Total pages in book: 177
Estimated words: 163209 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 816(@200wpm)___ 653(@250wpm)___ 544(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 163209 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 816(@200wpm)___ 653(@250wpm)___ 544(@300wpm)
The Trojans took the game nine to four, and Jeremy slammed an energy drink before fighting Friday night traffic across town. His friends’ excitement did nothing to hide how long a drive it was, and Jean refused to believe Jeremy could tolerate this endless trek day after day for months. No wonder the man slept every time they let him out of class. He would surely be a ghost by the time championships started.
Either William had a way of tracking Jeremy’s location, or he’d been actively listening for the sound of his engine. He opened the door for them before they even reached the porch and offered both a polite greeting and the receiver for the house phone.
“Missed her,” Jeremy guessed.
William checked his watch. “By thirty-seven minutes or so.”
Mathilda Wilshire had called anywhere from one to three times every evening the Trojans were here, sometimes spacing her calls only a half-hour apart and once letting three hours slide between them. Jeremy managed to get off this call relatively quickly, and he returned the phone to William’s waiting hand.
“There is sparkling cider in the fridge,” William said, “and I’ve set a snack tray on the counter. Do you need anything else?”
“I need you to enjoy your evening,” Jeremy said. “We’re good, I promise.”
“Thank you for letting us stay this week,” Laila added. “We’ll be gone tomorrow.”
William smiled. “Thank you for visiting. It is a rare treat to see Jeremy happy.”
Jean glanced at Jeremy as William left, but Jeremy was already on his way to the kitchen. Between the four of them it was easy work to get their treats and drinks upstairs, and they sat on his carpeted bedroom floor to dig in. It had been a long day, but no one was in any hurry to sleep. Morning meant going back to that empty apartment and leaving Jeremy alone here, and Laila resisted that eventuality with everything she had.
Exhaustion finally dragged them under around two in the morning, and then Jean woke when William crept into the room. The butler roused Jeremy with a hand on his shoulder, and Jeremy heaved a weary sigh before taking the phone.
“Morning, Mom,” he said, voice gravely with sleep. “Yes, I’m still in bed, it’s...” Jeremy fumbled for his phone and squinted at its glow. “...not even six here. No real plans, just studying and working out. Xavier was talking about going for a run at the beach, so I might join him. Yeah, okay.” Jeremy hung up, looked fit to fall asleep with the phone still in his hand, and groaned as he remembered to return it to William. “Go back to sleep.”
“I will set up the coffee,” William said instead.
Jean held his tongue until William was gone. “She doesn’t trust you.”
Jeremy was quiet so long Jean thought he’d gone under. Then: “No, not yet.”
“It’s been four years.” Jean caught the sleeping bag when Jeremy looked ready to burrow under it and held on tight. “If she doesn’t know you enough to trust you now, she never will.”
Jeremy’s protest was soft: “You don’t know that.”
“Jeremy.”
“Let’s not do this today,” Jeremy said. “Okay? Not today.”
Jean let go and withdrew with a scowl. He thought his irritation might keep him up a bit longer, but once Jeremy dozed off it was easy enough to drift back under as well. That they were woken up two hours later by another phone call was not as surprising as it should be, but Mathilda only beat their alarms by a few minutes. Jeremy managed to sound alert for this call, and his voice was enough to wake Cat and Laila.
The four shuffled downstairs to find breakfast, and Jeremy practically clung to the coffee maker while it brewed. Jean smothered a yawn behind a heavy hand and silently resolved to reschedule his appointments to a later time slot. Ten had sounded reasonable at the time, but life kept getting in the way. He drank half the coffee Jeremy served him in one go, then pushed his pile of grated cheese toward Cat to add to breakfast.
Packing up was easy, and by a quarter to nine they were out the door. Jeremy dropped Laila and Cat off first, then took Jean over to his doctor. Jean suffered through the entire session before finally bringing up the schedule change, and he was directed to the front desk to hash it out with them. There was no afternoon or evening spot that wouldn’t conflict with practices or games, but after some digging the receptionist managed to find a late morning slot on Sundays. Jean wasn’t sure how that would work when Jeremy couldn’t stay over on the weekend anymore, but he would figure something out.
Jeremy parked at the Lofts but didn’t kill his engine. “I wish I could stay and help.”
“Then stay,” Jean said, knowing he couldn’t.