“Okay. I will.”
Before bed, I ran a bath to force myself to relax. If Luna were there, she’d make me meditate.
Just my luck, they had jasmine-scented bath salts, so I poured a bunch into the steaming water, filling the air with floral sweetness.
I climbed into the tub, sank until only my head was exposed, and closed my eyes. At least I’d stopped crying, but I’d criedso much that my breath would often catch. No doubt my eyes would be swollen tomorrow.
I soaked until the bath turned cold, and then got out, feeling only slightly better. After drying off, I pulled on a pair of boxer briefs. I’d gotten used to wearing panties, but I just couldn’t. My panties were for Hugh and Linden.
It took me about an hour to finally fall asleep after tossing and turning, but eventually oblivion found me.
Chapter 30
Hugh
LindenandIspentthe entire evening trying to reach Atlas. All our messages and texts were left unheard and unread. Eventually, our calls went directly to voicemail, which meant he’d turned his phone off.
Linden and I decided to go over to his apartment, but no one was home, or he wasn’t answering the door. We’d only recently returned to my house to bang our heads together and figure it out. The longer we didn’t find Atlas, the more he would slip from our grasp.
“Dammit!” I hissed for the hundredth time after hanging up after my last attempt to reach Atlas.
“We need to find him, Hugh.”
“I know!”
“Atlas belongs to us.”
“I know!” I snapped again. It wasn’t directed at Linden, and he knew that, but it was certainly directed at Atlas for stressing us out. I was sure I could bring him back to us, but we had to fucking figure out where he was first.
“Do you think he’ll show up at work tomorrow?”
I paced my living room, chewing on my thumb. “I have a feeling he’ll at least call in sick. He works too hard to just up and abandon us. He wouldn’t leave work hanging like that, no matter the circumstances.”
“If he still ignores us, maybe we can ask his friend Ryder. He bartends over at Legends, right?”
“That’s a good idea.”
“If that doesn’t work, we can talk to his roommates, if we can catch them at home.”
“Good. Good. Yes.”
He stopped me from pacing and wrapped his arms around me. “We’ll find him. He didn’t just vanish into thin air.”
I nodded and held him back. None of it seemed weird. Linden and I should’ve fucking done this a long time ago. We should’ve been honest and open with our feelings. We also should’ve told Atlas how we felt about him. There I was, touting the need for communication, when we’d all dropped the ball on that one. We were all at fault. But once we found him, I aimed to remedy that by any means, and at any cost.
As predicted, Atlas called in sick. Linden and I spent our day scrambling to stay caught up with work, while stressing the fuck out about him. I didn’t believe for a second he’d leave us hanging out to dry, whether it was at work or in this relationship. He’d reach out to us eventually, but I was too fucking impatient. I didn’t want him getting lost in his head, believing, even for a second, that we didn’t want him or care about him.
Linden and Atlas were the two most important people in my life, and I planned to keep it that way. One way or another, we would fix things between the three of us.
My cousin was on the couch in my office, working on his laptop because we hadn’t wanted to separate, sharing our stress and worry. I was lost in an email I was writing to one of our clients when there was a knock at our door.
“Atlas,” I whispered.
Linden looked up expectantly, too.
“Come in.”
But I was sorely disappointed to see my father instead of Atlas. Dammit. What now?
