“Here,” Hayden said, scaring me half to death as he appeared with a paper bag in hand.
“What’s this?”
“Food. You’ve been at it for hours. I figured you were hungry.”
Opening the bag, I peeked in and the scent of deep-fried food hit me and my stomach grumbled loudly. Stealing a few fries, I popped them in my mouth, the salty flavor hitting my tongue.
“Thanks.”
Hayden stepped past me and into the closet, to the side completely empty. Well, almost empty.
Spinning on his heel, Hayden pinned me with a look.
“What’s this?” he asked, pointing to the bag I hadn’t been brave enough to open.
“A dress.”
“How come it’s still here?”
“Because... because…” As hungry as I was, as much as I wanted to devour the greasy cheeseburger I’d pulled out of the bag, I wasn’t sure my stomach could handle it.
Hayden, grabbed the zipper on the front.
“Hayden, don’t…” I tried to warn him.
He didn’t listen.
Of course he didn’t.
Instead he dragged down the zipper, a pained howl being torn from the back of his throat as a detailed lace sleeve was exposed.
11
HAYDEN
It’d beentwo weeks since I’d thrown Skye out of the house and I still felt like an ass. Even as I was doing it, I knew I was being an asshole but I couldn’t stop myself. Seeing Cassidy’s wedding dress hanging there ready to go was almost as bad as taking Skye’s call in the first place. It felt like a knife slicing through my heart. The only difference was, this time my heart was nothing more than an icy organ. Broken and empty.
Every day I went to work, the chief busted my ass telling me to focus on the cases in front of me instead of chasing a ghost but he didn’t understand. He couldn’t. Because if he could, he never would’ve asked me to do that. When he’d suggested I take a couple of weeks off, it was the first thing we’d agreed on in months.
I’d been ignoring my family’s pleas to talk to someone, to get some help. My mom cried that she wanted her son back, I knew there was only one way that could happen. Promising I’d think about it, I tossed my duffle bag on the back seat of my truck and took off.
When I’d called Dylan and told him I was on my way, he promised to clear out the spare room and put a few cold ones on ice.
The drive to Dylan’s place was exactly what I needed. With the window cracked, the music blaring, I focused on the road in front of me. For the first time since my world imploded, I felt like I could breathe.
Three hours later, I turned down Dylan’s dirt drive and started to bump towards the house. The moment I pulled up, the front door was thrown open and out stepped a beautiful woman with an unmistakable baby bump.
Sliding out of the car, I waved in her direction but before I was able to get a hello out, I was barreled over by an oversized fluff ball.
“Hey, Rusty,” I greeted, bending down and rubbing the dog behind his ears only to earn me a mewl.
“You’re not much of an attack dog, Rusty,” Dylan grumbled as he came towards me.
“You and I both know he couldn’t attack if he wanted to,” I chuckled, grabbing my duffle bag and tossing it over my shoulder.
“Tell that to the poor rabbit he left at the back door last night.”
“Right.”
