She smiled. “Thank you, Faith.”
I hugged her again. “I’m so sorry I didn’t reach you when I got that message,” I said. “I should have tried again. My mind was elsewhere.”
“Of course it was. You were thinking about Jackson.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
I paused.
“Faith, tell me,” Lacey insisted.
I was glad to see she was cheering up.
“Well, he met his son for the first time.”
“And did they hit it off?”
My eyes teared up. I don’t know where it came from, but I was crying like an idiot. I nodded.
“They did?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, Faith.”
“Yes,” I said again, practically balling. “They hit it right off. They were like old friends.”
“Oh, Faith. I’m so happy for you.”
I didn’t know what was wrong with me, but I couldn’t stop crying. I couldn’t pull myself together. I was a basket case. We were both basket cases.
“Did he fuck you?” she said.
My mind flashed back to all the things Jackson had done to my body. I got goosebumps.
“We fucked all night,” I said. “He was all over me, Lacey.”
Lacey laughed. “Well, at least things are going right for one of us.”
I was in tears as I held her. I felt so guilty that I hadn’t been there for her when she’d needed me. She was always the one I called when things got difficult.
“I promise you, we’ll get through this together, Lacey. Whatever you need, whatever you have to do, I’ll be right here to do it with you.”
“Thank you, Faith.”
The door opened and we both turned to see who it was. It was Jackson.
“Jackson,” I said.
“I had to come check on Lacey.”
He gave Lacey a big hug, and she wiped away her tears.
“Sam’s at school,” he said to me.
“Thank you so much. How’d it go?”
“It went great,” he said.
I turned to Lacey. “Jackson took Sam to school for me.”
“Is that so?” she said, her eyebrows raised. “You two are thick as thieves.”
I was embarrassed but Jackson didn’t seem to mind it.
“What the hell happened to you?” he said.
Lacey laughed. “You don’t want to know.”
“I can guess,” Jackson said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Jackson winked at her.
“Let’s just say you’re not as good at keeping a secret as you think you are.”
“What?”
“You heard me,” Jackson said, and he turned to leave.
“Jackson, wait right there,” Lacey called. “What are you talking about?”
“Don’t worry,” Jackson said. “Me and the boys have your back.”
“Jackson,” I called. I knew how private Lacey was about those things.
He turned at the door. “Oh, and I’ll pick up Sam. You two take some time together.”
And he was gone.
Chapter 47
Jackson
“SAM,” I CALLED FROM THE window of my pickup.
“Jackson?”
“It’s me again, buddy. Your mom’s at the hospital, otherwise she’d have been here.”
As Sam got closer to the truck I could see that there was some blood on his lip. It was bruised and swollen. His eyes were red too, like he’d been crying.
I didn’t say anything as he climbed into the cab next to me. It was obvious he’d been in a fight but I didn’t know enough about it to know how to broach the subject.
As we pulled out of the school parking lot I saw a group of four boys, bigger and older than Sam, pointing at him and laughing. Sam looked down at the ground.
“Is that them?” I said.
Sam looked up at me. “What?”
“Are those the cocksuckers that gave you the fat lip?”
He looked shocked at my language, but I needed him to know that I wasn’t the type of adult he was used to. He could talk straight with me. I wasn’t gong to judge him for anything. I was his friend. If he needed to get something off his chest, he was welcome to. Hell, I knew all too well what it was like not to have anyone to talk to.
He shrugged.
I didn’t push it.
I drove toward Main Street and put some distance between us and the school.
“You hungry?” I said.
He shrugged. He was upset. It broke my heart to see him like that. He’d been so full of joy when I dropped him off in the morning.
“I’m starving,” I said, even though I wasn’t. “I’m just going to go through this drive-thru up here and grab something, if that’s all right with you.”
He nodded. The drive-thru would give me some time to talk to him. I knew there was some advice I could give him to get this issue taken care of. I’d been in my share of fights. I knew what it was like to be an outsider. Whatever he was going through, it could be fixed.
We pulled up to the order window and looked over the menu.
“I’ll take a root beer, large fries, burger.”
“Anything else?”
“Lots of ketchup. Throw a few extra packets in there. I can’t eat fries without it.”
I looked at Sam. “You’re up, buddy.”
He sighed, but leaned over me to see the menu.