“I’m going to take a shower.”
His mouth moved to speak, but he decided against it, his shoulders falling forward as he drained the last of his drink and slammed the tumbler down onto the counter. “Okay.”
I started out of the room, desperate to run but keeping my pace slow. I normally would have headed to our room, but I didn’t want to see him. He’d not only insulted me with his unspoken accusations, but now he was accusing me of the one thing I’d made an effort not to do. I loved him for who and what he was, scars and skeletons included.Thatwas the man I'd fallen in love with and shared my bed with—the man I’d accepted in every way a woman could.
Unfortunately, when you gave someone that much of yourself, you gave them the tools they needed to hurt you. Drew had used that love against me, and I used all my anger to slam the door closed, twisting the deadlock before I slid down to the floor, burying my face in my knees as I struggled to find my breath.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Drew
“Should I put up thebeware of dogsign?”
I wasn’t sure how long I’d been sitting there, staring into the bottom of my glass after she walked away, but the second I heard Harry’s voice, I knew I was exhausted, mainly because that old joke of his would have brought a smile to my lips, once upon a time. Now all it did was float through the jumbled up web of thoughts in my mind, only to get lost among all the other shit.
I tried anyway. For him. My face was lifeless and I pushed the air out of my nose and attempted to make it sound like some kind of laugh.
Harry’s sigh blew into the hair on the good side of my head, his hand resting down on my shoulder. “It’s just a bad day, son. It ain’t a bad life.”
The irony of that statement should have been enough to snap me out of it, too, but still I stayed, as still a statue.
“Shit,” he grumbled, before he left my side altogether and went to stand on the opposite side of the bar. The top of the bottle clinked against the edge of the tumbler in my grip, but not even the sight of that golden liquid made me look up. When it was half full, he stopped and let the bottle fall to the counter while I took a slow and steady sip of the good stuffand allowed the heat to burn me alive.
“Tucker.”
“Yep.” I gasped, smacking my lips together and wincing when the alcohol hit the cut on my lip.
“Look at me.”
“Nope.”
“Look at me, son.”
“I’m a little bust up at the moment, Harry.”
“Inside or out?”
Just like that he had my attention. My eyes rose slowly, taking him in as I tried to think of something to say. The stuff going on in my head hurt more than any of my external injuries, and the fact that someone else could see it stung like a bitch.
“I think you already know,” I answered quietly.
“Still. It would be nice to hear you admit it for once.” Resting both hands on the counter, he put all his weight on them and tilted his head to the side. As funny looking as I found him, his was the one face that usually felt safe to me, even when we were disagreeing. I never feared him walking away and never coming back, no matter what I said or did. His loyalty knew no limits. Neither did his love.
“Why?”
“Because then it gives me hope that all this shit you’re putting yourself through isn’t just in vain. I think I understand what’s going on in that head of yours, but these days, you keep surprising me and making me second guess myself just that little bit more than I used to.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No need,” he said through a sad smile, raising one hand to stop my apology before dropping it back down. “I like to bekept on my toes.”
“Good job around this place.” Lifting the whiskey to my mouth again, I took another big gulp and sighed heavily. “I’ll be glad when today is over.”
“Yeah, you look a bit more abstract than you did this morning.”
I laughed genuinely that time. “I feel it, too.”
“Inside or out?” he asked again.
