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“Nothing. Crawlspace.”
“If you have time, do a vaulted ceiling. Check the insulation situation up there and just knock all this out. It’ll look less cramped. More master of a bedroom.” Owen shrugged. “If you want. Like I said, it was just a suggestion.”
Jaxon’s eyebrows rose as he tried to envision it. “Actually…” He walked more fully into the room, looking straight up. “Yeah, that’d… that’d look pretty good…” he huffed out a laugh. “Thank you, sir.”
Owen smiled and shook his head. “Nah, thank you. I wish I was still doing this sometimes.”
He still hadn’t mentioned why he was here, but Jaxon decided not to press the topic.
“You know… I’m proud that you went into this line of work. I was disappointed that Brad never did, but…” he trailed off and shook his head. “Did you know he tried to hammer a nail with a potato?”
Jaxon laughed. Teagan had mentioned that, too. “I’ve heard about that, yeah. That’s why I rarely ask him to help. Only if I need help holding something. Shea’s my go-to for actual help.”
Owen laughed. “That’s a good call.”
Jaxon felt a lump rise in his throat. Owen wasproud? Of him? Why?
“You’re a good man, Jaxon.” Owen continued, making him feel like he wanted to either cry or vomit. What was he doing? “My favorite of Teagan’s boyfriends.”
That wasn’t a difficult group to be the best of, now that he was thinking about it. But he wasn’t Teagan’s boyfriend. Just a guy who was pretending to be and getting off on kissing her. Thinking about her while he was in the shower. And every other time, his mind wandered.
Fuck, he was gross.
“I… uh…” Jaxon was pretty sure his face was red, but Owen barreled forward.
“Yeah, you are. You’ve got a good head on your shoulders. You’ve made a life for yourself. You’ve grown up these past few years.”
There was an unspoken end to that sentence, and Jaxon could fill it in without thinking.
You’ve grown up these past few years since you came to me for help.
He swallowed, still looking up at the popcorn ceiling in the master bedroom as the memory came sliding back into his mind like it was Tom Cruise in Risky Business.
He’d been scared. Jaxon didn’t let on, but he was scared a lot in those days. He’d left the shithole where he’d been staying and snuck up to Blacktown. He’d thrown rocks at Brad’s window until he opened it, frowning at him because he hadn’t seen Jaxon in months.
“Jaxon?” Brad hissed.
“Yeah, it’s me… can you come down?”
“It’s three in the morning.”
“You’restill awake,” Jaxon countered.
“Yeah… hold on…” Brad ducked back inside and soon he was standing beside him, that familiar look of worry on his face while he scanned him from head to toe. “You look skinny. You eating?”
Not much. The words stuck in his throat, so he just skipped them. Ignored the question and moved on.
“I need help.”
Brad’s eyes widened. “Anything. Anything. What do you need?”
A lump rose in his throat. Whatever he’d been expecting from his oldest friend, it wasn’t this. It wasn’t open arms when he’d been at most ghosting him. At best, he was being a dick. He deserved nothing from Brad, but here he was, giving it anyway.
“Fuck, I don’t even know,” he blurted, tears starting to fall before he could stop them.
He told him everything. How he owed more money than he could make, and how he’d bought so many pills on credit from this guy Eric knew and now he was calling in his debt and he didn’t know what to do other than run.
“You need money?” Brad asked. “Money’s easy. Let’s go ask Dad.”
