Adrian
The news about the farm agreeing to cooperate with Tucker reached Adrian like a bolt of lightning on a stormy night.
"Yes! Yes! Yeah! I did that!" He kicked and did a small, ridiculous jig in the empty living room, dancing like absolutely nobody was watching, arms out, grinning at nothing.
Then he turned around and called her name before he could stop himself.
"Elena! Come down, I got the gig!"
One second.
Two seconds.
Thirty.
Nobody came running down the stairs the way she used to. Nobody came down at all. The silence of the house settled over him slowly, the way cold water fills a room, and for a moment the weight of news that had nowhere to go pressed directly onto his chest.
To his left sat a bottle of liquor, half full, and an empty glass.
Liquor had once been somethi
