Free The Things We Knew by Catherine West Page A

wrapping up here.” He watched a flock of geese fly toward the city. “So, what’s up with you? Everything okay at home?” He winced as she launched into a fast-paced, blow-by-blow account of everything he’d missed the past few months.
    He inhaled, listened, and tried to make sense of it all. “Wait, what? Who said anything about selling the house?”
    “We may not have a choice. Liz is all for it. And I think David will side with her. Maybe Ryan, I don’t know. But, Gray, you remember all the good times, how much the place meant to Mom? You can stop this from happening. Can’t you?”
    Could he? His first thought was yes. Of course he could.
    There was just that little matter of reality.
    “Man, Lynnie.” How could he tell his sister how badly he wanted to help her, and why he couldn’t? Gray didn’t have the words. Or the guts. “Maybe selling is best.”
    “Gray.”
    Traitor.
    She didn’t have to say it. He felt it right through to his bones, like the damp sea air that seeped through the floorboards of Wyldewood in winter.
    “I’m sorry.” More than she would ever know. “I . . . um . . . have to go away for a while. I’ll be gone a few weeks. But when I get out . . . get back . . . what if I come home, huh? We can talk in person. Figure something out.” That stupid cough overtook him again and gave an excuse for the moisture in his eyes.
    “Gray. What’s going on? You sound sick.” Lynnie was a year and a bit younger, but she’d always felt older to him. Always the one he talked to first, before Liz or his brothers. The one who knew his secrets.
    But now he had secrets he never wanted her to know.
    “I’m fine.” Or he would be.
    “If you say so.” She sighed. “Well, if the others want to sell, they’re going to have to come home. Mom’s will, remember? Nick says we might be able to—”
    “Nick?” Gray curled his fingers around the bottom of the bench and felt his spine stiffen. “Nick Cooper? Why are you talking to him?”
    “Because he’s here, Gray.”
    When did his little sister get so feisty? “Cooper’s a jerk, Lynnie. Stay away from him.” He could hardly believe he’d just said that.
    “Are you serious? Get over yourself, Gray. Look, Nick’s working at the bank. I went to him for advice. It doesn’t matter. The point is, I’m on my own out here, and I don’t know what to do.”
    “All right, all right.” He could hear the tears and desperation in her voice and he hated it. Hated that he was so far away, so messed up, and so not ready to go home. Even when he knew how much she needed him.
    “Can you come home, Gray? Now?”
    The truth sat at his heels like a stray pup. All he had to do was acknowledge it.
    Tell his sister what a loser he had become.
    “No, I can’t come home. Not yet.” He swore under his breath. “But I’ll try and get there soon, okay?”
    “Soon, then.” She sounded satisfied with that. “You’ll let me know?”
    “Will do.” Gray nodded. “See you, Shortstop.” Gray pocketed his phone.
    Home to Nantucket.
    To the memories and the demons that lurked within them.
    To Pops.
    To the past.
    It wouldn’t be easy. Who was he kidding? None of this would be easy. The road he was about to traverse scared him even more than not quitting. But he had to. Knew it when he’d caught sight of that cute little girl with the big grin. Knew if there was ever a reason to start over . . .
    Gray coughed again and concentrated on his breathing. He hadn’t taken anything today. He wasn’t dead, and despite the headache he already had—the nausea and the chills he knew would hit in an hour or so—the world hadn’t stopped turning.
    Perhaps, with some luck and a lot of prayer from the people in his life who had better connections with the big dude upstairs than he did, he could beat this thing.
    He’d run out of options.

Chapter Seven
    N ick found himself still thinking about Lynette the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. He hadn’t been prepared