Okay. Okay. Good. And like Sandra had said, now they knew the Feds were gonna start digging, and Darius had warned Gray they might come up here and ask questions. They were prepared for that. But other than that…
It was really, really, really over.
Epilogue
A few weeks later
Goddammit. There was nothing like changing clothes in the car when you were late for work. Gray hurriedly hauled his fitted pullover over his head and dug out his navy Henley from his duffel. While Mom walked around in wide, colorful skirts and tops at the inn and didn’t have a dress code for her staff, that was no reason to show up dressed like a slob. So Gray always wore a pair of gray chinos and alternated between a black pullover and a white button-down. But now he’d found remnants of Justin’s stomach flu on his pullover, so…
That was why they always had stain remover and an extra shirt in the car. Kids got sick. Sometimes they also threw tantrums and flung shit like monkeys. Not literal shit, but…oatmeal, for sure. Juice boxes. The occasional toothbrush.
Justin had had a bad start to the new year. He was moody, touchy, very clingy, and man, the attitude sometimes.
William was positive the boy was entering a sensitive age where he tested limits.
Gray had googled “sensitive ages” and…yeah, so yeah, that was basically from birth to the age of twenty-five.
Stumbling out of the Wagoneer, howling winds bitch-slapping him in the face, Gray righted his shirt and grabbed his phone and keys. Then he ran toward the inn, hoping the rain and snow didn’t get him too wet on the way.
The inn always looked grand, regardless of the season. The large Victorian shot up at the end of the street, with its big front yard, wraparound porch, and even bigger backyard.
Mom was behind the counter in the modest lobby and looked up as soon as Gray entered.
“Sorry I’m late,” Gray said, fixing his hair. “Justin threw up right before we left, and apparently I didn’t get it all, so I had to change shirts in the car.”
“Aw, that poor baby. How’s his fever today?”
“It’s dropped, thankfully.” Gray ducked behind the counter, then behind the curtain and into the staff room, where he could take a breath and leave his phone. “To be honest, I’m not sure he threw up because he’s sick. Today was the first day he wanted to eat anything, and he ate a lot.”
Mom pushed aside the curtain a little and leaned against the doorway. “That makes sense. What did he eat?”
“I wanna say oatmeal with applesauce, but it was more the other way around. And a truckload of sugar.”
Mom grinned. “The only way oatmeal is edible.”
Gray chuckled and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. The room consisted of a kitchenette, a small table with two chairs, and one cushy chair for long night shifts. Or lunch breaks when they got a moment to read. Gray was looking forward to the latter today because, for the first time in months, the inn wasn’t fully booked. It was a typical January. Everyone was broke after the holidays.
“I take it Darius’s mom is watching Justin now?” Mom guessed.
“That was the plan, but he demanded Auntie Willow.” Jayden was home on his own, though he had Niko in the cabin next door, and he had promised to finish his homework before Darius came home, which would be in about an hour. He’d finished work early today but had met up with Avery right after to go to the gym. “Did you read the news, by the way? Darius is gonna be even more insufferable when I get home tonight.”
Mom let out a laugh. “Yeah, I saw it. But you know, Aiden and I listen to him. He knows so much about these things, and it can’t hurt to stock up on basic supplies.”
“Oh God, not you too, Mom.” Gray blew out a breath and rolled up the sleeves of his Henley. “As of today, we have one reported case in the US. One. That’s not a pandemic.”
Mom smiled and shrugged. “I know, but…you never know.”
Yeah, those were Darius’s words. You never know and just in case.
It seemed only one thing could make the country forget the human trafficking case, and it was a virus outbreak in fucking China, though it had spread a bit now.
Gray was mostly glad he and the other survivors were yesterday’s news already. Once the trials started, perhaps there would be less of a media frenzy if a second person fell ill.
“Hey, if my son-in-law tells me to buy extra food, I buy extra food,” she said. “He says people will start hoarding soon, and I don’t want to get stuck in that mess.”
Christ. Gray didn’t even answer. Instead, he passed her in the doorway, kissed her on the forehead, and told her to take her break. Knowing her, she hadn’t eaten lunch yet.