Page 19 of Spark

“Does he ever shut up?” Dex asked Hugh.

Hugh shook his head. “If I had a dollar for every time Adam and I have discussed supergluing his big mouth shut, I’d be fuckin’ rich.”

Dex planted his hands on his hips. “You ever need anyone to hold him down, my big weird ass is at your disposal.”

Joe burst out laughing. “Holy shit, did you just crack a joke?”

Dex just stared at him.

“I’ll grow on you eventually,” Joe said and headed for the door.

“Like fungus?” Dex muttered.

“Har har. Catch you tomorrow. I’m going home, where I’m appreciated.”

“I’ll close up,” Dex said to Hugh and started tidying up his workbench. Keeping busy was good. That way he wouldn’t think about Hattie.

Bullshit. You haven’t stopped thinking about her.

She’d snuck off in the middle of the damned night, left him high and dry again, and he didn’t know that the hell to make of it. Was she done with him? He was fucked if he knew. What he did know was he sure as fuck wasn’t done with her. Not that he could do anything about that, though, if the feeling wasn’t mutual.

He didn’t have her number, so he couldn’t call or text, and it didn’t feel right showing up at her place uninvited. He didn’t want to force her to see him, if that wasn’t what she wanted.

He frowned down at his toolbox.

“I’m gonna head out,” Hugh said, pulling him from his thoughts.

Dex lifted his chin.

“Shay and me, we’re going out,” he said, giving an unusual amount of information. Hugh was a lot like Dex: a man of few words. It was one of the things Dex liked most about the man.

He wasn’t sure what to say, so he went with, “Yeah? Have a good night.”

“Hattie’s looking after the kids on her own, all four of them,” Hugh added.

Dex stilled, heart banging into action at the mention of Hattie’s name.

“She offered. Darcey and Joe have a school thing to go to for Noah, and Lucy’s due to have the baby any minute. It’ll be a lot for Hattie on her own.”

Dex turned to his cousin. “Why are you telling me this?”

Hugh shrugged. “Just thought you might want to know. She’ll be at our place all alone…with four kids, and two of them take after their uncle Joe.”

Not sure what to say, Dex frowned.

“Saw her leave your apartment the other morning,” Hugh added.

Christ. “That’s my business.”

Hugh’s hands went to his hips. “Brother, I don’t know what your family’s like back home, but here we look out for each other. If one of us is turning ourselves in knots over something, and it’s obvious as hell that you are…and also being kind of a dumbass, we intervene.”

What the hell did you say to that? Okay, yeah, perhaps he’d been standoffish with everyone here, and he guessed that was shitty after everything they’d done for him. But Dex didn’t know how to be…this. How to do this. “A dumbass?” he repeated.

“I was there Christmas Day. You want Hattie?” Hugh asked, and waited, the minutes stretching out.

Was he supposed to answer that? He did not share his feelings. But Hugh didn’t budge, just stood there waiting. For fuck’s sake. He dipped his chin. It was all Hugh was going to get.

Hugh did the same. “Then, don’t be a dumbass.” Then he walked out of the garage.