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Murphy
“I never would have thought you were a coward, Murphy.”
I folded my arms over my chest and shrugged. “I just like to attack problems with the best strategy. I knew the old man wouldn’t be able to say no to Tatum.”
King slipped behind the van's steering wheel and stuck the key in the ignition. “Well, I guess I can’t argue with that.”
Gravel and Ethel were behind the wheel of one of the trucks, and Apollo was in the other one.
“Besides, we wouldn’t have had enough vehicles if Tatum and I were headed out, too.” There was the beat-up car on the side of the garage, but I wasn’t sure that would make it more than twenty miles down the road.
King nodded. “Fair point.” He closed his door and rolled down the window. “Take care, and call us if you need anything. Hopeful this shit is over soon, and we can all go back to reality.”
“I like lockdown,” Cyn called from the backseat. “I miss the days of all of us hanging out at the clubhouse. I get that back when we lockdown.”
“Babe,” Rigid muttered from the passenger seat. “You hang out with Meg and the girls all of the time.”
“Not the same,” Cyn sighed. “I think it has something to do with the danger in the air that just makes me nostalgic.”
“Agreed,” Meg called.
King fired up the van, and I stepped back. “Let me know when you get back to the clubhouse.”
King nodded and pulled out of the driveway; the van loaded down with Rigid, Meg, Cyn, Snapper, and Lennox. Snapper had been able to get his bike to the cabin, but the front wheel had been bent by the explosion and wasn’t safe for him to ride back to the clubhouse. Gravel and Ethel followed behind, and then Bear and Greta pulled out with Easy, Frost, and Creed smushed in the backseat. Bear hadn’t been kidding when he said only four people could fit in the Bronco comfortably.
“You all good?” Apollo called.
I nodded. “All good. Take care of yourself, and let me know when you get to Greer and the kids.”
“Say hi to Greer for me,” Tatum called from the porch.
Apollo raised his hand in farewell and headed out.
I watched until his taillights faded and took a deep breath.
Everything was still, and the solitude of it just being Tatum and me settled over me.
Just Tatum and me.