Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 102282 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 511(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102282 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 511(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
“He texted my phone?” Not that Canaan really cared if Renzo messed with his phone, but it wasn’t like Renzo either.
“Nah. He texted me. He’s had my number for weeks now.”
Why that made Canaan grin wide as he pulled on clothes, he couldn’t say. But he’d take it as a sign that maybe things would work out. And he knew Grandpa well enough to know this was a peace offering—a way to say he was okay with whatever Canaan decided to do with Renzo. So he followed Renzo across to the main house where Grandpa had bagels and three kinds of cream cheese and far better coffee than Canaan could make back at his place.
And for his part, Grandpa sat with the paper, getting Renzo to talk baseball predictions, and didn’t mention either Renzo’s transfer or their sorta-kinda breakup earlier in the week.
“My dad says it’s the year for the Phillies.” Renzo laughed. “But he says that every year. I guess you’re a Padres fan, sir?”
“Nah. Worse. I’m a Red Sox fan.” He grinned at Renzo, who groaned. “I grew up in Boston. Came here when I enlisted, stayed for Molly. Our oldest, Noah, did the opposite. Went east for college and settled in Baltimore with a local girl there. They’ve got four girls, all younger than Canaan, and do they ever give him fits when they visit.”
“Cousins, man. Mine are worse, trust me. I’ve got twenty, no joke. And now they’re all getting married, having babies...” Something crossed Renzo’s face, a fast-moving storm cloud of emotion as he trailed off, but it was gone in the next breath. “Anyway, the food alone is worth the trip to Philly.”
“I bet.” Grandpa gave him a kind look. “I bet they’ll be thrilled to have you closer. Lord knows if I could have convinced Noah to settle back here, I would have, if only for Molly’s sake.”
And there it was, the first mention of Renzo’s move. Canaan took a long sip of his suddenly too-sweet coffee.
“My mom’s happy, but I can’t make her promises about visits—I’m likely to be deployed with my new team a fair amount.” Renzo’s eyes held a warning for Canaan, but this was nothing Canaan hadn’t already considered. Renzo being deployed was simply one more hurdle they’d have to deal with. Other couples faced far greater challenges and triumphed, so why not them?
“I imagine that if Canaan goes east, I’ll get to visit Noah and the girls a lot more often.” Grandpa kept it casual, almost an aside. Years of experience with Grandpa had taught Canaan that this was him trying to be supportive—send Canaan a message that their earlier disagreements about Renzo were being left in the past, the same way Grandpa had come around to supporting him with the band years ago.
But Renzo didn’t have the benefit of Canaan’s experience and started a coughing fit. For a moment Canaan thought he might need to use his training to do a Heimlich, but then Renzo straightened and mumbled, “Yeah.”
Which was fairly unenthusiastic, but then this was the guy who’d been doing naked sit-ups dreading anything resembling this conversation, so what did Canaan really expect?
“Renzo and I are still working details out. There’s a lot to talk about.” Narrowing his eyes, he shot his grandfather a warning look. The last thing he needed was Grandpa scaring Renzo off.
“Of course, of course.” Grandpa gathered up their empty plates.
“Thank you for the breakfast, sir.” Renzo took the dishes from him and loaded the dishwasher.
“What time is your workout?” Canaan asked, still not wanting to get right to the heavy stuff, especially not with Grandpa lingering.
“Two hours or so, but it’s in Chula Vista and I have to stop by base for clothes. You still coming? We can...uh...talk in the truck?” Renzo made it sound like Canaan would be performing a colonoscopy on the way there.
“We can also listen to music. Let me grab my phone and stuff. Do I need to be in workout clothes for this?”
“Your shorts are fine. I’m gonna show you some stuff.” Renzo gave his first genuine smile of the day.
“I can’t wait.” Canaan meant it. He said goodbye to his grandfather, then gathered his phone and wallet back at his place and locked the door before heading to the truck with Renzo.
Canaan flipped on one of Renzo’s chilling-out playlists to try to relax him on the drive to Coronado, but Renzo surprised him by turning the volume down.
“You and Grandpa...you’re kind of Two-for-Tuesday special, right?”
“Yup.” On this Canaan wasn’t wavering. That vision for his future that was becoming clearer with each passing hour absolutely held a place for Grandpa and all he meant to Canaan.
“Good.” Renzo gave a firm nod. “I like him. A lot. And I don’t like the idea of you being all alone—in whatever city—when I deploy. Him being there for you, that will help. I’ll get you a list of numbers of people before I leave for training. Like Bacon. And my mom’s been through a lot of my deployments. You could maybe call her...”