He didn’t really need to finish that thought, but I was glad he hadn’t anyway. I was sure I wouldn’t enjoy it.
“You have another roommate, right?” I asked, thinking of the guy Wilder had trusted to pick Gracie up from kindergarten.
“Danny’s at work,” Chase said. “We can look after Wilder.”
“Okay,” I said. “I don’t think he needs to go to urgent care, but maybe check and see if it bleeds through the bandage?”
“We got it,” Chase said as Wilder let out another snore. “How many Percocet did you give him?”
“Just the one,” I said, “but he said he was pretty tired.”
Chase exchanged a look with Cash that was almost soft and convinced me he wasn’t as abrasive as he pretended. Then he crossed his arms over his chest and said, “Thanks, man. We got it.”
“Okay,” I said, glancing at the sleeping Wilder one last time.
As I turned to leave, Cash said, in a voice so quiet I almost missed it, “Thanks.”
And I went home and finished the lawn, my mind whirring almost as fast as the blades of the mower.
CHAPTER 9
WILDER
The throbbing in my hand woke me up, and it took a while of blinking at the ceiling for my brain to come up with the memories that gave the answer to why the hell I hurt. When it did—you nailed yourself to the porch, you dick—I groaned and lifted my hand to inspect it. I couldn’t see much, but there was a faint rusty stain on the bandage to suggest that it had bled a little overnight.
And yeah, I could remember that too.
I’d been dreaming about kissing, real high school hot and heavy stuff. The fuzzy, vague sort of dreams I’d had before my experience, or porn, had filled in the blanks. Which was dumb, because I knew what tits and ass looked like these days—even if I wasn’t getting any of it myself, I worked with girls who shook both in my face regularly. So why had last night’s dream been so?—
Avery.
I’d been dreaming about kissing Avery, and my brain had breezed over the details I didn’t know. Like what another guy’s dick felt like in general, and Avery’s dick specifically. So I’d been dreaming about making out with Avery, and my hand had done what it naturally did in a situation like that, and the second I’dtried to jerk myself off I’d been ripped out of the dream by the sudden white flash of pain.
I stared at the ceiling for a while longer, but it still didn’t make any sense. So I got up, went to the bathroom to piss, and then peeled off the bandage on my hand to see how bad it was.
For how much it hurt, the hole in my hand was kind of underwhelming. I flexed my hand carefully and yeah, I was gonna have to be careful with it for a few days, but honestly, I’d done worse. Hell, I’d done worse stripping.Pro tip—if a customer tells you that pole they installed themselves is secure, don’t believe them.
The first aid kit was still sitting on the counter, so I slathered my hand in antiseptic cream and grabbed a dressing. Then I realized I couldn’t wrap my own hand, so I went looking for some help.
The first guy I found didn’t even live here, although he might as well have. It was Miller, and he was making a coffee in the kitchen.
“Hey,” he said. “How are you feeling?”
“Not too bad.” I held up the bandage. “Can you help me with this?”
I liked Miller a lot. He and Danny had been dating since last summer and he was a good guy, but more importantly he was head over heels for Danny. And I was happy for Danny, because he’d hooked up with a lot of assholes before he’d met Miller. Not like he was in some self-destructive pattern or anything like that. Just that it was a numbers game, and there were a lot of assholes out there. Danny was my brother, and I wanted the best for him.
Miller applied the bandage carefully. “This doesn’t look as bad as I thought. The way Chase was telling the story last night, I thought you’d given yourself stigmata.”
I flexed my hand. “Yeah, I’ll be good for work tomorrow, if there is any.”
“You’re still working for Steve, right?” Miller said.
“Yeah. But he lost a big job, so I don’t know if he’ll need me this week.”
I hoped he did. I wasn’t quite panicking about work, but I got an uneasy feeling low in my gut when I thought about the way Gracie’s toes were getting real close to the end of her sandals and how she’d need some new clothes soon, now that summer was on its way out. And yeah, I made good money stripping, but it all depended on whether I got any bookings and how generous people were with their tips. The wage I got from roofing was steady income—or it had been, up until now.
“You know if you’re short I’m happy to?—”
