Chapter 23
twenty-three
RUBY
DING DONG
The sound of the doorbell startles me, and looking at the clock, I see it’s nearly seven. I’ve been sitting here, staring into the fire and nursing a glass of red for the last hour and a half. That in itself is odd. By now, I’d usually be on glass number three. The reason for my reverie, Joel stood me up—again.
This time, it was without a call or text, and on top of that, he’s not answering his phone, cell, or landline. All five of my texts have gone unread.
Placing my glass down on the coffee table, I hop up and walk toward the front door. The closer I get, I hope it’s Joel. Swinging it open, my face drops when I see it’s not him. “Mad, what are you doing here?”
He lifts a bottle of tequila up and smiles, as if that explains everything. Furrowing my brow, I look from him to the bottle and back to him again. “Sab said you’ve had a busy week so we thought tequila might help.”
“Tequila never helps, but she’s right, it’s been a week so, come on in.”
Maddox follows me inside and I tell him to take a seat while I grab two shot glasses, some lime, and salt. Thankfully, I have limes on hand, but then again, a girl always needs to be prepared for an impromptu tequila night.
Half a bottle of tequila later, my face is fuzzy and my stomach hurts from laughing so hard. Maddox has been telling me countless stories regarding calls he’s been on over the years. “I don’t know how you do it,” I tell him as I pour us another shot each. “Each call is so different.”
“Keeps the job interesting, that’s for sure.”
Handing him his shot, we tap glasses and shoot it back … and like every time, I make a “bleurgh” sound when I’m finished.
“I get that but what about the times when it’s bad? How do you cope then?” He nods to the tequila bottle. “I’m serious, Mad, how do you deal with the shitty parts?”
“To be honest, I don’t know. I just … deal with it.”
“That can’t be healthy.”
“So far, so good,” he tells me. “My friends and family help.”
“How so?” Shuffling around, I tuck one leg under me and rest my elbow on the back of the sofa, my cheek on my closed fist and stare over at him.
“If I need to talk, they’re there. If I need to cry, they don’t judge. They let me get it all out and then they make me laugh.”
“Well, now that you’re back, just know, I’m here for you too.”
“Back at ya, Reindeer.” From the look in his eyes, I just know what he’s going to say next because he hasn’t once broached the topic, and I know he’s been speaking with his sister—call it my bestie-sense. Seems the two of them have been talking about me behind my back. “Wanna talk about Joel?”
“Nope,” I adamantly state as I shake my head. “Plus, there’s nothing to talk about. Everything is fine.”
“I call bullshit.”
“Well, you’re wrong. It’s fine. Everything is fine.”
“You’ve said fine eleventy-billion times, therefore you are anything but fine.”
“I’m…” But I don’t know what to say.
“You’re what?” he prods.
Needing liquid courage, I grab his glass and I refill them both … then I shoot both back and I let it all out. “I love Joel, I do, with all my heart, but right now I want to strangle him with tinsel.”
“You’re threatening violence to the sheriff?”
“I don’t literally mean it, plus I know you’d help me cover it up if I ever did accidentally kill someone.”
“I would. I’d do anything for you, Reindeer.”
His words cause me to smile. Reaching out, I take his hand and squeeze. “Thank you, and I’d do anything for you too.” A silence falls between us and it’s not awkward, it’s actually comforting. He begins to rub the back of my hand and it’s oddly intimate. I quickly pull it back because nothing should be intimate with Mad. He’s my friend. My best friend’s off-limits older brother. “As I was saying, I love him but he’s been so absent lately. I get he’s busy at work, I am too but he’s leaving all the wedding stuff to me and it’s supposed to be our day.” I laugh. “The other day, he had the gall to say weddings are all about the girl so it doesn’t matter if he’s there or not.”
“He actually said that?” I nod. “Did you kick him in the balls?”
Shaking my head, I laugh. “No, it was over the phone but if he was in front of me, I would have.”
“Again, threatening violence to a police officer.”
“I’ll kick you in the balls in a minute if you keep this up.”
“Assaulting an officer is also a criminal offense.” Picking up the throw pillow between us, I throw it at him and it hits him in the head. “That’s it.” He stands up and stares down at me. “You are under arrest for assaulting a police officer.”
A laugh escapes me and my hand flies to playfully whack him but from my seated position and him hovering, my hand collides with his dick. He covers his junk, bends forward, and groans.
“Oh my God, Maddox, are you okay?”
“You really assaulted an officer now,” he grunts through clenched teeth. It’s not funny but another laugh breaks free. He glares at me and it just causes me to laugh harder. Soon, he too is laughing and drops back down to the sofa next to me. He looks over at me, his eyes filled with tears. Oops , I lean forward and grab the bottle. “Tequila?” I offer, and we once again start laughing.
Maddox is too drunk to drive home so I offer him the sofa since the spare bedroom has been turned into wedding HQ. Grabbing a pillow and blanket from the hall closet, I walk back into the living area and I stop mid step. Maddox has his back to me and has taken his shirt off. Standing here, I stare at his muscular back and when he spins around, he smiles but he also has a smug look that confirms I’ve been caught checking him out.
“Here.” I hand him the bedding, not looking him in the eye. I’m embarrassed at being caught checking him out. “Do you need anything else?” He shakes his head. “Well, I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Night, Reindeer,” he utters.
“Night, Mad.”
Turning around, I walk into my bedroom, close the door, and lean against it. It’s just Maddox , I tell myself. He’s only staying here because we drank too much tequila. It’s the right thing to do. After my internal pep talk, I push off the door and head into my bathroom to change into my pajamas and brush my teeth.
Flipping off the light, I pad over to my bed, pull back the covers, and climb in. Burrowing under the blankets, I snuggle in and smile. I needed tonight, I needed a night to just let loose and forget. I’m the most relaxed I’ve been since my weekend with Sab … I should have cherished this feeling because soon, I will be anything but relaxed.