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I’ve spent a lifetime priding myself on toughing out things rather than going soft and relying on someone else.
Pushing Xenia to leave McMurdo Valley would get rid of a temptation. I don’t like the power she has over my thoughts. No one should own me like she already does.
“I don’t know what I’m doing,” she says and stands up too fast.
As soon as I catch sight of her dazed expression, I know she’ll come crashing back down.
When she loses her balance, I lean forward and catch her. Xenia’s ass ends up on the ground, but her upper body tumbles into my lap.
She feels like a damn feather in my arms as I cradle her. Xenia stares with an exhausted, dazed expression. I reach over and grab the water bottle she only sipped from earlier.
Xenia stares at me as if I’m supposed to save her from herself. The pressure of making sense of this woman’s life is too great of a burden.
I want to push Xenia off me and walk away. After all, I like my life, and I don’t want to be responsible for anyone else again.
“You didn’t drink, and now you’re dehydrated,” I grumble, irritated at how she won’t listen to me, yet I’m supposed to hear her.
Scolded by my tone, Xenia just stares. Or maybe she’s so dehydrated she can’t really follow what I’m saying.
I open the bottle and splash her face. She flinches before staring at me again.
“Drink,” I insist and place the bottle at her lips.
“I’m calling you Tommy. I don’t like the name Hobo.”
“I’m not your kid. You can’t choose my name.”
“If I could, I’d name you Romeo,” she says and downs the rest of the water.
I narrow my eyes at her lady thinking. Except I catch her smirking behind the bottle.
“That Romeo thing’s a joke, right?” I ask as her head rests against the crook of my arm.
“That wouldn’t be a good name for a man. Everyone would tease him.”
“Yeah, I suppose they would. Do you remember Eagle?” I pause while Xenia blinks a few times. Her mind zeroes in on one of the many bikers she’s met recently. Once she nods, I continue, “His mom named him Rhett. Kids made fun of him. Old ladies teased him. No one could leave it alone.”
“No one gets my name right. They think it’s Xena like the warrior princess.”
Despite smiling softly, I don’t want to find her words amusing. “I never liked being Tommy. There was another kid with that name who seemed to be in all my classes growing up. He was smart and well-liked. I was the bad Tommy. The poor Tommy. The dirty Tommy. The name works better on him.”
“I can’t call you Hobo,” she mumbles as her gray eyes focus intently on me. “It seems like an insult.”
“It’s the name I picked.”
“Why would you want that name?”
“It was me owning what people thought about me.”
Xenia frowns and closes her eyes like my words make no sense. When she opens them, she seems more clearheaded.
“Hobo,” she says in a tender voice that wraps around my heart and won’t let go. “Despite your warning, I was afraid to drink too much and need to pee out here.”
“What did you think would happen if you got dehydrated?”
“I’ve never been any good at planning for the future. That’s why I have a terrible business plan and live in a tiny house.”
“Are you really that broke?”
