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“So will I, Clink. I know you want to, but you can’t.”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” he snapped.
“I’m deathly afraid of rats.”
He huffed out a laugh. “What?”
Biting back a smile, I felt my face flush. “You said to tell you something you don’t know. I’m afraid of rats. And mice. Basically any rodent freaks me out.”
When he started laughing, I felt myself relax. I wasn’t good at the sponsor bit, but at least I could distract him until he felt ready to call Tyson.
“Shut up! They carry diseases and they bite! They’re gross!”
He chuckled, and I could almost see his big grin in my head. “You’re like ten times bigger than them. Why are you afraid?”
“Because I lived on the streets for a while and I woke up a few times to them crawling on me. I was really afraid of one biting me and giving me rabies.”
I hadn’t meant to go so dark and Clink went quiet again. I dropped my forehead against my knees, biting back an embarrassed groan.
“Your turn.”
It was a desperate bid to move the conversation along. I thought he’d be more of a jerk about it, maybe teasing me some more, but his answer rang with honesty and made me suck in a breath.
“I’m afraid of losing my brothers. We lost one a little over a year ago and I’m still reeling.”
My stomach sank at his confession and my voice was barely a whisper when I asked, “Is that why you started using?”
“I don’t wanna talk about it.”
His dismissal stung. I knew I shouldn’t take it personally. We didn’t know each other that well, but that kiss felt intimate. And after he stood up for me, it felt like we were friends. Friends share with one another.
I was thinking up some excuse to get off the phone when he spoke again.
“Sorry. That was a dick thing to say. I just don’t like talking about Mass. We were close and–” He went quiet again. I nodded, mostly to myself.
“I understand. You’re not ready. You don’t have to force it. You should think about calling Tyson. It might be easier to talk to him.”
“I like talking to you.”
His words melted my resolve a little, and I hugged my legs closer to my chest, closing my eyes to listen.
“Why?”
“Well, for one thing, you’re a badass. I think you broke the prospect’s nose. Who taught you how to throw a right hook like that?”
A smile tugged at my lips. “My dad. He taught all my siblings. Said he didn’t want us ever to be in a situation where we’d need to know and didn’t.”
That was true about a lot of things. By the time I was a pre-teen, I knew the basics of self defense, car maintenance, and basic household maintenance. It’s why I chose to be an electrician. I remembered his lessons on how to check the fuse box after a power outage and how to switch out the fuses. It was all fascinating to me as a little kid that one big box controlled the entire house.
“Smart guy. Any other moves I should be on the lookout for?”
He effortlessly took the melancholy off the conversation, and I rolled my eyes, smirking. “Why? Are you going to give me a reason to hit you?”
He chuckled. “Careful, sweetheart. You wrestle with me and you’re going to end up underneath me.”
“If you could see how hard I’m rolling my eyes right now…”
He laughed, but I wasn’t expecting him to try to video call me. My phone beeped and when I pulled the phone away and saw the request, I snickered as I answered it. His face popped up, that mischievous grin back. It looked like he was lounging in bed, one arm tucked beneath his head. He raised his eyebrows expectantly, and I rolled my eyes, making him bark out another laugh.
