Wallace believed it. He knew how much the cane hurt.
He glanced back only once as he hurried down the hallway.
Alan hadn’t moved.
Maybe he would listen after all.
* * *
“—and you don’t need to take that kind of abuse,” Mei was saying hotly as Wallace walked through the door into the cool evening air. “I don’t care who he thinks he is, no one gets to talk to you that way. Screw that guy. Screw him right in his stupid face.”
Hugo smiled wryly. “Thanks, Mei. Pointed as always.”
“Just because he’s angry and scared doesn’t give him the right to be a dick. Tell him, Wallace.”
“Yeah,” Wallace said. “I’m probably not the best person, seeing as how I used to be a dick.”
Mei snorted. “Used to be. That’s real cute.” Then, “Did you leave Nelson alone with him?”
He held up his hands. “I don’t think you need to worry about that. Nelson already put him in his place. I’m more worried about Alan than anything else.”
Hugo groaned. “What did Grandad do?”
“Like … ghost karate?”
Mei laughed. “Oh, man, and I missed it? I need to go see if he’ll do it again. You’ve got this, Wallace, right?” She didn’t wait for an answer. She stood on her tiptoes, kissing Hugo on the cheek before heading back inside. Wallace heard her shouting for Nelson before she closed the door.
“Pain in the ass,” Hugo muttered.
Wallace walked toward him. “Who? Nelson or Mei?”
“Yes,” Hugo said before yawning, his jaw cracking audibly.
“You should go to bed,” Wallace said. “Get some rest. I think he’ll be quieter tonight.” If they were lucky, Nelson would convince him to keep his mouth shut for at least a few hours.
“I will. Just … needed to clear my head for a moment.”
“How did it go?”
Hugo started to shrug but stopped halfway. “It went.”
“That good, huh?”
“He’s angry. I get it. I really do. And as much as I want to, I can’t take that away from him. It’s his. The best I can do is to make sure he knows he doesn’t have to hold onto it forever.”
Wallace was dubious at best. “You think he’ll listen to you?”
“I hope so.” Hugo smiled tiredly. “It’s too soon to tell. But if it starts getting out of hand…” A complicated expression crossed his face. “Well, let’s just say it’s best to avoid that if possible.”
“The Manager.”
“Yeah.”
“You don’t like him.”
Hugo looked off into the dark. “He isn’t the type of being to be liked. As long as the job gets done, nothing else matters. I’m not exactly ambivalent, but…”
“He scares you,” Wallace said, suddenly sure.
“He’s a cosmic being overseeing death,” Hugo said dryly. “Of course he scares me. He scares everyone. That’s kind of the point.”
“You still listened to him when he offered you a job.”
Hugo shook his head. “That has nothing to do with it. I took the job because I wanted to. How could I not? Helping people when they need it most, when they think all is lost? Of course I’d agree to it.”
“Like Jesus,” Wallace said solemnly. “Got that savior complex down pat.”
Hugo burst out laughing. “Yeah, yeah. Point taken, Wallace.” He sobered slightly. “And then there’s the fact that he might be a liar given what he’s said about the Husks, and that scares me even more. It makes me wonder what else he’s kept from me.”
“Make any headway with that?”
“Not yet. I’m still thinking. I’ll get there. Just not yet.”
They fell quiet, leaning against the railing.
“I think he’ll listen,” Hugo said finally. “Alan. I need to be careful with him. He’s fragile right now. But I know I can get through to him. He just needs time to work through it. And once he’s better and I can show him how to cross, we can go back to normal.” He reached out for Wallace, only to stop himself and curl his fingers.
“Yeah,” Wallace said. “Normal.”
“That’s not … I keep forgetting.” His brow furrowed above a pinched expression as he breathed heavily through his nose. “That you’re…”
“I know,” Wallace said.
Hugo’s face crumpled. “I’m losing focus. I keep thinking you’re…” He shook his head. He started for the door, whistling for Apollo who barked from the tea garden.
And before he could walk through the open door, Wallace said, “Hugo.”
He stopped but didn’t turn around.
Wallace looked up at the stars.
Is there anything you would say to someone left behind if you could?
He said, “If things were different, if I were me, and you were you … do you think you’d ever see me as someone you could…”
He didn’t think Hugo was going to answer. He’d walk through the door without a word, leaving Wallace alone and feeling foolish.
He didn’t.
He said, “Yes.” And then he went inside.
Wallace stared after him, burning like the sun.
CHAPTER
16
“Are you sure about this?” Wallace muttered, eyeing Alan warily. It was the third day with their new guest, and Wallace still wasn’t sure what to make of him. Ever since Nelson had laid him out on his back, he’d … well, not changed, not exactly. He’d taken to watching their every movement, and though he didn’t ask many questions, Wallace had the feeling he was taking it all in, not quite a cornered animal waiting to strike, but close. It certainly didn’t help that he never looked away from Wallace when he started taking down the chairs each morning, getting the tea shop ready for yet another day. Every time Wallace grabbed hold of a different chair, he could feel Alan’s gaze on him. It made his skin crawl.
“I can’t imagine what it’s like for him,” Nelson said, voice low in case Alan was trying to listen in. “I know he’s a little rough around the edges—”
“It’s okay to be hyperbolic. Really. I swear. Don’t hold back.”
“—but murder victims have a harder time understanding that the life they knew is over.” Nelson shook his head. “He died not because of his own choice, or because his body gave out on him, but because someone else took his life from him. It’s a violation. We have to tread carefully, Hugo more than the rest of us.”
Wallace was uneasy as he set down the last chair, hearing Mei singing in the kitchen at the top of her lungs. He glanced through the porthole windows and caught a glimpse of Hugo moving back and forth. They hadn’t had the chance to talk more since their last night on the deck, though Wallace wasn’t sure what more could be said. Hugo needed to put his focus on Alan, and Wallace was dead. Nothing was going to change that. It was ridiculous to think otherwise, or so that’s what Wallace told himself. Declarations were meaningless in the face of life and death.
Wallace had never been a fan of the what if.