Free Coming Home- Rock Bay 1 by M. J. O’Shea Page B

would soak him in seconds. Fan-fucking-tastic.
No help for it.
In an attempt to avoid explaining his circumstances to a bevy of half friends, he’d deliberately canceled his cell service the day he’d moved back to town. Of course that meant there wasn’t even a way for him to call his grandmother. Rolling his eyes, Tally grabbed the bag that contained two different kinds of ice cream, pocketed his keys, and pulled the hood that he was luckily wearing over his head. He only had about fifteen minutes of daylight left, and the last stretch of road to his grandmother’s was along the coast, heavy with trees and lacking in any sort of streetlights.
Tally trudged along, trying not to let the chilly ice cream bag rest against his leg too much. He scooted far onto the shoulder every time he heard a car coming and picked up the pace, knowing his grandmother was going to panic if he was more than a few minutes late. When he was a little more than halfway there, Tally heard a car coming and veered off into the gravelly ditch along the road once again. He saw the shadows looming ominously, like they always did when headlights curved along the densely wooded road, and shivered, trying not to creep himself out. It didn’t help when the headlights slowed down. Tally picked up his pace, trying to remain casual.
“Tally?”
To hear a familiar voice coming from the car, now idling on the side of the road, wasn’t what he was expecting. He stopped and turned, walking with relief toward the blinding headlights.
“Hey, Lex.”
    L
EX had been running even later than usual, speeding down a back road to Amy’s, when he saw the car parked by the side of the road. Tally . Nobody else in town had a car that looked even similar to Tally’s old red Triumph. The thing had shuddered to a stop outside the shop nearly every morning for three weeks, each time sounding like it was heaving its last breath. That last breath must have finally come. Lex pulled up behind the car slowly, pulling his parking brake and getting out to see if Tally needed any help. The doors were locked, and Tally was nowhere in sight.
    Would he have started walking? Lex guessed so, if he had no other choice. He’d never remembered Tally getting out a cell phone of any kind. Maybe he was one of the last people in the universe who didn’t have one. Lex jogged back to his car, through the downpour, which had gone from normal to gale force in a matter of minutes. Instead of turning onto Amy’s road, he took a right onto twisty Shorecrest Drive. He knew Tally’s grandmother lived at least a mile down that dangerous, dark stretch. He didn’t want his one employee turned into road kill.
    When he saw Tally trudging, hood over his head, looking dejected and worn, something pulled painfully in Lex’s chest. He felt it, plucking at his heart, every weary step that Tally took pounding into him again and again the fact that Tally really wasn’t the jerk he’d once been. That person would’ve never been walking in the rain, grocery bag in hand, because his sad old car couldn’t make one last trip home, and he didn’t even have a phone to call anyone. The whole scene made Lex’s throat tighten.
    Pulling over slowly so he didn’t spin out on the wet gravel, he rolled down his window and called out to Tally.
“Come get in the car,” he said when he’d gotten Tally’s attention. “I’ll give you a ride to your grandmother’s.”
“Are you sure?” Tally looked questioningly at the expensive leather seats. “I’m soaked.”
“Do you honestly think I’m going to let you walk the rest of the way home in this? You’d be out sick for a week. C’mon.”
The ride was quiet, but not uncomfortably so. Lex turned his heater up, and Tally sighed, sinking against the supple leather of his car seat. Lex found himself smiling at him, against his better judgment. The next thing out of his mouth surprised even him.
“Hey, do you want to come to Amy’s with me, after you get out of