20
Noah
I glance at the clock again. Six-oh-two. Jett was supposed to be here at 4:30. I reach over to scratch behind Sadie’s ear as she whines at my obvious discomfort. Something isn’t right. This girl has me wrapped so tightly around her finger, and she still hasn’t even agreed to an actual date.
Instead, the last two months of her being my neighbor have included Voltage hockey games on Sundays, baring my soul to her, sharing a bed fully clothed, and introducing her to my entire family. Sure, she’s gotten distracted and been a half hour late, but she always sets alarms. She hasn’t answered the three messages I’ve sent, and the call I made to her cell went straight to voicemail.
Just as I’m about to give into temptation and submit to Reece’s harsh tongue by calling him, my phone lights up. My excitement is short-lived when I recognize Jace’s work number lighting up the screen.
I sigh, “Yeah?”
“Hey, man. Are you busy?”
“Just waitin’ on Jett to show up for hockey night.”
Chatter on the other end and a muted, “You’re cut off,” comes through the speaker.
“About that, she’s drunk,”Jace says over the music playing in the background.
I straighten, not believing he’s telling the truth. “Who’s drunk?”
“Jett. Who else?”
I end the call without another word. I stand from the couch, scratching Sadie’s head again where she rests it on the armrest, and walk over to the counter, snatching up my keys before heading out and down to the bar. “Don’t eat the couch, mutt,” I mumble on the way out.
As I slip through the door of Riley’s, my eyes immediately start searching for green eyes, but I don’t find them. Instead, I find Jace’s eyes already locked on me and make my way over to him at the bar.
“What the hell, man? Where’s Jett?”
“She’s in the back office with Kelsey.”
“That answers the second part. Who the hell kept pouring drinks?”
Jace straightens into his full height in warning. I know better than to push him on alcohol intake. Of course, he takes that shit seriously.
“No, Noah. You don’t get to come into my place of business and be an asshole. I called you as a courtesy when I could have easily called Reece instead.” He holds my stare for another moment before I release a breath and my clenched fists. “She’d been drinking before she came here. Kelsey was working in the back, and I just came in about twenty minutes ago. My bartender didn’t realize she was already intoxicated until it was too late.”
My hand scrubs over my face as I try to make sense of this all. “Assuming you’re wanting me to get her home?”
He shoves a thumb over his shoulder. “Kelsey’s back there with her. According to your girl, boys are icky.”
“She’s not my girl,” I automatically correct, but Jace just snorts.
“Fine, man. Go get your not-girl off my office couch before she pukes again. Otherwise, you’re cleaning it.”
I’d argue, but I just want to get my, erm, Jett home. I slip behind the bar and around the corner to Jace’s office. I knock twice on the door frame before slipping inside to see Kelsey wiping a wet rag along Jett’s forehead. Jace’s twin looks up as I come into view.
“Oh, thank heavens. If I have to deal with one more bout of vomit, I may just join her on the bathroom floor.”
I gently remove the cloth from Kelsey’s grasp and take her place, gingerly shoving Kelsey in the opposite direction. “You shouldn’t be dealing with anyone’s bodily fluids.”
She rolls her eyes at me. “I’ve been healthy for years, No. I’m fine to help a friend. Promise.”
I let out a grunt of acknowledgment, my focus now solely on getting the less-than-lucid girl up to my loft. I run my fingers through Jett’s loose tendrils, an even bigger red flag than the alcohol. Unless I take it down, she rarely lets her hair out of a ponytail. “Hey, gorgeous. Wakey, wakey.”
Her eyes flutter open long enough to recognize me, what can only be classified as a silly grin lighting her face before her eyes slip closed again. “Sexy elevator man. Comin’ to save me again?”
“Looks like it, sweet girl. I’m going to carry you home, okay?”
She hums in response, and I take that to be her consent to move her. I lift her into my arms and turn to Kelsey, who is still hanging out. “Can you open the back door for me? I’ll go out the back way to keep the gossip down, but I want to know what the hell happened out there tonight.”
