83. When someone tells you they miss you

 Mercer missed the old gang, but was happy to be with Sterling to take care of the baby at Tess and Riley's so they could get out and have some fun on the Fourth. Of course, they weren't gone long. They were back before dark. 

"We just can't stay away from, Mae," Riley was happy to see she wasn't any trouble. 

Even then, Mercer could tell Sterling had wanted more alone time with his daughter, but he was being quiet about it.

Tess and Riley brought them home plates of food from the potluck they went too. "I bet we could see plenty of fireworks from the back yard," Tess said about the finale of the Fourth.

"Oh, I think I've seen plenty of fireworks to last me a lifetime," he told them about last year spending the evening with Brick.

"I bet he never does that again, either." Mercer mentioned they did some drinking and a lot of walking in the neighborhood. "I'm surprised we didn't get really sick."

But then he remembered seeing his old friend. It was really the high light of the evening seeing Ed back then, and they said they'd keep in touch, but they hadn't.

Mercer felt bad about it. All this time, he thought he was good at keeping friendships. He'd been there for Sterling, but then again, Sterling was always there. And now they lived together. It wasn't like Sterling depended on him for everything. After all, it was Sterling who could drive.

Mercer went to look Ed's number up on his phone and sent him a Happy Fourth text. To Mercer's surprise, the text bounce back. That phone number didn't work anymore.

It made him a little uneasy. Maybe he wasn't on top of everything like he thought he was. Of course, none of his friends texted him to see how his Fourth was going and he guessed he shouldn't either. 

There was a feeling of loneliness. He wondered how he could do things differently. Suddenly, his phone rang. It was Rafe.

"Hey, dude, we miss you being here," he said.

"We?" Mercer winced as if this must be a joke.

"Ruby and me," he then mentioned that Boone and Maddie stopped by. "We were thinking of going on the rooftop here, to watch the fireworks." He mentioned they didn't want to get out on the street with all the smoke and soot. He said they might get ran over by a drunk driver or something.

"I don't guess you guys heard from Brick," Mercer said.

"Nah, but I think they are around. They haven't gone back to Lincoln yet." Rafe said there was still time to all get together.

"Yeah, that would be great," Mercer felt like it was a promise. He told Rafe he was glad that he'd called. Mercer had a feeling Rafe had to spend time with his twin brother Cade, but Rafe wouldn't mention it. It was funny, they were better friends now than when Mercer was with Cade.