Chapter 20

Whistling off-key—Jason wasn’t looped. He’d only had a single beer, but as his sister liked to say, he couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket—he garaged his car. Maybe one of these days he’d hire a handyman to put a door in the wall between the garage and the house. He walked across the lawn to the front steps. Out of habit, he checked the mail.

He frowned. Why had Ben sent him another card? And it wasto him, not that bastard, Rick.

He let himself into the house, turned on the lamp in the living room, and dropped down heavily into the recliner his mom had insisted he take with him when he moved out of the family home.

The other mail didn’t matter to him. He left it in his lap and opened the card. It was Garfield dropping a letter in the mailbox and inside it said, “Just to prove I was thinking of you!”

Dear Jason,

First off, thank you for the photo.

The next sentence had been covered with whiteout. Written over it was,

You looked really nice in those cutoffs and that T-shirt.