Hudson
Liam, Joe, and I all sat in my living room watching the game. I’d needed to be surrounded by my friends tonight. I needed to get out of my head. After listening to Bexley tell me her story, something inside of me snapped, and I was brought back to the horrific night I’d lived through years ago.
My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I grabbed it. I sighed when I saw Bexley’s name on the screen. Never had I hated seeing her name as much as I did right now. Ignoring the message, I shut my phone off and shoved it back into my pocket.
“Come on!” Liam shouted, bringing me back to the living room.
“How the hell did he miss that?” Joe yelled.
“Where the hell are Tate and Dax?” Liam questioned, looking at his watch. “I knew I should have stopped and gotten the beer.”
“They will be here. They sent a text ten minutes ago. Traffic.”
I heard the slam of the front door and glanced at the boys. “There they are,” I said, getting up and making my way to the door. I could use a beer right about now.
I rounded the corner, expecting to have a case of beer shoved my way, but was shocked when instead of Tate and Dax, Maya stood there.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I questioned, irritated that she was going to break up another guys’ night out. I was also angry at her. She’d been the one who’d set this all up. She’d known my history.
“I need to talk to you,” she said, not looking the least bit guilty.
“You need to talk to me? Why?” I barked.
“Please, . Bexley is a mess.”
I rolled my eyes. “Well, it’s a mess you created,” I gritted. “You deal with it. I’m done.”
Just then the door opened and in walked Tate and Dax, both laughing. The second they laid eyes on us, though, the laughter stopped. Dax handed me the case of beer, which I took into the kitchen and passed four bottles to Tate to carry into the living room for the guys. I took the moment to get some into the fridge when all I really wanted to do was to return and watch the game.
Maya took a couple of steps into the kitchen and leaned against the door. She said nothing; she just stood there watching me.
“, please.”
“Please what?” I barked. “How the hell could you fix me up with her, knowing what she went through? Knowing full well that I could never be with someone who killed another person while they were driving?”
Maya knew the story well. I’d been friends with her brother when the accident happened.
“Come on, . Bex is nothing like the drunk driver who killed your pregnant girlfriend. There has to be more to the story than she is letting on. She was never arrested, and she was told it was an accident.”
“Yeah, says you. You know, in my career, we have to accept the fact that sometimes there is just no justice for the victims who are completely innocent. This appears that it was one of those times. She got off. Lucky her.”
“Come on, , you know Bex. Couldn’t you see the way it tore her up when she told you?”
I chuckled in disbelief. “Yeah, just like I see it every day with the people who cause the accidents. Just like I saw in court when the lawyer got the guy off for taking away two people who meant the world to me. I see no difference here.”
“You take that back.”
I turned and met Maya’s eyes. “I won’t. She was lucky, and some poor girl out there is without the love of her life because of her.”
“Does Bexley seem like someone who is irresponsible? Someone who would get behind the wheel of a car intoxicated just because?” Maya questioned, not once backing down.
Just then, Joe came into the kitchen. At first, I saw shock on his face at the fact his sister was here, but then he noticed the tension in the room. “What’s going on?” he asked. “I could hear yelling all the way down the hall.”
“Nothing!” we both shouted.
“Doesn’t appear that way.”
The room was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop. Joe stood there staring at the pair of us, probably not sure he should leave for fear one of us took a swing at the other. Finally, I ripped my eyes from hers. She had no idea the wound she’d opened by doing this. I turned to Joe.
“Did you know your sister fixed me up with someone who killed someone while driving? Someone who got off. Remind you of anything?”
Joe immediately turned to Maya. “What is he talking about?”
Maya turned away from me and crossed her arms. She shook her head. “Nothing.”
“No way, doesn’t sound like nothing. You better tell me what the hell is going on here, Maya.”
She didn’t turn around to face him. She just started talking.
“Bexley was involved in an accident on her way home in February. She hit someone, and they died. I guess she told about it, and now he is acting like she is just like the guy who killed his girlfriend all those years ago,” she said, whipping around and glaring at me.
Joe looked at me, sadness coming over his face.
“I tried to tell him that this situation isn’t the same, but he won’t believe me.”
Joe stepped between us, turned her around, and led her out into the hall. Then he turned to me. “I’ll be right back,” he muttered.
Moments later, he returned alone and leaned against the doorway. He said nothing, because really there was nothing to say. He’d been there with me through the entire trial. I knew he knew how I felt about this sort of stuff.
“I think you need to think this through. Take a minute and really look at this situation,” he said quietly.
Joe probably knew me the best. He knew me well enough to know I’d already slept with her; he knew me well enough to know I already had feelings for her. I knew that was why he was giving the advice he was giving. I walked to the door and slipped on my shoes.
“Where are you going?” Joe asked.
“I’m not sure. I think I just need to be alone for a while.”
I sat behind my desk at work. The office was quiet. It was the only place I could think of to go that no one would bother me. I’d hit the gym and then made my way to my desk. I’d logged into the computer and had sat with my fingers on the keyboard for a few minutes, debating if I should look up the accident Bexley had been involved in. It had been eating at me for hours, why she hadn’t been charged. I knew I couldn’t decide on the status of our relationship without knowing the truth.
I sat there thinking about us. I knew in my heart that I liked the idea of there being an us. I had to know the truth. It was the only way. The second the office was empty, I typed in the accident’s date and her name to see if anything came up. Sure enough, a file appeared, so I began reading.
I heard a noise behind me and then felt a hand on my shoulder. I tore my eyes from the screen in front of me and looked up to see my boys. They grabbed chairs from other desks and sat down.
“So. You came to hide out here,” Joe muttered.
“Who the hell comes to work on his day off?” Tate questioned, while Liam and Dax laughed.
“You doing okay?”
I nodded as I looked back at the screen.
“I feel like an ass.”
“Why?” Joe asked. “Your feelings are valid. Maya should have known better, and had I have known about the situation beforehand, I’d have set her straight.”
“No need. Maya was right. It was nothing like what happened with Carrie.”
Joe frowned. “How do you know?”
I shrugged. “It was killing me, so I looked into it.”
Joe ran his hand over his face. “What did you find out?”
“The guy she hit had a history with mental illness. Apparently, the girlfriend, who Bexley said was at the scene, reported he’d come off his meds a few months prior. She’d broke it off with him earlier that week when they’d been out for dinner because he was so erratic and dangerous. He’d called her that night from the side of the road, and when she got there, he threatened that if she didn’t take him back, he’d walk out in front of the next car that came by. Which is what he did. It wasn’t her fault at all. He literally walked out in front of her car, and she’d had no time to react. In the report, it said the officer told her that, and told her she wouldn’t be charged. They called a friend of hers to come and get her, which I’m assuming was Maya.”
“Wow.”
“Like I say, I feel like an absolute dick for the way I left her.”
“What do you mean?” Joe questioned.
I thought back to how things had gone the night before. To the sex we’d had and how, for the first time in years, I could see a relationship going somewhere. Then how only a few short hours later, I allowed those feelings from my experience to ruin things.
I looked at my best friends. “You let this slip to your sister and I’m going to come for you.”
Liam looked over at Joe, I’m sure, fearing the worst.
“We slept together the night before, and when she shared part of something that was literally—and I mean literally—eating her alive, I bolted. No words, no explanation, no kiss goodbye, nothing. I was and am a complete ass.”