“Randy?”
“I’m fine,” Randy mumbled, taking a final smell of his father’s leather jacket before pulling away. “I missed you guys is all. Don’t worry about me, okay? I’m doing all right taking care of myself.”
Randy almost winced at the déjà vu of the words. It upset him that he had to keep telling everyone that he was capable of self-care, almost as much as it upset him that he had to keep shutting down the little voice that suggested that if it was so damn true, there should be no reason he had to keep saying it. It would be obvious.
“Don’t you let your mother get to you,” his father said. “She means well.”
Randy snorted. “She really doesn’t, and you know it. What she means to do is get me back to the city so she can have as much control of my life as she does over everyone else’s and
