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“I will,” I promise. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
As he heads down the stairs, I turn around and crawl into my bed, cuddling close to Mali. She panics for a second but then relaxes when she sees it’s only me. Her eyes just start to fall closed again, as she murmurs softly.
“Don’t let him hurt me.”
I drape my arm over her. “Never. I promise.”
SMASH ROOMS NEVER USEDto make sense to me. The idea of going somewhere just to break a bunch of old shit felt pointless. Not to mention exhausting. But while the guys were going to start the renovations next week, Hayes decided Cam and Mali could use the outlet.
We stand in what used to be the surf shop, but now it’s an empty building. Racks are still on the walls, and the counter is still there, but everything else is gone. Marc had all the merchandise moved to another location.
Now the renovation can begin.
“I never realized how big it is,” I say as I look around.
“That’s what she said,” Mali replies, and while it lacks the same enthusiasm that would normally come with it, it still shocks the hell out of all three of us.
We all turn to look at her. She’s seemed somewhat okay today, but I don’t know if that’s real, or if she’s pretending. Mali is the last person to let herself be the victim, so the latter would not surprise me.
“What?” she asks.
“Nothing,” Cam and Hayes say in unison, but nope.
Not me. I’m not doing it.
“Are you good? Because you don’t have to put on a brave face here. Not with us.”
She hums, walking over and picking up the hammer off the counter. “Hayes brought me here to break shit. Trust me, I’m great right now. Though I won’t be able to say the same for this counter in a minute.”
We all watch as she swings the hammer right through the wood, the sound of it breaking echoing through the empty room. Then she does it again, as the counter splits into pieces she looks like she can breathe a little better.
I lean closer to Hayes. “That counterwasgoing, right?”
He snorts. “If it wasn’t, it is now.”
There’s a lot to be done, and no possible way to do it all in a short time. Not only is there the demolition—which includes breaking down part of a wall that was used to hang more boards and tearing up the floors to put down new ones—but there’s also building the backroom he mentioned. This project is going to take weeks. But with the four of us, plus the occasional help of our friends, we should have this place ready to go by the end of fall.
“I’m going to go make sure they didn’t leave anything upstairs,” Hayes tells us.
My brows furrow. “Wait, what? There’s an upstairs?”
“Yeah,” he answers simply. “We’ve been using it as a storage room.”
I look back at Cam and Mali, seeing them smashing away like it’s their own personal playground, and my lips purse. “I’m coming with you.”
It’s no surprise I never knew there was a whole second level to this place. The stairs are tucked away toward the back and hidden behind a door. Honestly, I always just assumed it was a storage closet. But as we climb the stairs, I realize how much space is actually up here. It spans across half the building and even has its own bathroom.
“Damn,” I say as I admire the empty space. “You could rent this thing out as an apartment if you wanted to.”
Hayes hums skeptically. “As a studio, maybe. But that would require putting in a kitchen or letting them use the bar as one. And besides, I wouldnotmake a good landlord.”
Okay, he has a point. “Fair enough.”
We step into the bathroom to make sure everything has been cleared out, and right before we head back down, I stop and turn to Hayes.
“Do you think she’s okay?” I ask him. “Like,genuinelyokay?”
