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Did they have something to do with me trying to reconnect with Aspyn? I didn’t know. More importantly, I didn’t give a shit if they did. I’d gladly pay the price.
A glance at the clock on my nightstand told me it was still several more hours until sunup. I knew I wasn’t going to get any sleep, so I decided to throw my clothes on.
Might as well work on painting my new house until Carl needed me for some of the morning chores on the ranch.
Chapter 27
Aspyn
Wednesday after work, I pulled out of the parking lot of town hall and headed toward Mama Rossetti’s. I was planning to visit Alex that night and wanted to bring a little food along with me. Kadie was going to have dinner with my mama tonight.
Mama had actually offered. After I told her how things were going with Alex, I guess she wanted to do her part to see if we had a chance. I didn’t know if it was wishful thinking or not. I hadn’t been able to see him the last couple of days, but I had been able to talk to him on the phone.
He was splitting his time between trying to get his house ready and helping Carl on the ranch. It didn’t help that Carl was a little distracted himself by getting ready for Perri to move in with him.
I chuckled. So much good fortune and love going around, but everything had its price.
I arrived at the pizza place and got out of my car. There wasn’t a lot I could do to help Alex right now, but I could bring him some warm food, and I doubted he was worrying about that sort of thing while he threw himself into work.
After stepping into the restaurant, I bit back a groan. There was a huge line. After a moment, I realized the line seemed to be moving pretty quickly. The good thing was that most people who came to Mama Rossetti’s already knew exactly what the restaurant offered and what they wanted. That night, thankfully, was no exception.
Standing in line did give me a lot more time to think about my conversations with Alex. They were all the over the place. We probably talked way too much about high school, but he told me a lot about Texas as well. I couldn’t help but be struck by how sad and lonely his time over there sounded.
I don’t think he meant it that way, but every detail was about a place, not about any people, except a few guys at work, and it didn’t sound like he hung out with them outside of work much, if at all.
Alex played it off like it was an interesting time, but the more I talked to him, the more I realized he didn’t seem to have made much in the way of friends out that way.
I supposed I already knew that on some level. If he had a bunch of close friends in Texas, then he wouldn’t have had to come back to Livingston. It’s not like his dad was still here for him, after all.
The line moved, and I arrived at the cash register, where I placed my order for a large Hawaiian pizza. The cashier cheerfully rang me up and directed me to wait down the counter for my pizza.
As I stood there, waiting for them to cook and box my pizza, something else bothered me about my chats with Alex over the last few days.
It wasn’t anything Alex had really said directly. He seemed as happy as ever, but his v
oice seemed off. He sounded so tired, like he was working too hard. Low in energy, lots of yawning. Not like he was bored but just bone-ass tired.
Yeah, I understood he was working on a ranch and trying to make a house livable, but I still didn’t get why he was having so much trouble all of sudden. After all, I’d talked to him on other days, and he didn’t seem as ready to fall over.
“Your pizza, ma’am,” an employee at Mama Rossetti’s said to me, knocking me out of my deep thoughts.
I grabbed the box. “Thank you.”
Just worrying too much, I told myself. There was nothing more to it than that.
* * *
A short car ride later, I was carrying the pizza box through the front door of Alex’s new place. I’d not been there since the week before, and my jaw almost dropped.
The outside was still the same, but the living room and the kitchen looked completely different. Freshly painted, none of the nasty old wallpaper, along with a new oven, refrigerator, faucet, and dishwater.
Even though the smell of fresh paint dominated, that didn’t mask the fact that the musty old smell that had choked the place before was gone. A fresh coat of paint on the outside, and you wouldn’t be able to tell this place had been all but abandoned for years.
Alex had made a lot of progress in a short amount of time. As far as I knew, Carl was too busy at the ranch to help, so it was almost stunning that one man could do so much by himself.
He’d probably worked quite an appetite from that day’s work, and I was sure he was famished, given how late it was.
“Pizza delivery,” I yelled. I laughed at my own joke. Yes, lame. I know.
