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“I can’t believe that ungrateful prick did that to you,” Tido said from the other end of the phone. “After all you did for him.”
“I need a guy’s night out.” Drake had called off work so he could put his house back together again. Seriously, he felt like Humpty Dumpty. All he needed was all the king’s men to come pitch in so they could get this done sooner.
“Oh, that sounds great!” Tido said. “We haven’t hung out in a good minute.”
Drake snorted. “We hung out last week.”
“No, I mean all of us,” Tido said. “The entire gang. We could do to Fearless Fox, have some wings and drinks, and let out hair down.”
Drake wished he had it like Tido. The guy had inherited money from his grandparents. It was enough that, if Tido was careful with his spending, he wouldn’t have to work for the rest of his life.
He’d even inherited their house, which was fully paid off.
While Drake was paying a mortgage he could barely afford. He thought some of the burden would be lifted when Brody moved in, but that hadn’t worked out the way Drake had planned.
Instead, he’d had to pay more for his utilities with another person living with him, and his grocery bill had risen significantly, too.
“We can meet up this Friday night,” Tido said, breaking into Drake’s thoughts. “I’ll get you so drunk that you’ll forget all about Brody, and if we see him, we can bury his body for you.”
Drake chuckled. He loved how loyal his friends were. “You arrange our night out, Tido. I’m gonna get back to trying to fill the holes in the walls.”
“Do you need me to come over and help?” Tido asked. “I’m a master with a broom.”
Drake looked at where Ajax was applying some white stuff to the hole over by a window. The way his muscles flexed as he moved made Drake lick his lips. “Nah, we got this.”
“You just want to suck face while you’re working,” Tido said, and Drake could tell he was pouting. “Fine, let my skills with a broom go to waste.”
Drake rolled his eyes. “Bye, Tido. See you Friday.”
Tido huffed. “Bye.”
Once he hung up the phone, Drake walked over to Ajax and smiled. “You look like you have a good handle on the hole.”
Ajax nodded as he took a step back. “I called some friends to come by and help.”
“You did?” And here Drake had hoped they’d spend the day together alone, but with as many holes as Brody had made, they actually could use the help.
“Yep.” Ajax kissed the end of Drake’s nose. “We’re also going to replace the broken windows.”
That was very generous of Ajax, but Drake really didn’t have the money for the repairs. Brody should be the one paying for all of this, but fat chance Drake would get him to since his cousin was always broke.
Drake rubbed the back of his neck as he looked toward his feet. “About that…”
“What?” Ajax asked. “Is there something wrong?”
“I really don’t have the funds for the repairs. So, yeah, there’s a bit of a problem.”
Drake had exhausted most of his savings over the past two months with the cost of Brody living with him, and Drake couldn’t afford new windows and whatever else Ajax and his friends might need for the repairs.
“Consider this a gift to my mate.” Ajax winked. “Don’t worry about the cost, hon. Let’s just focus on getting your house back to the way it was.”
Drake wanted to get his life back to the way it was before Brody had moved in. Except he wouldn’t want to change the fact that Ajax was now in his life.
“Are you sure?” Drake asked. “Windows can’t be cheap.”
Drake could practically feel his savings dwindling down to nothing. He’d fought hard over the years to build up his savings, and with Brody, and now this, there weren’t going to be two pennies left to rub together.
“We’re not replacing the entire window.” Ajax wiped his hands on a rag that had been hanging out the back of his pocket. “We’re just replacing the panes of glass that were broken.”
