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Jesus Christ...the last place Rhys needed to be was at a party. She wanted to know how he got her phone number, but it was more important to get Rhys out of the situation he was in so he didn’t risk his recovery.
“I don’t think I can make myself leave, Shay. I really want to get mind-numbingly drunk right now.” Rhys admitted down the phone.
Shay was already getting out of bed when she replied. “I’ll come get you.”
“You’re probably best off not, Shay. I’m toxic. I really shouldn’t have called you.”
Her heart clenched at the weight of the sadness in Rhys’ tone, and even as she told him to send the address to her phone. She dressed quickly, heard her phone ping, and then the phone cut out.
Driving to the address that Rhys had sent her, Shay could hear the party going on from a mile away. Flashing lights and head-splitting music greeted her. She parked her car in the drive outside the house, then walked right in. Glancing around, Shay had stairs in front of her and a couple getting hot and heavy right in front of them.
To her left, people danced and to her right, the kitchen had people filling up their drinks. The smell of weed was almost enough to make her eyes water. Not knowing where Rhys was, Shay took a chance and headed up the stairs, passing the couple making out, and started calling Rhys’ name. She felt her heart sink at the thought that he’d already left and was somewhere drinking or worse, when a door opened and Rhys stood in the doorway, looking broken and hell, just sad.
“You ready to go?” Shay asked him, holding out her hand and he looked at her outstretched hand like he didn’t know what she wanted him to do.
Rhys stepped out of the bathroom, slipped his ice-cold fingers into her hand and Shay sucked in some air at the electricity that shot up her hand at Rhys’ touch, the same tingly feeling she had gotten when he had grazed her cheek with his thumb.
The rockstar said nothing as Shay guided him down the stairs and out the door. Rhys mutely got into the passenger seat, put on his seatbelt, and leaned his head against the window, closing his eyes. Shay started the car and was about to ask Rhys for his address to drop him home when she heard him say ever so quietly.
“I can’t face being alone right now. The silence is killing me.”
Well, Shay couldn’t drive him home now, could she? She could never have it on her conscious if she dropped Rhys off at his house and he went and did something stupid. He trusted her enough to call her and ask for her help. What had happened to push him so close to the edge?
And just when Shay would have asked him about what happened, Rhys reached out and turned the radio up a little, a wry smile making Shay’s heart skip a beat as he hummed away to the song.
They didn’t speak after that, not even when Shay parked her car outside her apartment building, not even when they both got out of the car and Shay led them upstairs to her apartment. For a brief moment, Shay worried that some paparazzi had followed them and she would end up in the papers, just like Cathal had when he first started dating Luna. They may have called Cathal a reformed young offender, but Shay was the daughter of a notorious gangland solicitor; it could ruin Rhys' career.
The man in question walked with a stiffness that Shay had never seen from him before. His eyes looked distant. The spark that usually lit up those amber eyes of his completely shut down as Shay told him to take off his jacket. She fixed him some tea, Rhys holding it for a few minutes before setting it down on the table.
“You wanna tell me what happened?” Shay broached, hoping to get some answers because it hurt her seeing him like this.
Rhys got to his feet and went to the window, looking out into the night so Shay couldn’t see his face. “I had a fight with Declan.” Rhys finally said, his shoulders slumping. “I can’t fix what’s broken between us. I don’t think there’s even a point.”
Shay opened her mouth to respond, to tell Rhys it couldn’t be that bad but he just turned and walked right passed her, into the bedroom, pulled off his top, and flopped down on her bed, he started snoring a few minutes later and Shay slumped against the breakfast bar, reaching for her phone as she glanced at the clock, wondering who she should call.
Cathal answered her on the fourth ring, yawning down the phone as he said. “Shay, everything okay?”
“I’m not sure. Are you with Luna?” Shay asked quietly, unsure how deep Rhys was asleep.
“I’m putting you on speaker.”
Once she heard Luna’s voice, Shay explained about Rhys’ phone call and that he was asleep at her place.
“Is he high or drunk?” Luna asked, concern in her tone.
“Surprisingly no,” Shay admitted, inhaling a breath. “He just seemed so sad, defeated even. He hasn’t said much to be fair, just enough. He told me he had a fight with Declan, that he couldn’t fix things between them and that he didn’t think there was a point in even trying.”
“That doesn’t sound like Rhys.”
No, it really didn’t.
“Do you need me to come get him?” Luna continued, but Shay glanced toward her bedroom knowing if Luna showed up right now, then it might feel like a betrayal to Rhys.
“No, he’s grand. Leave him sleep and I’ll call if I need help. Maybe call his sister and tell her he’s here, in case she worries.”
Shay heard Luna go off to make her own call, as Cathal came back on the line. “Shay, you good?”
Was she? Shay didn’t really have an honest answer for Cathal right now so she just told him that she was and that she would call him again if she needed him. They hung up, and Shay went to stand in the doorway to her bedroom and watched Rhys toss and turn.
