Over two million people lived in the Austin metropolitan area, but with each passing day without Eva, the town felt more and more empty. Hollow.

Tyree sighed. It wasn’t the town, he thought, as he stood at the front window of The Fix and looked out at the dense crowd of people out for a good time on a Saturday night. It was her. Because any place without Eva was a cold, empty space.

Frustrated, he pulled out his phone, just as he’d done every few hours for the last three days. This time, though, he was finally going to call her.

Except when he dialed, it was Elena’s number.

She answered on the first ring. “Hey, Daddy. You okay?”

He bit back a sad smile. Already, the kid knew him too well. “Fine,” he lied. “Listen, Eli’s studying late at a friend’s, and you and I both have the night off from The Fix. Want to grab dinner with me?”

“You’re not working tonight?”

“Nope.” He justified the lie by reminding himself that he’d tell Reece to take over and walk out that door the minute she agreed to meet him.

“Um, Daddy?”

“Yeah?”

“Turn around.”

Shit. He did, then found himself facing his daughter, who sat having a drink at one of the tables in the far corner of the main room, with Amanda, Nolan, and Shelby sitting beside her.

“Well, what do you know,” he said. “Looks like we both hang out at the same place on our day off.”

Even across the room, he could see her roll her eyes. Then she said something to the others, stood up, and very deliberately walked over to him, ending the call in the process.

“So, I’m guessing this is a yes for dinner?”

She crossed her arms and cocked her head. “You know I’m not the one you want to be having dinner with. Call her.”

He shook his head, then sighed. “She has her life out there.”

“Yeah. But she doesn’t have you.”

“Have you talked to her?”

“Well, duh. She’s my mom.”

“And?”

“And you already know. She loves you. She’s not the problem here. I thought she was before she took off, but we’ve talked some more and I’ve thought a lot about it. And she’s right. You’re the one who needs to kick his own ass.”

He fought back a bitter laugh. Wasn’t that the truth?

She leaned in and kissed his cheek. “I’m sorry, Daddy, but I’ve already got dinner plans. And honestly? I think you need to sit down and do some serious thinking. You’re throwing away happiness and thinking it makes you a martyr. It doesn’t. It just makes you stupid.”

“That’s harsh,” he said.

She lifted a shoulder. “Maybe. But it sure looks like truth from where I’m standing.”

---

Tyree was dozing on the couch when Eli walked in. He did a lot of that lately. Either slept or buried himself in work. There really wasn’t much of a middle ground.

“You’re home,” Eli said as Tyree scrubbed his face with his palms, trying to wake up. His beard, which he usually kept trimmed, had grown wild. Right at the moment, he really didn’t care.

Eli plunked down on the coffee table right in front of him. “You look like crap.”

“And a warm welcome to you, too, son.”

“At least you’ve got your sense of humor.”

Tyree didn’t answer. He wasn’t sure he had any sense of humor left, actually.

“Elena picked me up after school today,” he said. “We went to Starbucks.”

“How is she?”

“Better than you, that’s for damn sure.”

“Language, Eli.”

“Damn, fuck, shit, piss.”

Tyree opened his eyes wide. “What the devil’s wrong with you?”

“There.” Eli pointed a finger at him. “That’s the question. What’s wrong with you?”

Tyree drew in one long breath, then let it out slowly. “I’m in a funk. I know it, but I’ll get out of it. I just need a little time. A little space. Everyone needs a little space sometimes.”

“Elena says you need a kick in the balls.”

The words almost made him smile. Instead, he said, “Let’s temporarily remove your sister from the role-model list, okay?”

“Do you remember the last time we went to Mom’s grave?”

Tyree’s head whipped up, both at the mention of Teiko and at the complete non sequitur. “Of course. That was the seventh anniversary of her death.”

“No,” Eli said. “No more of that shit.”

The words stung. More than that, they confused. “What are you talking about?”

“Anniversaries are for celebrating. I’m not gonna celebrate losing my mom. Not anymore.”

“Eli—”

“No. Listen to me. I’m not going there anymore. Not like that, anyway. Not like it’s a ritual.”

“Be careful, son.” Tyree’s whole body felt cold. Tense. “You’re treading on very thin ice.”

“I’ve been thinking about it. I don’t think she’d like it. I remember her every day, Dad,” he said, his eyes shining now. “I don’t have to go to a grave to do that. And you know what? She wouldn’t want me to.”

A tear trickled down the side of his nose. “She’d tell me I was rearranging my life for a life that didn’t exist anymore. She’d want me to stop. Like with my jeans.”

He’d been about to explode. Now he felt deflated and confused. “Jeans?”

“Yeah.” Eli nodded. “You said she wouldn’t care what I wore that day, remember? And you were right. She doesn’t care what we wear, Dad. She just wants us to be happy.”

Tyree sat for a second, his eyes unnaturally wide, fighting his own urge to cry.

“You aren’t happy, Dad.”

And, dammit, there went the tears. He drew in a wet, stuttering breath. “It’s not you, son. You know that, right? You’re the best thing in my life. You and Elena.”

“Yeah, yeah. I get that. So does she. But Dad, come on. It’s kind of obvious. And you know what? Mom would get it, too.”

For a moment, Tyree simply sat there. A little shell-shocked, the world feeling hollow around him, muffled. Like the eerie silence after an explosion. Then he drew in a breath, gathered himself, and faced his son. “I think your mom would have liked Eva.”

The corner of Eli’s mouth twitched. “Yeah. Me, too.”

He thought about Eva. About the life she had in San Diego. About how he must somehow convince her that things had changed. That he loved her fully and completely and without reservation. That he wasn’t going to give up on them, no matter what the price and no matter how long it took to prove it to her.

Then he looked at his son. “Did you mean what you said the first time we had Elena and Eva over to the house? About thinking it would be cool to live in California?”

“Are you kidding? Surfing? Hell, yeah.”

Tyree nodded, considering.

“So, I guess you’re going to have to go see her now, huh?”

“I guess I am.” He looked at his son, seeing a much older and wiser kid than he had the day before. “How’d you get to be so smart, anyway?

“Must’ve got it from Mom,” Eli said, dropping to the couch and letting Tyree swing an arm around his shoulder. “‘Cause you can be a real dumb ass.”