Twelve #3
“A little over a year.”
“Which is longer than he and I went.”
“What’s your point?”
“My point is that you like being his boy, right?”
His scowl was dark. “What the hell do you—”
“Oh, get off it. I was there today. He buys you clothes, jewelry, things. You live with him; he takes you everywhere with him. You’re kept. You don’t rock the boat. You do whatever he wants whenever he wants to do it, right?”
“I—”
“That wasn’t me. His relationship with me was hard work.
I ran him through it all the time. We didn’t go places together unless I could afford my own ticket, unless I could afford to pay my own way.
This?” I gestured around the room. “God knows what this cost a night, but I’m gonna go to the office here in a bit and have all of it put on my credit card, and then I’m gonna spend the next year, year and a half, paying it off because Aaron Sutter doesn’t pay for me to do anything. Get it?”
“Aaron said you were letting some guy named Dane Harcourt pick up the tab for your hotel in Waikiki.”
I squinted at him.
“What?”
“Do you remember my last name?” I could tell when he got it.
“Oh, Jory Harcourt … Dane Harcourt … he’s your brother.”
“Yep.”
“So, you’re saying, beyond your family, no one takes care of you.”
“That’s right.”
He was angry suddenly. “You think I’m a whore.”
“I don’t, not really, but don’t stand there and tell me that you guys are equals either.
He pays, you ride, and he’s happy. He looks happy, so whatever your deal with him is, it’s not for me to judge.
If you’re cool with things, too, let it go, but don’t blame shit on me or him.
If you want your life to stay how it is, you look and act how he wants. ”
There was only silence.
“It’s weird that we look alike, yeah. And if it bothers you, say something. But don’t blame me for whatever rings you’re jumping through because I walked away from this, from him, and I would like to be his friend if he’ll let me, but nothing more.”
He stared at me, and I pulled my phone out of my pocket. I touched the screen, unlocking it, and passed it to him.
“Oh,” he said, looking at a picture of me and Sam. I was kissing his cheek, wrapped around him tight, eyes closed, pressed against the man from head to toe, and he was holding me just as close but with his head turned, smiling at the camera. “This is your detective?”
“How did you know—”
“Aaron said that you lived with a police detective.”
“I more than live with him, Jaden. I’m married to him,” I stated, lifting my left hand so he could see the ring. “Seriously, I’m the last person you should ever be worried about. I have loved Sam Kage for so long that it’s hard for me to remember a time I didn’t.”
He was studying my face. “Then why are you here alone?”
“You really wanna know?”
“Yeah.”
“Sit down.”
And he did.
As I talked and talked, his eyes got bigger and bigger.
I explained about how it had all started with Eddie Liron and led to Cristo being really pissed off.
I told him what Dane had said and how I had been fired and all about Fallon liking me and his boyfriend sort of hating me—at least at first. I threw in Sam being undercover and how much I way more than missed him.
“God, Jory, you’re like a ride at the amusement park.”
“You mean my life is.”
“No, I mean you are.”
I grunted.
“You know, I always wanted to go to cooking school,” he said out of the blue.
“Then you should.”
“I really should.”
I fell back on the bed, spread-eagled. “You know what I was thinking?”
“No, what?” he asked, lying down beside me, fingers linked behind his head.
“That I wanted to make another go of running my own business. I think my best friend and I gave up too fast last time. I think maybe we should try again.” The idea had been doing laps in my head lately, and I finally had the time to dive into the pool with it.
“Okay.”
“But see, I really like Fallon too, you know? I gotta figure that out because he’s sorta counting on me, and letting the man down is not an option.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
And I knew that, too, but it hardly mattered. “I’m worried about working for someone else again. I don’t do that all that well.”
“I’m surprised you work at all.”
I rolled my head to look at him. “Why?”
“You get that you’re a bit scattered, right?”
“Yeah, people say that.”
He lifted his eyebrows like maybe they said it a lot.
“I’d flip you off, but then I’d hafta move.”
He shook his head. “You know, last night, I was working so hard for you to like me because I thought that was what Aaron wanted, but today …”
“Not so much with the caring, huh?”
“No.”
“The shrimp was really good at that truck. You should’ve tried it.”
He looked at me, and I knew he was deciding.
“I will on the way back,” he said after a long minute. “It did smell good.”
We were silent for a long time after that.
“I’m gonna go for a swim,” I told him.
“I’m gonna go screw Aaron Sutter’s brains out.”
“Okay,” I said.
He left me alone then, and everything felt better, settled.
I changed to go for my swim.