Page 12 of Remind Me
“Always the hero.”
“Don’t. Just get out to my truck and shut up. You can talk when you are sober. I fucking told you before I left, if you needed anything to call me. Are you really that stupid that you would go out and get drunk when the spotlight is still on you?” Locking the cell back up behind me, I led Austin out the door and to my truck. He got in and put his belt on. Starting up my truck, I looked over at him, he was staring out the window.
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“Fuck off I wouldn’t. Don’t give me that shit.”
“Why didn’t Beau come and get me?”
“He’s at work. I’ll tell him what a dickhead you were when he gets off.” He sighed softly at that.
“I love you, brother but please stop.”
“Oh no, if you think that you get to be an idiot and get off lightly, you have another thing coming. Just wait until Vannah gets a hold of you. What the hell were you thinking? Don’t even get me started on Carmella. I don’t know what you said to her but you best be fixing that too.” Turning into my street, Austin looked around.
“Wait, why are we here.”
“You are sleeping here tonight. I don’t trust you not to do something else stupid.”
“Cash, just take me home where I am out of the way.”
“Not happening. The last time I thought you would be fine, you went and did something stupid.” I pulled into my driveway, parking beside Vannah’s car and cut the engine. “You aren’t in the way. I don’t know what this is about, Austin, but we are not going down this path again. I know the news today was a shock, none of us expected things to go like that.”
“I was such an asshole to her the last time we talked. I’ll never be able to take that back.”
“Do you only want to take that back because you no longer can or because you feel differently? Has anything changed for you?”
“Well no.”
“Exactly. You feel guilty because you can’t take them back, but you only want to take them back because you can’t.” He looked at me confused and I realized I shouldn’t be trying to have this conversation with a drunk person.
“I don’t get it.”
“What I am trying to say is if she were here today, you would feel no different about saying what you said to her. You would still see that the two of you were a mistake together and should have ended it long before you did.”
“I guess you’re right.”
“Her death doesn’t change that.” He nodded and ran his hands over his face.
“I don’t know what I was thinking. I need to apologize to Carmella.”
“Yeah you do, just give her a few days though. She was pretty angry earlier.” He nodded and opened his door. Getting out as well, I locked the truck up and headed inside. Unlocking the door and letting him inside, I headed to the kitchen and took out a bottle of water from the fridge. Reaching into the cupboard above the fridge, I took out the Tylenol and gave him two. That way he wouldn’t wake up with a hangover for when Savannah ultimately made his morning hell.
“Go to bed, I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Night, Cash.” He walked off toward the guest bedroom downstairs. I waited a few minutes before heading up the stairs. Quietly going into the bedroom and closing the door behind me, I carefully took my keys from my pocket and put them on the dresser, ensuring they didn’t make a noise. Putting my wallet and keys down too, I stripped out of my clothes and moved to climb into bed with Savannah, my arms wrapping around her waist. Closing my eyes, I nuzzled into her neck.
“He okay?”
“He will be but feel free to give him hell tomorrow for it.”
“Oh, I will.” She rolled over to face me, her head laying on my chest. “Was it about Holly?”
“Yeah, her death is making him feel guilty about how they ended and how he regrets that he can’t take it back.”
“They weren’t right for each other though.”
“I know that, he knows that, it was just a matter of getting drunk him to understand that. We are all idiots when we drink.”
