of lunacy.” Jake looks at me. “Pop is only allowed so many episodes per year.”
“I fight for what’s right,” Mr. Jacobson objects. He pops a toothpick in his mouth and grins at Ethan. “All day long.”
Ethan lifts the pan he’s holding in my direction. “You feel like ribs?”
“Sure!” I reply. I still can’t understand why he feels so happy after getting kicked out of an important town meeting.
“We’ll see you guys later,” Ethan calls out. “Thanks again, Mr. Jacobson,” he says a little more quietly. Mr. Jacobson gives him nothing more than a tilt of his chin.
Ethan is still smiling when we get back to my cabin.
I can’t contain my curiosity any longer. “Why do you look so happy about getting kicked out of a town meeting?” I ask, as he sets the pan down on the table and retrieves two plates from the cabinet.
“Honestly, it’s because I want to be Mr. Jacobson when I grow up.” He puts two ribs on a plate and pushes it toward me, and he takes two for himself.
“That’s all you’re going to eat?”
“I ate about ten of them while we waited for Mr. Jacobson to finish gabbing with all the old people at the nursing home. I think the man has probably forgotten more about Macon Hills than most people will ever know. He knows every person, every story, every secret, and every scandal. And he’s not afraid to wield them as appropriate. He has bigger balls than anyone I’ve ever met.”
“So what happened?” I ask as we sit down to eat.
“He refused to feed them all when they tried to kick me out, and then we left.” He shrugs, but he’s still grinning.
“Why has this got you so tickled?”
“It’s been a long time since I’ve felt like I could just own what happened,” he says quietly. “But after tonight, I’m ready to own it. I made a mistake, and the woman I loved died. She’s gone now, and I paid for my mistake, and now I think I’m just about ready to be done with it.”
“That’s quite a leap.” As early as this morning, he was still doubting his place in the world, his value to anyone.
“Well, now I have some shit worth fighting for,” he says. He reaches over and squeezes my hand, getting barbecue sauce all over me.
“Hey!”
He picks my hand up and licks the sauce from the back of it.
He’s laughing until he hears the hitch of my breath. Then he freezes. “Something wrong?” he asks, a slow quirk forming on his full lips.
I pull my hand back and swallow. “No, nothing’s wrong.”
“Uh-huh,” he says. He shoves his chair back. “I’m going to go take a shower really quick.” He kisses the top of my head as he brushes past me. “Be right back.”
I grab my phone and walk out onto the porch. “Hey, Gran,” I say when I hear her answer.
“Make it fast, Abigail,” she says. “My stories are on.”
“Hit pause, Gran,” I reply. “It’s the little button that looks like a sideways equals sign.”
“Oh, okay.” She waits a beat. “There. How do I start it back?”
“Hit it again.”
“It better work,” she warns. “What are you doing?”
“Gran, did you check the mail today?”
“Yes.”
“Did I get anything?”
“Yes.”
“From where?”
I can hear her sorting through paper. “Looks like a credit card bill. And a letter from a doctor’s office.”
“Can you open that one for me and tell me what it says?”
When I called the doctor’s office earlier today to get my test results, they’d said they couldn’t tell me anything over the phone but that an official result would arrive in the mail.
I hear her tearing into the envelope. I hold my breath.
“All negative, Abigail,” she says after a minute of reading. “All negative,” she says again.
“Oh, thank God.” I lay my head back against the wall and stare up at the stars.
“You happy?” Gran asks quietly.
“Very.”
“Then I’m happy for you, Abigail.”
“I’ve got to go, Gran. I have a hot man in my shower and he’s naked.”
“Use a condom, Abigail.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I reply with a giggle.
“Love you, Abigail,” she says quietly.
“Love you too, Gran.”
I hang up and dash through the house, pulling off my clothes as I go. I can hear the water running in the shower as I walk into the bathroom. Steam rises over the top of the curtain, and I can hear Ethan humming. I slide the curtain back and step in behind him, completely naked. He must feel the coolness enter the small space because he turns