Then my phone vibrates on the table, making me jump. Which is dumb, because I get work calls on my personal line all the time. I’m really off my game.

It’s not a work call though. And when I see May’s name on the screen, I hurry to accept it. She normally sticks with text messaging when I’m at work.

“Hello? Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine,” she replies quickly. “But Dad, it’s Grandpa. We’re on the green, and I need you to come.”

That immediately activates my panic mode. I spring off my stool, sandwich forgotten as I rush to my office for my keys. “What happened? Did you call 911?”

“No, yeah, it’s okay. Just come.”

Running outside, I tell her, “I’m coming!”

“Thank you,” she says. And then she freaking hangs up on me.

Oh my god, why would she do that? I still don’t know what’s going on, and I want to call her back, but I also just want to get to her as quickly as possible, so I focus on driving. I debate if I should be heading straight to the hospital, but I’ll have to pass through the center of town to get to the highway anyway.

Fuck. Things were finally good between me and her grandparents. They said we were a family.

I don’t want to lose Grant now.

I’m scared.

I’m scared, and my mind is screaming at me to call Travis. Because Travis will help. He’s good in a crisis, and he’s good at calming me down. He’ll make sure everything’s okay, I know he will.

So I call him as I drive. I don’t care if it’s weird or pathetic. I don’t have time to feel awkward about it. This is an emergency.

Except.

He doesn’t pick up.

It rings and rings, and then it goes to his very brief, surly voicemail.

I hang up, tossing my phone aside. It lands on the passenger seat, then slides to the floor. I can’t believe he didn’t answer for me.

That fucking hurts. But I push the pain down and keep driving. I’m going way over the speed limit, but there’s only like three cops in this town.

When I get near the green, I park on the side of the road and hop out of the car, not caring that my bumper is sticking out too far. As I run, my eyes are scanning the area for May and her grandparents. Damn it, there are so many people out here. Does nobody have anything better to do today?

I see Andrew. He kind of stands out with all his tattoos and his gauged ears. He’s with his friend Toby, but I don’t have time to wave to them.