Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 77980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Clint: Are you free tomorrow? Do you want to meet up? Or you can let me know another time that’s good for you.
August stared at the text, unable to make himself respond right away. He wanted this a whole hell of a lot. He deserved to touch base with an old friend, to get to know him again and have something in his life. But he also worried about Reese, who was going through so much and felt abandoned by Lewis, especially now that Lewis was moving a man into his home and putting off visits with Reese. The last thing he wanted was to hurt Reese more, but Christ, he had a right to have friends. Reese would always come first, but Lewis was out there living his best life, and August should have things of his own too.
Which was why he didn’t let himself overthink before replying.
Me: I can do tomorrow. I work the next day. Where?
Clint: The creek, of course.
August smiled. Yeah, that was perfect. This was exactly what he needed.
CHAPTER FOUR
Clint
I’m a fucking idiot.
Clint couldn’t believe he’d invited a forty-two-year-old man to meet him at a creek in the woods. Well, that wasn’t quite true. They were meeting near August’s old house before walking to the creek together, but it was still weird. Or hell, maybe it wasn’t. He couldn’t say for sure or even make sense of why it mattered. He was putting a whole lot of thought into this when that wasn’t normal behavior for him. Something about August had always shaken him up, though.
He was early, leaning against his truck when an SUV pulled up behind him. Clint grinned as August stepped out. He felt a strange sort of zing shoot down his spine.
“What?” August said as he walked over. “You’re smiling all funny.”
“Just crazy to see you here again…and damn, you’re a dad. It’s blowing my mind.”
August shrugged like he wasn’t quite sure how to respond to Clint, not that Clint could blame him. “Are you sure you want to go in the middle of nowhere with me? What if I’m a psycho killer now?”
“Are you a psycho killer now?” Clint asked.
“Nope. But I would probably still say that if I were.”
Clint chuckled. “I’ll take my chances.”
They found the old path Clint hadn’t been down in years. It was overgrown now, trees and bushes having filled out, but a small walkway through the middle suggested it had been used some.
“Was it always this small, or are we just bigger?” August asked.
“Probably a little of both. They built a new middle school on the same property where ours was, and there’s a better fence to keep the teenagers in. I’m sure they still find their way through.”
“Damn, our school is gone?” Leaves and branches crunched beneath their feet as August followed him.
“Yeah, it was about ten years ago. Something like that.”
“Shit. That’s a little depressing. We’re getting old.”
Clint pushed some branches out of the way before signaling for August to go around him. “You can say that again. So what do you do for a living?”
“I’m a veterinarian. Wasn’t really ever much of a choice for me. You know how much I always loved animals.”
Clint smiled at the memory. “Yeah, I do. I remember when you tried to get me to help you capture and save an injured squirrel. Who cared that it could have bitten us and given us rabies.”
“Oh, be quiet. You would have wanted to try and help even if I didn’t insist on it. You were a softy for animals too. I wish we could have gotten to her.”
Clint nodded. August was right, though looking back, he thought part of him might have also wanted to impress August.
“Do you have any animals?” August asked.
Clint told him about Midnight and how he’d ended up with Sweetie. “You?”
“We have a golden retriever named Butter. She’s mostly Reese’s dog.”
“Butter? That’s a cute name.”
“It was all Reese. We couldn’t decide on a name for her. Reese left a container of peanut butter where she could get it, and we came home to quite the mess. Reese decided that needed to be her name, but we call her Butter for short.”
Clint could hear the nostalgia in August’s voice. He couldn’t help wondering about August’s son. They hadn’t spoken much at dinner the night before, which he knew because he was spying on them. He was also curious about August’s ex. Was it a mutual thing? Did August still love them? Had whoever they were treated him right?
“I like it,” Clint finally replied.
“Reese is creative like that, especially with art. Maybe to a fault. He got into a bit of trouble for graffiti around Orlando before we left.”
“That sucks.”
“Yeah, he’s acted out some since the divorce.”
“I’m sorry. Must be hard,” Clint said as they stepped into the clearing that had been their childhood haven, the place that had been just theirs.