Page 30 of Just Wait

I try to keep myself still, but it doesn’t work. Crossing the space between us, I pull my hand from my pocket, grab the pillow, and toss it back into the bunk. “Leave it behind.”

“It’s my favorite pillow.”

“I’ll buy you a new one,” I say, clearing my throat.

Jesus.

Why am I acting like Kincaid?

It’s not that he doesn’t care about anyone; he just hides it behind a gruff exterior. He has his own damage in the form of abandonment issues, and acting like a dick is his coping method.

“Unless it’s something you can’t replace.” I soften my tone as I point at her ex’s bed. “If that’s the case, a few runs through a washer should help.”

Her eyes clench shut, and her head shakes.

Shit.

I messed up.

She’s about to cry.

Malcolm is going to hear that I upset her, then he’ll try to rearrange my face.

She exhales heavily, and her shoulders tremble.

I’m not sure what comes over me.

“You need a hug.” I move slowly, wrapping my arm around her lower back. It gives her the opportunity to protest, but she doesn’t, so I pull her into my chest, giving her a proper hug.

I’m just debating what I can say or do when her eyes pop open. They’re glassy, but no tears fall.

“I knew better than to come on tour with him, but he was so determined,” she says in barely more than a whisper. “And I wanted to believe things could work. God, I’m such an idiot.”

“Don’t blame yourself for someone else’s poor choices,” I say, giving her shoulder a final pat before stepping away.

She sniffles, and my head tilts as I wait to see if she’s going to say anything else. Malcolm loves to tell me what a pushy bastard I am.

I can’t help that, though.

I love feeling needed, and I excel when I can solve someone’s problems.

The main issue is that no one lets me.

“I was so afraid that I was going to get screwed over in the end, but I wanted to believe in us,” she says, her voice cracking. “I let him talk me into breaking my lease.”

My jaw clenches.

Yeah, that was a bad idea, but hindsight is twenty-twenty.

“He swore he would pay off the penalty from his first big tour paycheck,” she says, her voice growing more frantic. “All my shit is in storage. I quit my job to follow him around on tour. There are no words for how stupid I was. I’m going to be starting over from scratch, when I could have just stayed in our apartment in Florida, building my own life.”

That makes him an extra special kind of piece of shit.

Now she’s either going to have to take on that financial burden with no job, or she’ll have to beg him to keep his word.

“Hey, you don’t have to figure it all out tonight, okay?” I have no clue how long it’ll be before Tangled Desires is done with their shit, but the last thing I want to do is have them come in while we’re still here. “Why don’t we drop your bags off on our bus? Then we can check in with the others.”

She blinks, and her shoulders bounce as she kinda twitches. “I have to go. I need to see if I can get a rideshare to pick me up.”