She starts walking toward the back door to open it like I ask. “I’ll make sure Jace gives you the rundown later,” she offers as I slip out the door with a once again sleeping Jett in my arms.
As I make the short walk back to my backyard and slip through the gate and up the stairs to the back door, she only stirs once, sinking closer into my chest and fisting my shirt in her hand.
This girl is going to be the end for me. No doubt in my mind.
***
I’d do anything for this girl.
I have no right to that thought. Hell, I can’t even convince her to label us. I know better than to pester her about it—no means no—but her reasoning for saying no isn’t me. She’s still convinced she isn’t worth it. Whatever happened in her last relationship has her so torn up that nothing I’ve said has made purchase in her mind yet, but I can feel her getting more and more comfortable with me and around my place.
But the sight before me burns in a way I haven’t felt before. It has me wanting answers as to why this girl was three sheets to the wind at six p.m. on a Sunday. I have Jett tucked into my bed with a towel covering the pillow and a trash can next to the bed. Sadie has curled her entire fifty-pound body behind Jett’s knees, snout resting on her calves.
I already texted my boss letting him know that I would not be in tomorrow and that if he needed something, he could kiss my ass. I rarely take time off and never take sick days, so he can figure out how to survive one day without me on the job. The next text I send is to a number I never thought I’d use again. Honestly, I’m surprised it’s still in my phone.
I set my phone aside, pulling my gaming chair closer to the desk in my room and turning to where I can keep an eye on Jett but can see my screen as well. Silas sent an invite earlier to play our farm simulator game. When I log in, he is still playing, so I reach for my headset and make sure the volume is turned off the desktop speakers.
“Hey, hey, man. Where’ve you been all night?” Silas asks. Two thirty-year-olds cooped up in a bedroom playing videogames might not sound like much, but between his intense hockey schedule and my work schedule, we rarely get to connect.
I glance back over at my queen-size bed where the girl who has consumed my thoughts for months is passed out drunk. “The girl I’m tryin’ to convince to give me a shot needed my help tonight. No brainer.”
“Ah, gotcha. Gotcha. Is she all good?”
“Dunno. Hope so.” Virtual me hops into my favorite tractor—John Deer—and starts plowing the hay field in perfectly symmetrical rows. “How the hell ya’ been, H? How’re things?” I ask.
“Oh, you know. Just trying to balance hockey and raising a little sister since the step-monster dropped her off last week.”
My hands freeze on the controller, my tractor casually veering left. “No shit.”
“Yep.”
“Like, for good left? Isn’t Aubrey like ten? How’s she takin’ it?”
“Angry at the world. And nine, but yeah. She actually told her mom to sign over all rights, because she wants nothing to do with the woman who birthed her. She’d rather travel with the hockey team than go back home. So that’s been fun.”
“Sounds like hell over there. If y’all want to come down just let me know. I can get one of the rentals set up for you if you want.”
“Appreciate it, but I think we will keep lying low until all the court stuff blows over. Trying to expedite as much of it as we can before playoffs.”
“Understood. Just know there’s a whole town here that’ll gladly help if you need it.”
“Thanks, man.” He pauses for a second, and although his character is swapping tractors on the screen, I know he’s trying to piece together words he doesn’t want to say. I feel it in my bones that it’s about Oakley.
“I won’t tell Oaks, man. Not unless you want her running to the rescue.”
His sigh of relief confirms what he was trying to ask. “I don’t want to interrupt her life, ya know? She’d drop everything, and I just can’t.”
“You don’t need to explain, H. But know we are here if you need us.”
We get back to focusing on the game, harvesting our crops and talking shit about each other’s equipment choices until his step-sister butts in with dessert requests.
“Hey, man. I’ll catch you later. The little monster needs sugar.”
“Don’t be a stranger.”
We both log off, and I return to looking after the two princesses in my bed.