Will felt like he was sleepwalking through his day. The nothingness that he felt at hearing about his Dad's passing the day before had permeated his entire being. As a result, everything that he tried to do to keep himself busy failed at keeping his mind occupied for more than a few minutes. He flitted from one thing to the next like a moth trapped in a jar trying desperately to escape. Gunnar and Avery had both been supportive in their own ways. Gunnar had made it his mission to insure that Will either ate or had something to drink in his hands at all times. Avery pushed Cadence at him at least once every hour thinking that if anyone could pull Will out of his funk it would be her. But even Cadence's sweet face couldn't dispel Will's apathy.

In the early afternoon, Will's phone started ringing. Before he could get off the couch to grab it off the kitchen counter, his phone pinged indicating that he had a text message then another then another. Will picked up his phone and looked at the phone number but he didn't recognize it. He switched over to the text messages and saw one from Rayna, one from Luke and one from Layla. He disregarded the ones from Rayna and Luke for now and went straight to Layla's. He hadn't seen or spoken to Layla since she left town after Jeff's death, and he was anxious to know how she was doing. The text message simply said, Call me.

Will quickly dialed Layla's number. She answered it on the first ring. "Will! Are you alright? I tried to phone you as soon as I heard but your line was busy."

Will shook his head slightly in confusion. "Heard what?"

There was a pause on the other end of the line. "Didn't…didn't you get some bad news?"

Will glanced at the phone in disbelief. "How do you know that? Did Gunnar or Avery call you?"

Will heard Layla puff out a breath in annoyance. "You haven't seen the tabloids."

"What are you talking about? What tabloids?"

"There's a story in the tabloids about your Dad passing."

"How the Hell do they know that?"

"Ugh, how do those bottom feeders know anything? They're awful, evil, horrible bastards, every single one of them. Can you believe that I'm still getting calls asking about Jeff's death? Wanting to know all the dirty, macabre details. They're hideous." Layla spat out.

Will was completely taken aback. "What are they saying about my Dad?"

"You don't even want to know."

Will closed his eyes. "Tell me."

Layla sighed and said, "Just that your Dad passed away and that the two of you were estranged because he couldn't accept that you're gay. You know how they turn everything into a huge drama. It's nothing but garbage." Will just hung his head. "I'm so sorry Will. Can I do anything for you?"

Will shook his head. "No. Are you back in town?"

"Not yet. I'm coming home in a few days. I'll call you as soon as I'm back. I want to see you."

Will ended the call with Layla just as Avery came downstairs. "Something wrong?"

"I just spoke with Layla. There's a tabloid article out about my Dad passing."

Avery looked at him in confusion. "How does your Dad's passing constitute a tabloid article?"

"Because I'm gay and my Dad and I were estranged because of it." Will said tiredly.

Avery rolled his eyes. "Oh please. You can't tell me that the tabloids are that hard up for stories. Surely one of the Kardashians did something stupid today."

Will and Avery turned their heads as Gunnar came through the front door with a bag of groceries. He looked grim as he said, "Hey. Um…there's something you should know."

Will just reached out his hand to Gunnar. "Hand it over."

Gunnar hesitated as he glanced over at Avery. "He already knows."

Gunnar reluctantly reached into the bag and brought out the paper handing it over to Will as he said, "I'm sorry."

Will opened it up and cringed at the large print, "GAY COUNTRY STAR DEVASTATED BY DEATH OF ESTRANGED FATHER." He had no sooner read it than his phone started going off again. Gunnar winced and said, "You're probably going to want to turn that off. Maybe indefinitely."


Will climbed into bed with a deep sigh. He glanced at the phone in his hand and wondered if he dared turn it back on. He had taken Gunnar's advice and turned the phone off for the remainder of the afternoon. He had retired early telling Gunnar and Avery that he was tired. They had watched him walk up the stairs with concern clearly showing in their eyes but they hadn't said anything. Now, in the sanctity of his bedroom, he debated whether he wanted to open this can of worms tonight or wait until the morning. He sighed again as he decided to bite the bullet and turned the phone on.

Will grimaced at the number of phone and text messages that he had. He scrolled through the phone messages first not recognizing many of the numbers. He listened to a couple of voice messages but ended up deleting them all when he realized that they were mostly from reporters wanting to know how he was feeling. Vultures! He skimmed through the text messages last. Many of these were from friends and acquaintances checking up on him but there were also a lot from people he barely knew or didn't know at all. He was just about to delete them all when one caught his eye and made him sit up in bed. Kevin.

Will blinked a few times hard to make sure he was seeing the screen right. It was definitely Kevin. He checked the time stamp just in case it was an old message that he simply forgot to delete. It had come in about an hour ago. Will wasn't sure how long he sat there just staring at the name before he finally got up the courage to open the text. It simply said, "You OK?"

Will wondered if he should respond. It would be rude not to respond, wouldn't it? What should he say? Will spent the next ten minutes writing and deleting various responses before finally settling on the simplest and most honest answer, "I don't know." He hit the Send button and waited. Almost immediately, the phone buzzed with a reply, "I'm so sorry."

Will felt his eyes prick with tears as he responded back, "Thanks." Then, before he had time to think about it, he typed, "I miss you." He quickly hit the Send button. This time he didn't get an immediate response. After five minutes, Will tossed the phone onto his bedside table kicking himself. He shouldn't have sent that text. What was he thinking? He turned over onto his side and punched his pillow looking dejectedly across the room at nothing in particular. When his phone buzzed ten minutes later, it scared the life out of him. He leapt out of bed grabbing for the phone and ended up dropping it with a clatter. It took three attempts to finally pick it up. As he read the message, he grinned happily, "Meet 4 coffee a.m.?"