Denny sighed. “Yeah, I know exactly what you’re talking about.” He let out a long exhale. “It’s fine. I know you weren’t saying it to be…I’m fine, Kellan.”

Angling my head away from Evan and the others on the bus, I said, “Yeah, okay, I just…I feel really bad. I’m sorry.”

“I know you are.” The line was silent for a while, then he said, “So did you leave? Are you on the road?”

I looked back at the bus full of people smiling, laughing…picking on Griffin. “Yeah, we just took off.”

“Adventure awaits, huh? Well, I’m sure you’ll have…fun.”

The way he said it was odd, and I couldn’t tell exactly what he meant by it. Because it almost sounded like he thought I was going to have fun by being bad. Being dirty. Being me. Well, pre-Kiera me. A part of me wanted to assure him that I wasn’t going to screw around on Kiera…but that was just too weird to say. Have no fear, Denny, I won’t cheat on the woman I stole from you. God, I was a dick. It was no great wonder that he thought that way about me. No, the only surprise here was that he still talked to me at all.

The silence between us became awkward, until finally Denny cleared his throat. “Anyway, I should try and get some more sleep. Good luck, Kellan.”

An odd swell of shame washed over me. “Yeah, thanks, Denny.”

I was just about to tell him goodbye when he lightly laughed. “And can you please learn about time zones?”

A smile broke over me, lightening my mood. “Yes…sorry.”

Evan’s brows were bunched again when I put my phone away. “You still talk to Denny?” he asked, seeming genuinely mystified.

With a shrug, I told him, “Yeah…kind of. It’s not always easy. There’s a lot of things…we just can’t talk about.”

Evan stared at me a moment, then nodded, clapped my shoulder, and let the conversation go. I was grateful because I suddenly felt…a little less optimistic.

Chapter 15

SHOWTIME

The bus was a cacophony of noise, but somehow, I managed to fall asleep. Saying goodbye was exhausting. When I woke up, there were a bunch of strangers at my table, playing cards.

I lifted my head from where I’d been resting against the window to look at them, and they nodded a greeting. Guess we were going to be pretty chummy on this bus. “Hey,” I said stretching out the kinks. “What are we playing?”

The guy on my left immediately dealt me in. “Poker. We’re playing for beds.” That made me frown. Great. Looks like I was getting last choice. Oh well, didn’t matter.