I didn’t need to work. I had more than enough money from the settlement, but sitting still only gave me more time to think. I’d found a small local group that was accepting new agents, and while it was a far cry from being a broker at my own company, it kept me busy. That was all I really needed.
“Oh, hey,” I said, turning to face her. “Are you still free to keep Sugar next weekend for me?”
She slid a damn near overflowing glass of wine my way. “Yep. I already have it all planned out. It’s mostly butcher shops and dog parks, but I don’t want to spoil any surprises.”
“Wow.” I glanced down at Sugar. “Don’t you forget who your mama is.”
It was nights like those that breathing wasn’t so hard. When the weight of my past didn’t feel like it was going to press me into the solid earth. Life wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination. All around—emotionally, physically, and mentally—I was still pretty banged up.
And although fermented cucumbers and grapes with a friend didn’t cure much, it was exactly what I needed to heal.
Bowen
“Get out of the car,” I rumbled, holding his door open.
Like a petulant child, Aaron crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head at all the vehicles he recognized that belonged to my family. “You can’t lure me here by saying you need my help in a nine-one-one text and then force me to eat dinner with your family. I bet your kitchen isn’t even flooded.”
“Well, no, I can’t force you to eat, but I can fireman-carry you inside and then turn Cassidy loose on you. Trust me, that woman has a PhD in guilt trips. You could be on a hunger strike and still leave with a full stomach and leftovers.”
He let out a groan and dropped his head against the headrest, knowing Cassidy well enough to realize he was fucked. “Dammit, Bowen. It’s been a long day. I just want to go home, pull the covers over my head, and then sleep for the rest of the weekend.”
“That sounds fantastic—it really does—but you look like shit and haven’t been returning my calls. So first you’re going to come inside, let my mom dote all over you, eat a solid meal that doesn’t come from a takeout box, and be surrounded by people who care about you. Two hours and you’re free to leave.”
He pinned me with an incredulous stare. “Two hours?”
“Yep. One hour for tonight and an extra hour to make up for no-showing on me last week.” I bent into his Lexus and reached across him to kill the engine. “Now hurry up. Preston is about to razzle-dazzle us with his newest ventriloquist act. I told Tyson to save you a seat in the front row.”
He closed his eyes and let out a string of curse words, but it only made my smile stretch that much wider. I’d won.
Thank God for small victories.
The last four months had been agonizing. I was right back in the same purgatory of those six months after the crash when I’d been irrevocably in love with a woman who was gone to me all the same. It was the damnedest thing. It felt like all I ever did was learn to let go of Remi, yet I was still so fucking terrible at it.
But, for as much as my overprotective, meddling, and obsessively hovering family drove me up the wall, it was nice to not be alone all the time.
Aaron didn’t have the same luxury.
With Remi in Savannah, Jack in Miami, and Mark six feet under—and thank fuck for that—Aaron was the last man standing of their little crew of misfits. I honestly worried about the guy. I knew all too well what it was like to have your entire life yanked out from under you. While the two of us had never been best friends like he and Remi had, I hated the idea of Aaron being hung out to dry.
A few weeks after she’d left, I’d stopped by the house they’d shared and discovered he’d moved. I couldn’t blame him. That house was haunted by grief and betrayal. Just pulling into the driveway had been enough to spike my pulse.
I’d called him a dozen times before finally tracking him down at work. It was hard to witness how much he’d aged and withered with his inner circle gone. The only time I’d ever seen him so hollow and lost was after the plane crash. But even then, he’d had them.
When I finally made contact with him, he’d told me he was fine and just busy with life. It was a flat-out lie, one so huge it could have been spotted from space, but I backed off for a few weeks and let him have it.
