Chapter 19: Chapter 19

“I think you need another beer,” said Gray.

“Really? Why’s that?”

Without explanation, Gray winked knowingly, then grabbed my arm. He led me out of the studio and back to the kitchen area. Within seconds, he handed me another ice-cold Miller Lite. After I downed a few gulps, he lifted his own fresh beer to mine and clinked our bottles together.

“So tell me,” he said, his voice low and probing. “It was also the beginning of what?”

I sighed again, and this time it sounded monumentally heavy in my ears. “Trouble.”

“I thought you said your buddy, Dillon, didn’t have a clue how you felt about him.”

“Oh, not trouble with him…but with my dad. As it happens, he didhave a clue about what I was thinking.” I shook my head in ancient frustration. “In my more open moods, I made the mistake of doodling love-hearts on blank pieces of paper, and sometimes I didn’t use the initials, but the full names. Anyway, my dad found one of them and that’s when he started—well—to put distance between us.”