The house was pretty empty for a Monday, with no one other than Ronnie and Mike in the front room blasting through what I suspected was a Halo marathon. They didn’t bother to look at me as I walked into the kitchen and picked up the phone.

Man, she was gonna yell at me so loud.

“Hello?” I asked, waiting for my mother’s angry, clipped tone.

“Baby, what happened?” she said and I relaxed, knowing that if she was calling me baby she was more worried than mad.

“Mom, I have a cold, that’s all. If Dad told you about the practice…”

“Ransom, I don’t care about practice or you missing sacks.” In the background of her call, I heard Koa crying, a loud, angry tantrum and someone’s voice who I didn’t recognize trying to sooth him. Mom closed a door and the crying was silenced. “What the hell is going on with Aly?”

The weird thing about anger is that it can shift so quickly, straight to fear, then it doesn’t really exist at all. You trump up the rage because you are hurt. I told myself that Aly wasn’t someone I cared about, but with my mother’s frantic tone, all the lies I’d convinced myself were true completely disintegrated.

“What do you mean? What happened?”

Mom’s breath was loud in the speaker and that sigh worried me more, had me fearing the worst. “Neither one of you show up for lunch yesterday and she was supposed to be here today at nine like normal, but then called me and said she couldn’t work here anymore. She quit, Ransom. No warning or anything, she just up and quit on us.”

That was impossible. She loved my family. She wouldn’t have just…but then how could I be sure? She’d lied to me, kept things from me, maybe that little admission of loving my family had been just something she said because she thought it would make me happy. Still, to just leave with no regard to what that would do to my little brother?

“That doesn’t…wait. She left you hanging?”

“Of course not. She had one of her friends from the diner come over. Nice girl, but I don’t know her.” Mom’s voice was hoarse and I could tell she was stopped up, as though the worry, possibly her upset had her weepy. “She had references, but that’s not the point. Koa is having a fit because Aly isn’t here.”

“Did you ask Leann if something was going on?”

“She doesn’t know either. She said Aly was running off this morning for an extra shift at the diner and wouldn’t answer Leann when she asked why she quit.” Mom paused and the slide of a deck chair against the patio stone echoed into the speaker. “You’re her friend. Did she say anything to you?”

Man, I didn’t want to get into this with my mother. Ever. She’d tell me I was being irresponsible. She’d tell me that I should have kept away from Aly. She was right, I should have stayed away, but then it wasn’t like I had a choice in who danced for me.

You shouldn’t have gone to that club.

For once, the voice was right. I shouldn’t have let Ironside get me alone in that room. Maybe if I’d just walked away then none of this would have happened.

“We aren’t friends, Mom, not that close, anyway.” I had to clear my throat, knowing my mother wouldn’t buy that lie. Aly was my friend. At least, that’s what I’d wanted at the beginning. Alone in my room, moping like a little punk, I’d realized that pretty quickly. She’d been my friend, just one that I couldn’t keep from touching. Still, my mom didn’t need to know that shit. “We don’t keep up with each other outside of the studio and the lake house.”

“But her audition is tomorrow.” She sounded worried, and that tone killed me. I hated when something stupid I did had her speaking to me with that upset bite in her voice. “You aren’t helping her?”

“Mom…”

“Ransom, what the hell is going on?”

“It’s not...” I couldn’t tell her about the dance at Summerland’s. It would get back to Leann and if it did, well, shit, I didn’t know what my cousin would do but I didn’t think she’d be happy that Aly was doing private dances for extra money. Then, I felt like an idiot, just realizing I might not have been the only person who saw her dance. Fuck, if anyone else…It shouldn’t matter to me. She was a liar. And no, she sure as hell wasn’t my friend. “Mom, it’s nothing. We just…there was a thing but it’s not…”

“Luka Ransom Riley-Hale I am nine months pregnant and your little brother is freaking out because Aly has disappeared.” She sounded winded, but so damn fierce I was glad not to be standing right in the path of her fury. “I don’t care what happened, but you need to fix it.”

“It’s not that simple.”

“No, it’s very simple,” she said, her voice level again, but that calm only meant she’d moved beyond rage and right into livid. There would be no argument from me. I knew better. “If you did something, tell her you’re sorry. If she did something, tell her you forgive her. See? Simple.”

“Mom, what she did…”

“I don’t care what she did, son.” She’d opened the door and once again I heard my little brother crying. He had calmed, but hadn’t completely given up the fight. When she spoke again, Mom’s voice wasn’t angry, but still came out clipped. “Aly is a sweet girl and she loves Koa. She wouldn’t just leave for no damn reason at all. Whatever it is, please, just fix it and fix it soon.”

The line went dead and I held that phone in my hand, not knowing what I could do or why the hell it’d been left up to me to mend the fences broken by my stupidity. I did know one thing, for the first time in a long while, I didn’t blame myself.

17 September, 2015

Koa had fallen asleep in my lap and I’d followed, drifted until his small snore woke me up. It was late, later than I’d ever stayed at the lake house and I contemplated just crashing on the sofa. But my first class of the day at the studio the next morning would come early and the drive across the lake would take me a while, especially in the ratty car I’d picked up from a suspicious looking used car dealer. It couldn’t be helped. I had a job on the Northshore now.

I tucked the little man into his bed and headed down the hallway, expecting to find Keira still snoozing on the sofa as she waited for Kona to return from the game. But she wasn’t there and as I listened, her soft laughter and Kona’s deep voice coming from behind their closed bedroom door and I decided to leave without a goodbye that night.

The smile on my face lowered just a bit as I passed the patio doors and caught Ransom sitting on an Adirondack chair with his hands tucked into the pocket of his hoodie and his face turned toward the dark lake. He stretched his neck and looked up, his profile perfect against the reflection of the moonlight on the water. I could have watched him all night—the fleshy plump of his beautiful mouth, the sharp edge of his nose and that subtle cleft on his chin. I could have watched him, thought about touching him, thought of ways I’d invent to smooth out the worried wrinkle on his forehead and relax the hard dip of his eyebrows. Maybe I would have stayed there, just watching him, but then Ransom turned his head again and caught me staring.

The look he gave me wasn’t shocked, it didn’t seem like anything could surprise him and at first, caught in the act, I’d felt my face flame with heat, but pushed I it down, lifting my eyebrows when he nodded me over.

The night was cool, hinting that October was only a week away and I wrapped my arms tight around my waist, shooting for disinterest as I stepped out onto the patio and stood next to his chair, my gaze focused on the lake. “Did you guys win?” I asked him, still watching the waves.