AllFreeNovel
Share Us
ChapterSix
Rhys ignored the hockey game playing on the big screen, his gaze lingering on the handmade card resting on the coffee table. Tony was sprawled out in his recliner, but Rhys didn’t think his friend was paying any more attention to the game than he was.
He and Tony had awoken to find Jess gone this morning, the card—complete with a picture Jasper had drawn—waiting for them on the coffee table. It was of two stick figures, clearly representing Jasper and his mother, standing by their car and waving. There were some jagged lines above them that Rhys assumed were birds, or maybe planes.
Jess had written “Thank You” on the inside, along with a note that she would repay Tony for the tank of gas on Wednesday at the diner.
Since finding her and Jasper gone, Tony had walked around the house like a bear with a thorn in his paw, quiet and sullen.
Rhys hadn’t made an attempt to cheer up his friend because, in truth, he felt just as grumpy. Jess and Jasper had only been in their house one day, but the wake they left behind felt huge. As the day progressed, Rhys drifted deeper and deeper into himself, trying to figure out why the apartment he’d loved two days ago suddenly felt empty, devoid of life.
Somewhere along the line, he’d become complacent with his workaholic days and his empty bed nights. When he wanted female companionship, he asked a woman out on a date, and if they were compatible and the woman willing, he’d invite her to his bed. He’d accepted that as his lot in life because it was all he had time for.
It was one of the few things he and Tony had in common, both of them eschewing relationships, placing more value on their work.
Then Jess, with her quiet strength and cutting wit, and Jasper, with his energy, bubbling enthusiasm, and constant questions, crash-landed in front of the building and showed him just how empty his life was.
Jess said she planned to seek help through social services, after learning about a local family shelter they ran—a place designed to help women get back on their feet. And while he knew she’d be safer there than in one of the countless homeless shelters in the city, the idea of it still didn’t sit right with him. She was a young, intelligent, beautiful woman who’d been dealt a shitty hand.
When he’d listened to her story last night and considered how she’d taken blow after blow, yet continued to get up and keep going, he felt slightly guilty about all that he’d taken for granted in his life. He’d been raised in a loving, upper middle-class home by two adoring parents.
While he had worked hard to earn a scholarship to college and then to get into medical school, he hadn’t ever truly struggled. Not in the ways Jess had.
She had encountered more hardships in her twenty-five years than he was likely to ever face in a lifetime. He’d never gone to bed hungry, never had to worry that there wouldn’t be a roof over his head, or that his family wouldn’t always support him, no matter what.
“Fuck,” Tony muttered.
Rhys glanced toward the television, assuming the Penguins had lost the puck. Then he realized Tony wasn’t even looking at the game.
“Jess has no business living in any kind of shelter. I don’t like it. Don’t like… Well, I just don’t fucking like it.” Tony spoke the exact words Rhys had been thinking.
“You’re right. She shouldn’t.”
“I don’t like her working at that motel either. That place is dangerous, and I don’t give a shit about her being there during the daytime or Rocco watching over her. I’ve heard some of the stories Rocco tells about the people who stay there—couples meeting up to cheat on spouses, hookers entertaining client after client, drunks stumbling over from the bar across the street, too wasted to drive home. Rocco says his housekeeping staff has had to clean up everything from used needles to broken beer bottles to discarded condoms. She can’t really think that’s a safe place for her or Jasper.”
Rhys nodded, then played devil’s advocate. Not because he wanted to but because he wanted to make sure Tony wasn’t on the verge of making one of his impulsive decisions. “Jess has been on her own since she was eighteen, Tony. I know what she did the other night was ill-advised, but she owned up to that mistake. I don’t get the impression she’s reckless by nature. She’s a savvy woman, capable of taking care of herself and her son.”
Tony grunted, not bothering to reply. The two of them remained silent for a full ten minutes as Rhys considered what they could do. One option was to loan her money to rent her own place—but she’d already refused that twice, and he didn’t think there was anything they could say to persuade her otherwise.
At breakfast this morning, Aunt Berta—who’d been disappointed to discover Jess and Jasper gone—had offered giving her apartment up to them, claiming she could move in with her in-laws, Tony’s nonna and nonno. It was a generous offer that all three of them knew would make Aunt Berta miserable.
Which left the most obvious answer.
They could offer Jess and Jasper their guest room.
However, Rhys wasn’t sure how Tony would feel about bringing a woman and a six-year-old kid into their peaceful bachelor pad. The two of them were creatures of habit, both with well established ways of doing things.
Personally, Rhys would kick normalcy to the curb if it meant sharing a living space with Jess and Jasper, even for a short time. They’d brought life to a house he hadn’t even realized needed it.
Finally, Rhys decided to take the bull by the horns. “So what are we going to do about them?” He prayed he and Tony were on the same page.
Tony looked at him, long and hard, studying his face.
Rhys recognized immediately that they both wanted the exact same thing. For two vastly different men, Rhys had found a kindred spirit, a best friend in Tony, and he’d been an idiot to think for one second that Tony wouldn’t want Jess and Jasper here as much as he did.
“We offer them the guest room until she gets back on her feet.”
Rhys grinned. “It’ll be a change, a big adjustment.”
