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“I won’t be texting you, because I’ll probably be interrupting so porny, and I don’t need that in my life”

“Jesus, I don’t knohy I bother,” Nick said

My gaze moved to theThis was standard conversation for Nick and h for so to each other every day Sos in life are mysterious

Teeks He’s going to be gone for teeks

I wasn’t panicking

My non-panic was distracted by the sight of a car pulling into the driveway across the street Being a pathetic shut-in, I knew that Mrs Welland, the seventy-year-old lady who’d lived in that house, had died two o, so it wasn’t her And she’d lived alone, so this was a stranger

Mrs Welland hadn’t died in the house itself She’d passed out at Safeway, someone had called 911, and she’d never come home

I was pretty glad that if Mrs Welland had to go, she hadn’t died alone in her house with no one to find her Because I kept an eye on her without her knowing, and I would have figured it out when she didn’t pick up her mail And then I would have had to call 911 And that seemed way too involved for me

Mrs Welland didn’t have any family that I knew of, so it was a surprise to see the car It was a Civic, with no logos for cleaning co on the sides I saw a California license plate, and I knew that et a record of the number

If you’re going to rob orstreet I’m always home, I never sleep, and I have a ton of very advanced electronic surveillance

“Hey, asshole,” Nick said from the sofa “Remember me?”

I looked back at hiotten married at City Hall, which heelchair accessible I’d worn a suit Ourtime, but now she was back Our father didn’t, because no one had invited hi happened

We were a fucked-up fao to Hawaii if he wanted to, be happy if he wanted to He’d dropped out of college when I had one back I was a selfish asshole It was only teeks I was thirty fucking years old I could do without him

“Don’t you have a plane to catch?” I asked him

“Not for a few hours yet”

There was hesitation in his voice, and I hated to hear it In thathated it

“Go,” I said “G

o sit on a beach, snorkel in the ocean, clio”

I wasn’t going to do any of those things Technically I could drink a fruity drink if I wanted, but that would be pretty la laid, even though the equipet laid you generally have to leave the house and have a working body You also have to have a personality that even slightly attracts women All of which crossed me out

I couldn’t do those things, but Nick could

“Go,” I said again “I’ll be fine”

He reluctantly got off the couch, found his baseball cap, and put it on “The schedule is on the fridge, with the phone numbers,” he said