All right, I’d still give it to him, but I’d give it to just about anyone if they really needed it and only had me.
Things changed. People changed. Life changed. I knew it and accepted it.
His phone started ringing then, and he broke our connection and stepped away.
I met his gaze. “Let’s go. You can take your calls while I drive.”
Zac, who had seemed so happy to see me thirty minutes ago, stuck to nodding as a response, the rest of his features totally sober.
I sent my sister another text real quick before I got back into the car.
Me: Driving to Austin and back. I’ll let you know when I get home.
The man in my passenger seat talked, but only on the phone as he spoke to who I guessed were his agent, his manager—who was some guy named Trevor that I’d met once and thought he was a jerk, who was also the man who had texted him, now that I thought about it—and my cousin Boogie. He’d basically relayed to the first two that his grandpa was in the hospital and that he was going back home to be with him.
“I’m not sure when I’ll be back,” Zac had told Trevor, who, from what I had gathered, wasn’t very happy with his decision to leave Houston. I managed to hear bits and pieces of him replying to Zac using a sharp voice and saying words like “time” and “can’t afford to” and “what are you doing?” To which Zac responded by gritting his teeth and replying to him in an annoyed voice that “this was Paw-Paw” and “family comes first, Trev” and “yeah, he’s at the house; don’t worry about it.”
Their conversation had interested me the most, honestly. But I reminded myself again that it wasn’t my business what happened and I just wished Zac the best, like I always would.
Then he called someone who lived with him, based off the clues.
“Hey, I left the house. My grandpa is in the hospital, and I gotta get home to see him…. Yeah…. Look, kick everybody out when you’re ready. The cleanin’ crew will be there tomorrow; I called them this mornin’, so you’re gonna be good…. Yeah. All right. Sorry, Ceej…. Sure. Bye.”
After those calls, Zac hardly said anything, even when I stopped at a big gas station with a beaver logo on the way out of Houston. He just sat in the car and waited for me while I went in. I bought two sausages on a stick and a couple drinks, intending to share one with the man waiting in the car, but when I tried to hand him one, he gave me a tiny smile and shook that dark blond head of hair. He did take the bottle of water I’d got him.
The Zac I had known would have never turned down a sausage on a stick—or any food really. It was just a reminder that, in some ways, he wasn’t the same person. Even my cramping stomach agreed.
That or he had a really strict diet that didn’t include processed meats. Who the hell knew? I was going to go with option B to make myself feel better.
I drove with my wrists, hands full while I ate both the sausages because they weren’t about to go to waste, and we—at least I—listened to a podcast about affirmations and the history of beans.
But, yeah, the entire ride was spent without us saying a word to each other. When before we both would have run our mouths nonstop about everything and anything. He was a talker, and so was I.
It was just another reminder we were different people.
Luckily, I hadn’t expected anything, especially not this—driving him a couple hundred miles back to the area where we’d grown up. At least I was off work the next day. I contemplated staying at Boogie’s, so I wouldn’t drive home in the dark, but immediately decided against it. I needed to film tomorrow, and Deepa had warned me she had something to do in the afternoon, so we had to start early.
The hours went by fast at least, and Zac eventually mentioned what hospital Paw-Paw was at once we got close to northern Austin and had to use the navigation app to get there since I couldn’t remember.
“We’re here,” I told him when I pulled in front of the medical center.
Zac lifted his head off where it had been resting against the window for the last hour and sighed. It made my heart hurt a little. All right, maybe more than a little.
Reaching over, I set my hand on his shoulder, giving it a quick pat for what would more than likely be the last time in a very long time. “Do you need anything else before I go?” I asked him gently as I tried to take in that familiar-not-familiar face one last time.
You know, for old times’ sake.
He really had gotten better looking. If I closed one eye, he’d look like he could’ve been the muse for one or two Disney princes. Good for him.
The edges of his mouth turned down as he frowned at me and asked in that same quiet, pained voice from hours ago, “You’re leavin’?”
Well… yeah. I had been. But now, with him looking at me all strange and sad….
Maybe… not?
Shit.
“I can stay if you want me to,” I offered hesitantly before I could overthink it or make up an excuse for why I needed to go. I wasn’t sure why he would want me, of all people, to stay, but….
I definitely didn’t expect the nod he instantly answered me with, that was for sure.
He really wanted me to stay?
O-kay. I could. For a little bit. Just long enough to leave him with someone and say hi to my cousin. We texted a lot, but it had been almost two months since we’d seen each other in person. Traveling for work had eaten up a lot of his time lately. So had his girlfriend.
I nodded back, giving him a little smile that was mostly uncertain—while inside I was pretty much surprised as shit and just as confused—and drove around to find the parking garage, pulling into the first open space big enough that I could easily pull out of. I sucked at parking. And reversing. Everyone teased me for parking a mile away everywhere.
Zac didn’t make a comment when it took me two tries to pull in decently.
I thought about the plain black suitcase in my trunk and figured I’d bring it up once I knew what was going on since he had other things to worry about. Zac and I walked side by side into the hospital, and I couldn’t help but glance up at his face a couple times. His brows were drawn low, and he looked tired. I hoped again, more than anything, that Paw-Paw was all right.
No one paid much attention to us as we walked through the hospital. Subconsciously, I had expected everyone in the world to recognize him, especially in the Austin area, where he’d been everyone’s hero for most of his life. Zac had been an icon here back in his college days. On the occasions that I had been invited to go out to eat with them back then, someone had always recognized him and tried to pay for his food or buy him a drink.
It had been weird, even though it had been the same way, on a smaller scale, back when he’d been in high school.
But as we passed the employees at the front desk and the random people sitting in the waiting areas, no one looked twice in our direction. Then again, Zac was tall but not too tall, and lean and muscular, but not overloaded with bulky muscles like the giants he played alongside. There was also the fact that his hair wasn’t eye catching at his shade and length. His face was very handsome, but there was nothing about it that would force someone to look in his direction. There definitely wasn’t anything outrageous about his clothes either.
Really, he just looked like an attractive, everyday guy.