Dex!
“What are you—,“ I started to yawn, fighting the closing pull of my eyes.
"Go back to sleep," he murmured under his breath without even moving his lips.
He didn’t look down at me when he stopped at the closed bedroom door or when he opened it by putting my butt on what I imagined was a raised knee. Dex finally looked down when he was setting me on the mattress gently. He didn’t smile or wait for me to ask why he was putting me to bed.
He took a step back in my super dark room and whispered, “Night, Ritz,” before closing the door and leaving me in there alone.
If I wouldhave been less tired, I probably wouldhave wondered what the hell was going on instead of falling right back asleep, but I wasn’t, and trying to figure out Dex’s actions wasn’t something a half-asleep brain, much less a fully competent one, could handle.
Chapter Eight
When I got up the next morning, I was seriously asking myself what the hell had happened the night before.
I knew it couldn’t have been a dream. Dex The Dick carrying me to my room had happened.
It. Had. Happened.
And I couldn’t understand for the life of me why A) he’d been at Sonny’s house so late. B) Why he’d taken it upon himself to get me to my bedroom. C) Was a repeat of A and B.
I couldhave walked or at least stumbled my wayto bed.
It being Monday,my brotherwas at work by the time I woke up. Dinner from the night before had mysteriously disappeared and the dishes had been washed.
Hallelujah.
Limited by the lack of funds in my account until payday, I had to settle for the free things life had to offer. Like laying around the house, watching television, going through catalogues Sonny had on the kitchen table. Basically, I was a lazy ass the first half of the day.
In the middle of it, I sent Will another email. It’d been more than a month since the last time I’dtalkedtohim but that wasn’t completely unheard of. In the past year, I'd only gotten to see him a total of a week's worth. I shouldhave been a seasoned professional at keeping calm when I didn’t get anything from him but the fact was, I worried about Will every day.
He was my little brother. The boy I'd cared for like he was mine, before and after our mom had died. He was the reason why I learned what working a double was, the reason why I'd worked two jobs even while I was sick, and the reason for so many other things I learned.
A lot of times I felt like I was alive just for him. And then he'd joined the Army and left me in Florida. I mean, he was happy and that's what mattered but it still didn't fix the fact that I missed him.
That was life, wasn't it?Losing and regaining?
By mid-afternoon, I started to get cabin fever and walked out of the house to see if there was anything to do outside. There was. Sonny had weeds coming out every square inch around his bushes and lawn. Under normal circumstances, I probably wouldhave pretended like there was nothing to do, but that’s just how bored I was and how badly I wanted my mind on other things.
I found a pair of thick gloves in Sonny’s garage that were way too big, pulled a long sleeve shirt on to avoid getting burned and went to work.
An hour and a half later, when my back was aching and I felt a warm tingle on my neck that screamed sunburn, I stuffed all the weeds into a trash bag and stood in the middle of the lawn, exhausted. The loud purr of multiple motorcycles echoed through the neighborhood. It being after work hours, a lot of people had pulled into their homes so I wasn’t really planning to go out of my way to look and see where the bikes were coming from. It was second nature. Abikewas abike, wasn't it?
In the middle of hoisting a bag over my head to throw into the trash, two bikers with buzz cuts and hard glares drove by slowly. Their eyes were on me and the house. They didn’t stop, but as soon as they’d crossed the driveway, they picked up speed and zoomed out of the neighborhood.
Weird.
~ * ~ *
The worst part of going to work on Tuesday was not knowing how to act around Dex. It shouldn’t surprise me that he was hanging out with Sonny if they were in the same club, but still. Sonny was warm and sweet—though he had been specific and said it was only to me—while Dex was a temperamentalbag of beaver dung. Maybe it was that whole “opposites attract” thing they had going on.
Maybe.
Luckily, it was Blake that came in and opened, leaving me to wonder where The Dick was. I sure as hell wasn’t going to ask Blake or anyone, but I let myself think about it in my head. It was like mentally preparing myself for an incoming hurricane.
Business was pretty steady right from doors opening when Slim showed up. There was tattoo after tattoo for the first couple of hours, then a nipple piercing—which made my own nipples hurt—and a guy who wanted an eyebrow pierced. It was closer to eight at night when Dex finally showed up, looking mildly annoyed as usual, and striding directly to the back without a wave or a nod to anyone.
Once again, no one said anything. Blake and Slim didn’t even look at each other. I didn’t understand that at all because I wasannoyedwhen he walked in.
