The stress of thinking about Jessica settled and he smiled at the thought of Rhys. “Things with him are going really well.”
And they were. Even though he’d been cranky and tense, and very much himself for the past few days, there was a sense of ease about Rhys that wasn’t normally there. At least, it hadn’t been for the whole time Beckett had known him. Which admittedly, was only a couple of months, but it felt like longer.
“Would you like to meet him properly sometime?” he asked.
Clearly not in the immediate future. There was still far too much uncertainty surrounding just what their future was going to look like. Rhys had seen Callahan, which didn’t bother Beckett nearly as much as it would have two weeks before. He knew Callahan was helping, and Rhys said they’d made a tentative kind of peace with each other. Which was good for them both. At the end of the day, all of the changes Rhys was making to better himself and his relationships had Beckett wanting to do the same.
“Yes!” Audra practically squealed, jumping away from the wall and clapping her hands.
“Alright.” Her enthusiasm had him smiling. “In a couple weeks, okay?”
A car rolled into the alley, coming to a stop in front of them. The passenger window was unrolled and rock music filtered out.
“This is my ride.” Audra slung her bag over her shoulder and ran to Beckett, giving him a quick and unexpected hug. “I’m glad we’re friends, Bex. Like…more than work friends.”
He nodded. “Me too.”
“This is Claire.” Audra pointed toward the open window and peered down inside. “Baby, this is Beckett.”
Claire leaned over and waved in his direction. “I’ve heard a lot about you!”
“Only good things, I hope.” He smiled awkwardly and returned the wave. “Nice to meet you.”
“So, a couple weeks?” Audra grinned and threw her bag in through the window.
“I promise.”
“Oh, and Bex…” Audra paused with half her body in the car. “If you want to talk about your sister, I’m here.”
“Thanks.” His throat flushed and he stepped back toward the wall.
He watched Audra and Claire take off, and then he sighed, sliding down the wall and landing on his ass. He didn’t have specific plans to see Rhys. Not like he needed them, though. He had a key and an open invitation, and Rhys pretty much expected him after work every day. They hadn’t spent a night apart since Rhys came home from Mallardsville, which suited Beckett fine. But he missed his plants and he missed his couch, and so he found himself at home with a spray bottle and a roll of paper towels, cleaning the dust off his plants.
No matter how much he thought about it and tried to rationalize it, he couldn’t stop thinking about Jessica. He watched Rhys and Sebastian reconcile and Rhys and Callahan, and he knew there would be no peace for Rhys and his father, but those sins were far more egregious than the rest. He thought about the last conversation he’d had with his sister and the longer he dwelled, the more he knew the punishment didn’t fit the crime.
He called his sister.
It went to voicemail.
He hung up.
Beckett didn’t know what he would say, even if she had answered.
Hey, Jess. It’s been a few years and I was hoping you could be less mad at me for telling you that I caught your babysitter with her mouth around your husband’s cock.
Jess. Hi. Sorry that you’re mad I caught your husband with his dick in the babysitter’s throat and told you about it. I wrongly assumed you would want to know. If I would have known you’d accuse me of making it up for attention, I would have just kept it to myself.
Beckett stared at the black screen of his phone.
He finished cleaning his plants and then he went to Rhys’s.
“I expected you earlier.” Rhys said when he arrived. “Was everything okay at work?”
“I went home,” he said, kicking off his shoes. “Can I have a drink?”
“What’s mine is yours.”
Beckett sighed and padded into the kitchen, mixing himself a screwdriver and hopping up on the counter to drink it.
