Daron's Guitar Chronicles Vol. 13 (contd)

1095 Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad

Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad

I ended up going back to the hospital, getting Ziggy, and then bringing him back to the hotel so I could tell him the whole story in four-part harmony, without interruptions or worrying who might overhear.

He listened, sitting on the very rectangular couch, with one knee crossed over the other, a cup of lukewarm tea poised in one hand, and one eyebrow arched. He punctuated my recap with the occasional "oh?" or "really."

When I caught up to the present, I sat down next to him and put my hands over my eyes. "What's funny is I'm angrier about it now than I was at the time."

"You're pretty good at suppressing what you feel, you know."

"Hm. I guess."

"And you have a slower fuse than you think. It takes a while for what you should be angry about to sink in. Don't you think?"

I dropped my hands and looked at him. "I suppose. Now I'm cooling off again, though, and I just feel... sort of sorry for her? Like, how can you go through life being that fucked up? I guess thank goodness she didn't have kids?"

"Yet. She's only thirty. But let's talk about Digger."

"Speaking of head cases." I leaned into him as he set down the cup of tea and put an arm around me. "What about him?"

"Well, I'd like to know if it's true he's working out some kind of settlement in Sarah's embezzlement case. What time is it?"

"I have no idea." I couldn't have told you the day of the week, either. Daylight was coming through the windows and it was after lunch but that was as precise as I got.

"It's still office hours," he said, and got up to go to the phone by the bed.

I curled up on the couch. "Ugh. Don't tell me I have to tell that whole story again."

"No, dear one. I'll do that." He had already dialed and was listening to it ring. "Barrett, please," he said to someone who must've recognized his voice since they put him right through. "Hey. I have a little news and we might want to get Mintz on the line for this."

My brain stopped listening to the words and instead I just took in the sound of his voice. Now that I wasn't angry anymore, I felt tired, and I drifted to sleep. When I woke up a little while later, he was still on the phone.

"Oh, really. BNC's lawyers said that? Did they put it in writing? No? I wouldn't believe it until I hear Patty say it, then. Yeah, yeah, that's what I think, too. Well, let me know if you hear anything. You know where to page me."

He hung up and then sat there without moving. I decided if I was going to be lying down I might as well be lying down on the bed next to him, so I moved over there. He still didn't say anything, just reached out a hand and lay it on my arm.

When I woke up the next time, his hand was also on my arm but ZIggy had moved to the other side of me and was lying down, too.

I guess he heard my eyelids open or something because he said, "You awake?"

"Yeah?"

"Mintz was very interested in that, as you can imagine. He agreed it sounds like Digger will do anything to avoid jail. And yet when it comes to me, it seems like he's going to force us to file a countersuit."

"Why would he want that? Won't that just expose even more of his embezzlement?"

"He wants to expose the weakness of our witnesses, I guess. Given what your sister said." He sighed. "I don't want to force Janessa and Colin to go through that too many times."