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So I just repeated, “I don’t want to talk to her.”
Rush shook his head, making a face. “Because why?”
“Because…” Hell. My breaths became shallow and my vision went unfocused. “I don’t want to talk to her because she seemed nice!” I boomed. “She seemed nice, and I—” I broke off when my voice cracked. “She seemed nice. What if she is like everything I ever set her up to be after all? What the fuck do you think that will do to me? It sure as hell won’t make the craving go away. It would only make me want her more. So, no. I don’t want to talk to her. I don’t want to know if she’s nice. I don’t want to know what I’m missing, because it’ll just make all this worse. It’ll kill me, man. It’ll…”
When my voice broke, I growled out my feelings, embarrassed about letting him see me like this and pissed at myself because I couldn’t seem to stop feeling it.
Seeming to understand, Rush softly said, “Okay, buddy.” He patted my back. “I get you. No more exposure to her, I swear. Because yeah, she seemed nice.”
“She did,” I agreed brokenly. I looked at him and shook my head. “Don’t ever make me go through that again. She’s with Reuben. There’s nothing that could ever happen between us. I just want to move on from it. I want to forget and try to…” Pausing to swallow, I shook my head. “Don’t push me back into that world when all I want to do is escape it.”
“You got it, pal,” Rush promised as he took my arm and tried to urge me back down the hall toward the pub. “No more Avery from me. I swear.”
I resisted his pull, needing to know, “Is she still out there?”
“Nah,” he reassured. “She picked up her pizza and left already. We’re good.”
I nodded and followed him to our stools. When he announced out of the blue, “I think I hate her,” I jolted in surprise and sent him an odd look.
“What? Why? She never did anything wrong.”
He shrugged. “I don’t care. I’m just going to, anyway. Maybe it’ll help offset how much you like her.”
Then he picked up a slice of my pizza and took a bite, resolved to hating the girl I couldn’t.
43
Haven
I had to hold Wick’s phone in front of him and use his face recognition feature to break into his contact information.
When I went to his recent calls and saw that Cannon had been the last person he’d talked to, I hit send and rang his best friend, figuring that would do.
“Dude,” J.J. answered on a hoarse groan. “This better be good. It’s after three in the fucking morning.”
“It’s Haven,” I told him, my voice quivering with shock and fear. “Wick won’t wake up. Now get your ass over here and help me get him to a hospital.”
“What? Oh, shit. Be there in ten.” He hung up on me, leaving me staring at an unconscious Wick and wondering if I’d ever see him alive again.
“God, Wick. Please,” I begged. “Just open those pale blue beauties for me one more time.”
He didn’t.
Beginning to cry, I rushed around the apartment, ignoring the tears on my cheeks so I could change into some clothes and put on shoes, then gather my purse and Wick’s wallet. Then I unlocked the front door so I wouldn’t have to get up and let J.J. in when he arrived. Returning to Wick’s room, I sat on his bed at his side and held his hand.
It didn’t take his friend long to get there, though it felt like forever.
When he blew into the bedroom, I stood up, shifting my purse over my shoulder. “We’re ready to go. I grabbed his wallet. That should have all his insurance information and everything in it, don’t you think?”
J.J. cast me a dark dismissive glance before turning his attention to Wick. “What all did you do to try to wake him?”
“Nudged him, shouted at him, sprinkled water in his face, ripped his blankets off him. You name it.”
Ignoring me as if I hadn’t even spoken, J.J. got into Wick’s face, and called, “Hey, buddy.” His voice was loud and resounding. Then he shook Wick’s arm. “Wake up now. Don’t you dare fall into a coma, you hear me?”
Even though I wanted to snap at him and say he was wasting time, because I’d already tried all that, I remained patient as J.J. tried everything again. After he slapped Wick a little too roughly for my taste, right across the face, I’d finally had enough.
“J.J.,” I growled. “We need to get him to a hospital. Now.”
