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Chapter Twenty-Five
Rio
The past week, I had spent time at my pops’s, helping my gramma. Every morning, I moved Pops from his bed to the kitchen to eat, then to the living room recliner before I went to work. During my lunch break, I went back to their house to take him to the bathroom, then to his bed for a nap. After work, I moved him to the kitchen for dinner, then to the shower chair for Gramma to bathe him before moving him back to bed.
Having him home was a relief, and I was happy to move him daily, although it left me with little time in the evenings to do much else. I had only been back to my place to get clothing once. The only communication I had with the guys or Henley was texting.
Tonight, after I got Pops in bed, I found Hazel in the kitchen, loading the dishwasher. She looked up at me and smiled wearily. She had been doing as much around the house as she could to help Gramma. That, mixed with working extra hours in the office, was getting to her.
“Go to bed. I’ll finish up in here,” I told her.
She rolled her eyes. “No. You always load it wrong.”
Shrugging, I sat down at the table. “Fine, but you look like shit. You need to get some rest.”
She chuckled. “Thanks.”
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and checked my last two text messages. Drake had sent one ten minutes ago, telling me to get my ass to the bar. I was too damn tired to go to a bar. Then, Henley had sent me one before him, asking if I had checked on Bryn this week.
Bryn wasn’t my responsibility. Why was Henley intent on acting like she was? I didn’t need any reminders of Bryn. I was struggling to keep her out of my head as it was.
“What’s the scowl for?” Hazel asked.
I glanced up at her. “Henley being nosy,” I replied.
Hazel smiled as if that was funny. “About what?”
Sighing, I put my phone down and leaned back in the chair. “Bryn.”
“Ah,” Hazel said with a much larger grin.
“What does that mean?” I asked her, annoyed.
“It means, okay, I get it. I understand your scowl; it’s amusing,” Hazel said, folding the dish towel, then laying it over the side of the sink.
“No, it’s not amusing. Henley thinks I should know how Bryn is doing. Why would I know that? I haven’t seen her in seven days,” I said.
Hazel pulled out the chair across from me and sat down. “Seven days, huh?” She was still smiling.
“What?” I asked, annoyed.
“The fact that you know how many days. You’re keeping count.”
Fuck. I was keeping count. Why was I doing that?
Hazel rested her elbows on the table and leaned forward. “You like her. I don’t see how this is a bad thing. I like her too. She’s good. You know the truth about the Jeep now. Is it because of her job? I don’t understand why you won’t admit that you like her and do something about it.”
Because there was too much darkness in our past, and I was scared to face it. I didn’t say that though.
“Her job is part of it. I wouldn’t be able to deal with that,” I admitted.
I already struggled with it, but she hadn’t contacted Henley about keeping Cullen. I wasn’t sure she was going back to that job. The relief at the fact that she wouldn’t be able to go back without someone to watch Cullen was instant.
“That’s an asshole move. She must make a lot of money, and she needs money to raise her nephew,” Hazel said.
“She’s practically naked, Hazel. She serves men drinks, topless,” I told her.
Hazel rolled her eyes. “And you know this because you went to the topless bar to see boobs! You’re such a hypocrite.”
I shook my head. “It’s different,” I argued.
Her eyebrows shot up, and the blue vein in her forehead popped out. She was heated. “You want to go see the women who work there without their clothing on, but you judge them for doing it. How is that okay?”
I stood up from the chair and took my phone. I wasn’t going to talk about this with her. She was never going to understand. Besides, my head was now full of images I had tried not to think about. Bryn walking around in nothing but that tiny little pair of panties was something I had to work hard not to dwell on. Tonight, I was tired, and that one memory seemed to want to haunt me.
“Good night,” I told Hazel and headed for the basement, where my bedroom and bathroom were.
Hazel called out, “Good night,” in return, and I was sure she laughed again before I closed the door behind me.
Downstairs, in the silence of my room, I groaned and tried to think of something other than Bryn and her naked body. I needed to get laid, and yet I had no time to go do it. After I’d bailed on Vanessa, I wouldn’t be able to call her up again. She had been pissed at me when I canceled. There was no time to date someone—or I didn’t want to make time. It seemed like a chore.
