53. Leo
Leo
We pull up to a brick ranch-style house in a quiet neighborhood, then kill the engine.
It’s the house I remember in that photo Lucy showed me.
I think about the tears glistening in her eyes when she told me that.
This house belongs to her, not her stepdad.
But I can’t focus on that right now. Right now, my sole focus needs to be getting her parents’ things back.
We step out of our cars and walk up the drive to the porch. I pound on the front door with my fist.
“Just a second!” a gruff voice hollers from the inside.
The door opens, and a scruffy guy with salt-and-pepper hair in a stained t-shirt answers.
My nose wrinkles at the stench of stale beer and weed.
“What do you want?” he mutters. His eyes are bloodshot, and he’s slurring his words.
Anger pounds through me. I ball my fists at my sides. I want to punch this motherfucker in the face. I want to break his jaw.
I force myself to take a slow, steady breath.
Don’t lose your cool. You’ll get arrested and make this worse.
“We need to come inside your house,” I say.
His bushy eyebrows crash together in confusion. “Excuse me?”
“We’re here to pick up a few things that don’t belong to you. Let us in.”
He looks past my shoulder at Nick, Blake, and Travis standing behind me.
“Is this some kind of prank? Did my buddy Joe send you?”
“Nope. We’re dead fucking serious, Richard.”
His brow lifts. “Wait, how do you know my name?”
“Don’t worry about that. Just let us in. We’ll grab what we need, and then we’ll be gone.”
He scoffs. “I’m not letting you assholes in my house. Get lost.”
He starts to shut the door, but I put my foot down, blocking him.
“What the…” He struggles as he tries to close the door. “Move!”
“No.”
He leans back at the bite in my voice.
“You’re gonna let us in. Right fucking now.”
“Like hell I will.” He goes to shove me, but I’m bigger than him, so I don’t budge.
His face reddens. “If you don’t leave right now, I’ll call the cops on you.”
“Do it. Then I can tell them how you threatened to kill your stepdaughter.”
He frowns like he’s never been more confused. “Wait, how do you know Lucy? Did that little bitch send you here?”
I grab him by the shirt collar. He stumbles forward, and his eyes bug out of his head. He looks terrified. Good. I hope he’s so scared that he shits his pants.
“Don’t you fucking say another word about her.”
“Wh-what are you…”
“Shut up and listen to me. We know you have her parents’ things. We’re here to collect them. And you’re going to let us. You’re not calling the cops because if you do, I’ll show them the texts you sent her threatening to kill her, and they’ll arrest you. You don’t want that, do you, Richard?”
He shakes his head. “N-no.”
I let go of him, and he falls to the floor. “Get up,” I boom.
He scrambles to his feet.
“Show us everything that belongs to Lucy’s parents.”
He scurries off down the hallway and nods to a room on the right. “All the boxes in there.”
“What else?”
“Nothing. That’s it.”
I grab him by the shoulder and shove him against the wall. “If you’re lying to me—”
“I’m not! I-I swear, that’s all of it!” he snivels.
The guys quietly start hauling boxes out of the house while Richard sits on the floor of the hallway, watching us with that terrified look on his face.
It takes us twenty minutes to haul all the boxes to our car. Before we leave, I crouch in front of Richard, who’s still cowering in the corner.
“Don’t ever contact Lucy again. Understand?”
“Y-Yes.”
“Don’t ever mention what happened today. Or I’ll be back.”
“I-I won’t.”
I walk out of the house, my heart thrashing in my chest, adrenaline pumping like jet fuel inside of me.
When I’m in the driver’s seat of my car, I let out a breath. I suddenly feel exhausted.
I stare straight ahead for a minute at nothing. Blake sits next to me quietly.
“So much for not getting physical with the guy,” I mutter.
“That asshole deserved it,” Blake says.
“That’s really fucking crazy what I just did, right?”
“Yeah. But it was also the right thing to do.”
That caged-animal rage fires through me. Part of me wants to go back in there and make him hurt for what he did to her.
But I know better than to do that.
I force myself to take another slow, steady breath. I focus on Lucy. On how happy she’s going to be when she comes home tonight and sees her parents’ belongings.
Blake claps a hand on my shoulder. “You did this for your girl. I would have done the same for Briar if she had been in this situation, no question. And know Nick and Travis would do the same for Poppy and Anna too.”
