“I didn’t say that. I have a reason to be here, remember?”
“Yeah, yeah. We’ll charm you.”
I highly doubted that, but I only shrugged. There was no reason to crush her hopes.
After I said my goodbyes, I was eager to be alone so I could get my head on straight. Wren’s conversation had me off kilter. Hell, the entire town did.
When I was alone in my truck, I finally checked my phone and saw I had a message from Clyde.
Clyde
You near Knoxville? I could take you out to eat.
I was immediately glad that I’d gotten my work done for the day.
I can be there in a little over an hour. Where do you wanna meet up?
Clyde told me to meet him at a deli, and I couldn’t deny that I was excited. It would be nice to get out of Strawberry Springs for a bit and feel more like myself.
He was waiting for me outside the door, foot tapping. Whenhe saw me, he stilled and acted like nothing was wrong, but as we got our order, he glanced at me like I was a bomb waiting to go off.
“So,” he said before taking the first bite of his sandwich. “You gonna tell me what happened?”
“Yeah,” I said with a sigh. “But I should also apologize first for being vague.”
“Must be something big.”
“Yeah, it’s very big.”
“Please don’t say cancer. If it’s something like that, you’re gonna have me crying in the middle of this deli.”
“No, I’m not sick, and no one I know is either. But ... someone is pregnant. Someone I ...”
He paused in his eating, eyes wide. My heart hammered as I waited for his response.
“Oh. That certainly is big.”
“You and Mom both taught me to be safe. I wasn’t.” My eyes fell to the table. “I’m handling it. I know it’s mine and I’m trying to be there for her as much as possible, but she’s in Strawberry Springs, which is three hours away from Nashville.”
“Ah. That is quite a ways out.”
“You can yell at me if you want. I fucked up. Now I’ll have to adjust my schedule and figure out how the hell to be a father to someone when I live this far away.”
Clyde put his sandwich down and sighed. “What good is yelling gonna do?”
“I feel like it’s kinda what I deserve and it might make you feel better.”
“You know, I’ve done some reading, and when a kid fucks up, it’s better to be supportive than yell. This is shocking, and it’s gonna change a lot, but you seem to have a decent handle on it.”
“Now. I fucked up in the beginning, but I think I smoothedit over.” I sighed. “I just ... My responsibilities are changing and I feel terrible about it. I enjoy our time together.”
“Yeah, but I’m not a selfish dick. I don’t keep you around just to go out to dinner after we work together. I also don’t keep you around because you’re always available. I keep you around because you’re a decent kid.”
“Can you still call me a kid when I’m gonna be a father soon?”
“Okay, slow down a little bit. I’ve called you ‘kid’ for almost a decade, so you’re gonna have to give me that one. Can’t handle too much change.”
Despite everything, I laughed. “I’ll let it slide.”