Page 11 of Go the Long Way

"Fucking hell," Jakob muttered.

"Yeah. So uh… that said — final chance. I can stop and let you out if you don't want to come along," Ethan asked as they turned into a suburb that looked like it came straight out of some episode of the Brady Bunch.

Or maybe The Stepford Wives; all tree-lined boulevards with big, lush, water-guzzling green lawns in front of cookie-cutter houses built more for aesthetics than to take advantage of their environment.

Jakob didn't envy them their utility bills.

"What are you planning to do?" Jakob asked, glancing over at Ethan's white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel.

He sighed, relaxing his hands and leaning back in the car seat, although the tenseness never left his shoulders.

"Don't know, honestly," Ethan admitted, rubbing his chin as he turned at the stop sign onto an identical street. "Suppose I’ll try and get Alex somewhere safe, I guess. I'm not quite sure what that looks like, to be honest. I can't — Like I said, his dad knows where I live. Can't take him to my house even if it wasn't against school policy to have a student there. Probably cost me my job. Not to mention his dad would simply come pick him up, anyway. Shit, he might get there before us if he's got those lights and stuff on his car."

"Uh-huh," Jakob answered absently, trying to twist around without aggravating his leg. He hastily scanned Ethan's backseat for…

Ah-hah —Thereit was, just as he had suspected. Old habits died hard, it seemed, even after all these years.

Jakob snagged the red baseball cap from where it had been half hidden under a worn black leather jacket. He quickly gathered and twisted his shoulder-length copper hair up to tuck under the hat and hide it away.

"What are you doing?" Ethan asked bewildered; trying to watch Jakob and keep his eyes on the road at the same time.

"Maybe you can't take him to your house, but he would be safe enough at mine," Jakob replied. "I mean — if you think he would go? Couple of Cassie's friends stay in our guestroom sometimes when their parents get to be too much. He's welcome to it. You drop us off a few streets away, I'll call a rideshare, and — Alex, you called him? He can stay at my place as long as he needs."

Ethan looked over at him, his gaze now frank and assessing. "You sure? He — uh… he can take some getting used to. Doesn't trust easily."

"Yeah?" Jakob said with a grin. "Sounds like someone I once knew, actually."

"Can't imagine who that could be," Ethan rumbled, throwing a roguish look over at Jakob.

And it was as if he’d taken a punch to the chest, as if Jakob was thrown back in his seat almost two decades, to when things had still been good.

Herewas his old friend, under the crow’s feet and gray hairs starting to sneak in among the dark.Herewas the Ethan he remembered knowing as surely as the back of his own hand, buried under all the years and distance and not-so-ancient history.

For a moment, it felt almost as if they were two kids again. The entire world at their feet, the possibilities stretching ahead of them innumerable and endless.

Jakob could just about believe they were off to some old familiar mischief; sneaking Ethan back home after a too-late night out without waking his strict fundamentalist parents, perhaps. Or that time they had stolen the rival school's mascot, the giant inflatable eagle nearly flying off into the sky and taking Jakob along with it.

His heart in his mouth as he hung on, white-knuckled and cursing as he clung to the guide rope; the heavy winds buffeted him as Ethan laughed and roared by turns below; those powerful arms wrapped around Jakob's waist, safely anchoring him to the ground.

Jakob felt like he almost couldn't breathe with how much he suddenly wished — noneededfor things to be that way again between them, now older and maybe even wiser for all those missing years. Jakob would fix this, he would. He'd —

"You okay?" came Ethan's voice, the concern in his tone cutting through the fog of memories and mistakes. The warm weight of his palm on Jakob's shoulder, once more his anchor in the storm.

"We're almost there," Ethan told him; eyes darting across Jakob's face, his tone unsure. "It's not too late to back out. Here, I'll pull over and you can get out. I'll understand. It's not your fight."

Jakob grabbed the hand on his shoulder, clutching it like a lifeline.

"Don't youdare,"Jakob warned his old friend. "This kid dangerous? Could he be a threat to Cassie?"

"Naw," Ethan said with an easy grin. "He's a good egg under the attitude, really."

"Then don't worry. Not my first rodeo dealing with teenagers. But if you're about to head into a battle you believe is worth fighting and you think I'm not backing you up? You've lost your mind," Jakob told him, giving it his best to mirror Ethan's smile.

"If you're sure…"

"If you need me, I'm here. Ain't going anywhere else," Jakob promised his old friend, trying to pack all those years of regret into the words. He gave the hand on his shoulder a squeeze before releasing it, letting Ethan focus on getting them there in time.

Chapter 7