Chapter 29: Chapter 29

“He’s here, actually.” Before Bernie could jump into conclusions, Del added, “They all managed to squeeze into the guest room last night.”

“Oh…well, can you put him on?”

“Sure.” Del held the phone to Justin. “She wants to talk to you.”

The sheer panic in Justin’s eyes would’ve been funny if it hadn’t been so real. “Why?” he mouthed.

“It’s okay,” Del mouthed back and thrust the phone closer to him.

Justin took it like he might’ve held a tarantula and put it on his ear. “Uh, hi, this is Justin.”

Del drank his coffee and watched Justin go through a gamut of emotions, rarely speaking, other than answering some questions like what size might the kids be. The expression on his face was heartbreaking, and at one point tears spilled from his eyes, and he angrily wiped his cheeks.

“Y-yeah, all right. I…yeah, you can send it to Del’s. Yeah. Okay. Thanks.”

He ended the call and put the phone on the table with shaking hands.