Her voice is small but manages to slice into me and deflate me regardless. “Iwaswith someone. I had Goldie.”
Ouch. But she’s used to not having a partner, so I remind myself of that as I take a steadying breath. Pulling at the hair at the back of my head that she can’t see, I try to speak normally through my gritted teeth. “You know that’s not what I mean.”
We just stare at each other.
Her eyes drift over to Atticus, but I don’t look at him. I don’t care that he’s here, and I don’t give a single fuck what he thinks about this moment. When her blues come back to me, I drop my arms to my side and close the distance between us.
I don’t touch her when I say, “if you aren’t ready for me to spend more time around Jett, you still could have let me know. I could’ve brought food or clothes, anything from the house you needed. Whatever.” I lick my lips, forcing my eyes to stay on hers. “I could have been there for you in ways you deserve, ways a friend can’t.” I don’t mean sex, and she knows it. I know she knows it because her lip trembles for a moment.
“I’m not twenty-six anymore, Beau. I can’t project all these fantasies of a perfect life onto you and have them come true just because I want them. I did that already, and here I am. I can’t rely on anyone; I have to be real. You’re new to me. New to us. And you’re young, Beau. I’m not trying to weaponize your age, butyou are young. And new and young don’t typically pair well withdamaged goods.”
“Quit with that shit; you are not fucking damaged goods,” I growl, my hands slamming to the car behind her, caging her in. Atticus sends me a warning “Beau,” but I tell him it’s cool. I’m cool. I’m just fucking sick of her believing all the things Dirty fucking Dusty made her feel.
“You are not getting rid of me that easily.”
Her lips tremble, and fuck the flu or whatever virus they had. For two days, I didn’t know my asshole from my elbow because I was so worried about Beck and Jett. I seal my mouth to hers, growling all of my frustrations, letting my tongue thrash in her mouth, eating up her moans, tasting her fatigue. When I pull back, she swallows.
“I didn’t have your number.”
I push off the car. “Would you have called if you did?” I shake my head as I pace backward through the lawn. “You could have borrowed a charger. Goldie could have run back for your charger. My phone number is programmed into your phone in theWheel Get Youapp.”
I shake my head, because I don’t want her to feel guilty or be angry. I just want to be there for her, so that’s what I say.
“Let me in. Let me be there. Trust that I’m here to stay.”
Then I get in Atticus’s truck and leave, putting the ball in her court.
* * *
“Hi,”her greeting is low and soft, and makes my cock thrum.
“Hi,” I greet her back, yawning. It’s seven in the evening, and after I left Wrench Kings earlier, I came home and face planted on my couch where I’ve been sleeping since. It’s been an exhausting week.
Though Beck has sent me a few photos of Jett through our text message, I haven’t seen him all week. Not since the day they got home from the hospital.
Goldie was still with her, and once she started to feel better, Beck left Jett with her friend so she could do the final walk-through on her studio space. The following day she’d been busy with getting a quote to re-do her floors and a post-ER visit check-up with Jett’s pediatrician.
She made time for me in the form of a few phone calls a day, and even though they were just catching up on silly things like what we ate or what new thing Jett was saying, it was her letting me in, and I fucking appreciated it more than she’d know.
While we had time apart, I did some things I needed to do.
Today especially, I did two big things.
I called Toby back. I’ll admit, I hadn’t really planned on it, but Atticus basically forced me.
“Don’t let your emotions ruin what you got goin’, okay? They can’t fire ya, but you can send the company into flames, and then everyone employed by Wrench Kings would lose their job. And ain’t that a lot worse? So sack the fuck up and call Tobias back.” Then he handed me my phone and sat there, waiting, watching.
“Beau, it’s so good to hear from you.” Toby paused, selecting his words carefully. “I thought I’d have to track you down.”
“I’m sorry,” I apologized. “I never meant to ghost you and Roberta like that.”
I knew that more people were concerned about me than just Tobias, the Vice President of Wrench Kings, and Roberta, a board member, but they were the two my father was closest with. And while I was happily stationed at the Oakcreek Wrench Kings location as the general manager and mechanic, when I did interact with my dad’s closest allies at his company, Toby and Roberta wereit.
They had become like an uncle and aunt to me over the years, and unlike many other companies that find growth can only come from corruption and corner-cutting, Wrench Kings stayed reliable and honest. That meant the people at the top were also because of my dad.
I never meant to hurt Toby or Roberta. I just… couldn’t cope.
“I know you didn’t. I know you didn’t,” Toby said; his repetition meant to soothe my nerves and it did. Toby, at age sixty, is nearing retirement, and desperately wanting to involve me more in the day-to-day at the top so that he can retire feeling like he’s left the Wrench Kings Corporation in the right hands, operationally speaking.