Chapter 40 One Year Ago
One Year Ago
“I was a little surprised to hear from you,” Frank said. “To be honest.”
“I’m sure.”
Frank and Nicholas were in Nicholas’s office at The Sanctuary, Nicholas’s lake house out in Texas Hill Country.
They were having late-afternoon drinks, just the two of them.
The sun was going down over the lake, the early evening air placid and welcoming.
The world around them, for the moment, easy.
“Should I not have reached out?” Nicholas asked.
“No. Of course. I’m glad you did.”
Nicholas topped off Frank’s whiskey, taking a seat on the couch across from him.
It was strange being back in this room, having a drink with his oldest friend.
Strange and also eerily normal—eerily familiar.
It was almost like they were back where they belonged, sitting here together. Because, in a way, they were.
“Well…” Nicholas said. “When I read about Bradley’s wedding, it seemed like it was time…”
Frank forced a smile, but Nicholas could see it.
Frank was showing restraint. Nicholas could read it in Frank’s face.
He could imagine everything Frank wanted to say: That it was past time.
That it had pained him, every day, the way they had parted.
That Nicholas was, to this day, the only real friend Frank had ever had.
Didn’t that count for something? If it couldn’t count for everything, didn’t it get to count for something?
“It’s pretty wild, wouldn’t you say?” Frank finally said. “Bradley meeting a young woman from Midland, let alone marrying her?”
Nicholas shook his head, letting out a small laugh.
What were the odds? Bradley was marrying a young woman from Texas.
A young woman who grew up less than a hundred miles from where Jenny, Bradley’s own mother, grew up—less than a hundred miles from where Nicholas himself grew up.
A young woman (a high school English teacher) who, from what Nicholas was gathering from Frank, was a lot like Jenny had been.
Lovely and kind and smart. As honest as they come.
Nicholas understood why Frank found it crazy, but it just felt to Nicholas like more proof—did he need more proof at this point?—that as far away as we try to get, we end up where we start.
“The wedding’s going to be in Midland next month,” Frank said.
“Big ballroom wedding at her parents’ country club.
It’s going to be awful, I’m sure. Cold chicken dinners and a dessert buffet.
Ten-piece band that can’t play for shit.
But lots of whiskey. Would love to have you there to help get me through it. ”
“You may want to hold on that invitation.”
“And why is that?”
Nicholas didn’t answer, not at first. He took a long sip of his own drink, bracing himself. Bracing himself for what he was about to do—what he was about to do for insurance. The ultimate insurance that he could get his family the safety they deserved.
“There’s someone I need you to meet, Frank.”
“Okay…” Frank put his drink down, suddenly on higher alert.
Which is when Owen walked through the door.
“Are you out of your fucking mind?”
“I’m going to need that favor now, Frank,” Nicholas said.