It was New Year’s Eve. This very day last year haunted me every night, eyes wide open depriving me of sleep. I had every intention of drowning that night with new memories. But before I could spend midnight watching fireworks, I had to talk to Liam.
The ache in my chest didn’t hold a candle to the weight in my heart as Mia and Scott walked side by side down the stairs. Her golden-brown eyes glanced back up at me under the baseball cap as I leaned over the railing. The wink and smirk on her face lifted the weight, but the ache would remain. It always did whenever we were apart. Once the two disappeared, I set forth on my mission to find Liam while Jake waited in the group therapy room for him.
My feet touched over every inch of Dolor, only to find Liam waltzing casually out of a closet zipping up his jeans. Gwen appeared behind him, wiping the aftermath from her lips with her shirt stretched and hanging from her shoulder. Jake didn’t deserve this. “Liam, we need to talk.”
Liam and Gwen paused wide-eyed.
“You can go,” I directed to Gwen, jerking my head down the hall. “This isn’t a conversation you want to be a part of.” Gwen fixed her bra strap before taking off down the hall.
“What’s this about?” Liam pulled his blond hair back into a pony.
“You’re fucking kidding me, yeah?” I pushed him in the chest. “Blow jobs in the closet? Have you stooped this low only to prove a point? And to who? No one else is here!” My plan wasn’t to confront him, only to take him to Jake. Knowing Jake was waiting this very moment—impatiently, I might add—to speak with him, only to find Liam busy getting his knob sucked off blew my fucking mind.
Liam ran a palm down his face with an incredulous smile. “Mia not doing it for ya anymore, mate? Have at it,” he held up a palm toward a descending Gwen, “but I promise you won’t find a fanny as favorable as Mia’s. And I know … ” he straightened his back and puffed out his chest. “Be thankful for your first-class fanny while I’m sticking it in commercial.”
I was stuck between pounding his face in and choosing to understand. I relaxed my balled-up fists and released an exhale. “Let’s go.”
“Despite what you heard, Masters, I don’t play for the same team.”
My next action was very unlike me, but I couldn’t not do something.
I slapped the kid.
Not punch. I fucking slapped him. No mark. No evidence. A bitch slap to the face for acting like a pussy. Liam and I faced off as he held his cheek.
“That was for Mia. And despite what I heard, I’m not here for anything other than to take you to someone who you don’t deserve. Get your head out of your arse, your dick out of every female hole, and open your fucking eyes,” I gritted out through clenched teeth. “You’re in love with a fucking man, and the only two people you’re hurting in the process is Jake and yourself.”
Time was measured by every slow blink of Liam’s eyes. He dropped his head and tilted his gaze down the hall. “Where is he?”
After dropping off the lovebird, I ran downstairs to meet Jinx while Scott had Mia.
Jinx posted in his usual spot with headphones in, bumping his head with his eyes closed. I swiped the buds from his ears, and his eyes bounced open. His toothless smile beamed as he unplugged the buds and handed over the phone. “The girl has taste,” he said through a belly laugh. “No idea what she’s doing with you.”
“Ha! Nice one, mate.” I pocketed Mia’s phone. “Can I make a quick call?” I’d asked Jinx to get a hold of Mia’s phone so I could surprise her tonight with the music she’d been dying to listen to, but since I was here …
“Yeah, man,” Jinx waved me away, “Make it quick.”
I pat him on the back of the shoulder as I passed through the door.
Mia’s mobile burned a hole in my pocket as I picked up the phone from the receiver to call Travis. He answered on the third ring, and I leaned back against the wall and withdrew her phone, twirling it in my hand. This was her life before me. Her music and photos, items worthy of capturing to either listen or see time and time again—an inside of what made Mia Rose tick.
“House is all painted. It looks clean, mate. Bright. Just like you wanted it.”
“Thanks, man. How’s Summer?”
“Pregnant! Eight weeks, we just found out last week … so now we’re nine weeks. Can you believe it? I’m going to be a dad.”
Smiling, I nodded though he couldn’t see. “Congrats, mate. You deserve it. You deserve it all.”
“Four more months until you’re out, and with the income I’m getting in from you, we can start looking for our own place soon. I can’t do much, but it’s a start. I should be out just in time for when you get home.”
“It will all fall into place. No rush. You’re going to be a dad, Summer a mum. You have family now. Save as much as you can in the next four months, and I’ll do whatever I can to help. But, Travis. Don’t fuck this up. Stay away from your old boys, the Links. You don’t need their money. You understand what I’m saying?” The last thing Travis needed was to fall back into his old ways, get mixed with the same crew who’d brought him down the last time.
“Yeah, I understand. I’m not going to mess this up.”
I let out an exhale. “You’re marrying her, yeah?”
“I want to. But, damn, I don’t want Summer to think I’m only proposing now that she’s pregnant.”
