“We’ve all driven at least twelve hours straight through the night,” she said. “You’ve inconvenienced quite a few people with this little stunt. Y’all will find a way to fix these two little things because otherwise you’ll be meeting with our lawyer, and shit won’t be as pretty and easily fixed as what I’m offering you right now.”
The detective didn’t have a thing to say to that.
But a few hours later we were called and informed that we had the house for not one week, but two if we wanted it. There was also a repairman that came to the house to fix the door within an hour.
Giving a few fucked up souls time to heal.Chapter 21I suffer from that disorder where I speak the truth and piss everyone off.
-Luca to Frankie
Luca
I stared at the phone in my hand, wondering what to do next.
Apparently, my parents had decided to pay for my phone plan for the last two years, keeping it up to date just in case.
A just in case that turned out to be needed seeing as I was now home.
The phone that was in my hand was actually the phone that had been mine in a previous life.
Or, at least, all of the shit on it.
Upon hearing that I was ‘alive,’ my mother had gone to make sure that I’d have everything I needed.
Meaning, she went to the phone store, bought a new phone, and had all of my stuff transferred over from my last update—over two years ago.
I also had a wallet—apparently again the kind that I liked—with an ID in it she’d somehow been able to get without me being with her. An insurance card for my truck that they’d never dropped the insurance on either. And a new bank card that accessed my bank account.
My joint bank account with Frankie was considerably less healthy than Malachi’s, yet still way more than I might ever need any time soon.
I was also staring at the keys to my parents’ house.
Ones that I wouldn’t be using.
“What are you thinking?” Frankie asked softly.
“I don’t know my passcode,” he said.
She quickly took the phone from me, making sure I could see it, then typed in the passcode.
“Your birthdate,” I found myself saying.
I wasn’t sure how I knew that, but I had.
“You didn’t choose it because it was my birthday, though,” she explained. “You already had that as your passcode way before we even met. It was just circumstantial.”
I grinned.
“I like the background,” I said, seeing a much younger version of Frankie on the screen.
She was sticking her tongue out and making Bullwinkle ears.
Frankie laughed and made a face.
One that I captured with my camera.
“This is weird,” I said as I looked at the screen with all the other photos. “That’s the first picture I’ve taken in a while.”
“You didn’t take one with the phone you had that I’ve been texting you on before?” she asked.
I felt myself blush.
Fucking blushed.
Luckily, the scars concealed it to where it couldn’t be seen all that well.
“One,” I said. “Of you.”
She tilted her head sideways and stared at me thoughtfully.
“What was it?” she asked.
I pulled that phone out of my pocket—a shitty prepaid one that had about four minutes talk time remaining on it—and tossed it to her.
It didn’t have a passcode.
Hell, it didn’t even have a decent camera.
That was why when she first looked at the picture when it popped up, it took her a second to realize what she was seeing.
Then she burst out laughing.
“I was eating a hot dog, Luca!” she cried out.
I felt my composure crumble as I could no longer control it.
“It was the way you had your mouth open that did it for me…” I said.
She smacked me on the shoulder, and I winced.
The pain was bearable, though.
Anything felt bearable when Frankie was at my side.
We’d been home for a week now.
Christmas was in the morning, and not only would Frankie and I be celebrating, but we’d be doing it with Hayes, Malachi, my family and hers.
Cora and her dad had driven down the night before and were staying in my parents’ spare bedroom.
Malachi had taken over the apartment that I’d rented for myself—and Hayes was staying with him.
I’d permanently moved into Frankie’s place the moment that we’d gotten home.
I hadn’t acquired much stuff, but my parents had saved all my shit—not that any of the clothes fit anymore.
Seems I’d grown a lot since I’d last worn some of the stuff.
But at least my belongings didn’t make me feel like I was somebody else like Malachi’s had.
“What did the department say today when you went and met with Luke Roberts and Captain Morgan?” Frankie asked, her hand stilling on the icing bag that she was using to decorate cookies with.
“I start back to my old schedule on Monday,” I answered. “The departments had to go through some legal tape with my name and the no schooling thing. But it’s been waived for the time being. Luke suspects that I won’t have to do anything about it since I’ve already taken the refresher course with the department. We’re waiting to hear back from legal on that officially, though.”