That familiar squeeze hits my chest when I think about Lucy and what she means to me.
“She’s not my girl,” I say. It feels wrong to say that, even though it’s true. “We’re not a couple. We’re just two friends who are…having fun.”
When I look over at Blake, he looks like he’s trying not to laugh.
“Come on, dude. Don’t bullshit me,” he says.
“We’re just friends,” I say again.
I think about how she’s going to move out soon and get her own place…which will mean that we’ll probably spend less time together…
Will she still want to keep seeing each other? Maybe she won’t…
An uneasy feeling gnaws at my gut just thinking about that.
“You wined and dined her for her birthday,” Blake says. “You threw her a party. And you dropped everything to take on her stepdad. My guess is that you wouldn’t hesitate to do anything for her. And you’d do it happily.”
He’s spot-on. I’d do this again a hundred times over. For her. I’d do anything for her.
“That’s not ‘just friends’ territory, man. That’s way, way deeper,” Blake says.
I open my mouth to say something, but I don’t. Because he’s right. Lucy’s not just a friend. She’s so much more than that to me.
“She’s not ready for anything serious,” I say. “She wants to take things slow, and I don’t want to pressure her.”
“But if you had it your way, she’d be your girlfriend, right?”
“Yeah,” I say through a breath.
He’s quiet for a second. “Look, I’m not a relationship expert. But I know what it’s like to have feelings for a girl who isn’t ready to make the jump from friends with benefits to an actual relationship. It’s hard. You don’t wanna push, but you want to call her yours more than anything.”
“That’s exactly what I want,” I admit.
“Then just be patient. Give her space, but show her that you’ll always be there for her. And keep being there for her. Show her that you can be the rock she can lean on, no matter what. She probably needs that after what she’s been through.”
I nod, feeling a little more settled after Blake’s pep talk. And surprised at how insightful he is.
“Thanks, man. I needed to hear that.”
Before I can start my car, I see someone waving at me from across the street. It’s a woman who looks like she’s in her sixties.
She walks up to my rolled-down window, offering a friendly, warm smile.
“Is Richard moving out?” she asks me
“Uh…” I’m caught off guard by how this lady just came right up to me. I clear my throat. “Not exactly.”
“Oh.” She sounds so disappointed. Wait, does she not like him? They’re neighbors, so I assumed they’d be on good terms with each other.
A guy who looks around her age walks out of the front door of the house she just came out of and waves at us.
“I have to say, I’m a little disappointed. I was hoping you were getting rid of him for us.” She chuckles.
Okay, yeah, she definitely doesn’t like him. I guess that makes sense. She seems like a nice lady, while Richard is a fucking monster.
“Sorry, no, I was just here picking up a few things for my friend. She used to live here,” I say.
Her face lights up. “Oh, you’re friends with Lucy Bailey?”
“Yeah. Do you know her?”
“Know her? I watched her grow up.” She chuckles. “I’ve known her since she was a sweet little baby.”
“Oh.” The tension in my body starts to fade when I hear that.
She tells me her name is Lydia Poulos. I introduce myself and Blake.
“I just stopped by with my friends to pick up some things of hers,” I say to Mrs. Poulos.
“That’s so nice of you,” she says brightly. “You’re such sweet young men to do that.”
“She’s our roommate,” Blake says. “We’re just trying to help her out.”
“I’m so glad you boys showed up here. That Richard is a real jerk to Lucy. Poor thing has been waiting to get her parents’ things back from him for ages.”
She points to the house across the street. “My husband and I have been holding onto some items that belonged to her parents in our garage.” She glowers in the direction of Richard’s house. “He left it all on the curb like it was trash. Such a low-life jerk.”
She shakes her head, that hard look on her face fading. She starts to smile again. “Will you tell Lucy hi for us?”
“Yeah, absolutely. And maybe later we can come by with Lucy and pick up the rest from your garage?”
“That would be lovely.”
I thank her, and she walks off. We drive off toward the house.
“Damn. Even that sweet old lady hates Richard,” Blake says.
I huff out a breath, feeling my nerves finally start to calm down. And then I think about Lucy and how happy she’s going to be when she sees all of her parents’ belongings.
I can’t wait.