
