“It’s common for laypeople to miss the signs of stroke,” I assured him. “Pretty easy to spot when you’re trained, though. No big deal.”
“It was an awful big deal for Kirt’s family,” Alana chimed in. “Like when you convinced Gramma Sophie that her headaches weren’t about needing a new prescription for her eyeglasses but because she had high blood pressure. She got to spend another Lickin’ with her family this past summer, thanks to you.”
The woman had only needed a prescription for her high blood pressure. It wasn’t like I was some kind of medical trailblazer over here. Not like my father, or even my grandfather.
“Well, I’m glad I could help in some small way.” I smiled tightly. “So, Red, how are Ava and Paul’s twins?”
Ava was technically Red’s son’s former childhood sweetheart and not related to their family in the slightest. That didn’t matter in a town like Licking Thicket, though. Red was their honorary grandpa.
“Cricket and James!” Red’s grin widened. “Hang on, I’ve got pictures on my phone here—”
“Excuse me, Doctor.” A tuxedoed waiter appeared at my shoulder. “Your grandfather would like a word with you. He’s waiting for you in the Turquoise Salon.” She nodded toward a paneled door on the far side of the room.
I nodded. I’d been waiting for this summons all evening. Grandfather and I had barely had a chance to greet each other since we arrived, but I knew he was not best pleased with my decision to go “running off, looking for trouble” in South America.
I’d bet money he was going to ask me for the thousandth time in three months if I was really, really sure I wanted to go. He’d already tried threatening, guilting, and cajoling me about it. In fact, I was low-key certain this whole hospital endowment had been an attempt at distracting me from leaving town, which was hilarious because he’d initially been horrified when I’d moved from Nashville to Great Nuthatch, but apparently even Great Nuthatch was better than the jungles of Venezuela.
I was curious what his last-ditch attempt at keeping me in Tennessee would be.
I excused myself from my friends, straightened my tuxedo jacket, and followed the waiter toward the door. But before we got there, a hand reached out from the shadows, grabbed my elbow, and pulled me behind an enormous potted tree.
“Hey!” I yelled. “What the—?”
“Carter!” my cousin Kev whispered happily. He threw his arms around me and held on so tight his lean arms nearly cracked my ribs. “Shit, I’ve been waiting for you to walk by my tree! I thought for a second there I was gonna have to go out there where all the people are to find you. I’m so glad you came by!”
“Kev.” I shook my head, stunned. “What are you doing here?”
My cousin Kev was incredibly brilliant. He was also incredibly socially awkward and introverted, to the point where he rarely left the house in Belle Meade if he could help it… and certainly not for an event like this.
“Ugh!” Kev shoved his black-framed glasses up his nose, folded his arms over his tuxedo-printed T-shirt, and shuffled his Converse-clad feet. His brown-and-purple hair stood up like he’d suffered a mild electrocution. “Long story. Grandfather made me come. Blah, blah Rogers family. Blah, blah responsibility. Blah, blah too much gaming and not enough fresh air and sunlight.” He waved a hand. “It’s like the man doesn’t understand how my UV lights and tricked-out ventilation system even work. All I can say is when the zombies attack and we’re all forced into bunkers, some of us will have adapted, and some of us will not.”
I opened my mouth, then shut it again. I wasn’t sure which of these groups Kev thought I was in.
I wasn’t sure which one I wanted to be in.
“It’s fine, though,” Kev went on, “’cause I wanted to see you anyway. You haven’t been on your HOG at all this week, even on Tuesday when the parsnips were delivered! I had to defend our settlement from a Horde all by myself, and I got worried. It’s not like you to miss Parsnip Tuesday, man.”
“Oh, shoot. About that.” I bit my lip to cover a wince. “It’s been a long week, and I, uh—” Forgot.
But there was no way I’d admit that to Kev, even under pain of death.
See, like me, Kev had been raised by our grandfather during his formative years. Unlike me, who’d lost my parents early to a car accident, Kev had lost his parents in middle school due to general parental dysfunction. Essentially, they’d dropped him off at Grandfather’s mansion for a couple of weeks one summer, and thirteen years later, he was still there. He even worked from home.
With no idea how to handle a brilliant but awkward teen, our normally strict grandfather had gotten him a video game setup, and we’d figured out a way for Kev and me to play together even while I was at college. Since then, it had become kind of our casual cousin-bonding thing.