Caleb sighed. “I don’t know. He’d been doing better, but then lately it’s gotten so damn bleak.” He cringed, thinking of Phoenix’s morning outburst.
“I’m sorry to hear that.” She was quiet for a moment. “How ‘bout you? I know you’re not sleeping like you should.”
He’d called in the middle of the night. He may as well let out what’d been dogging him. “I’m fucked up over my big brother. Yeah, we’re twins but he’s got two minutes on me. That stupid fact’s the kind of thing that usually gets to me. Lately, I don’t have a slug of jealousy in me. I’m torn up over what happened to him. God, I’ll kill the guy who caused this, if I can find the bastard.”
“I should’ve stayed. I shouldn’t have left you guys.”
“Nah, there’s nothing you can do. It’s just, he looks like hell. I’ve never seen anyone look like that. It’s still him, but dammit, sometimes I can’t even—it’s just, hell.”
“Cal, are you cryin’?”
“Aww, fuck, Sasch, it’s so fucked up.” Great sniveling wetness came out of nowhere. He blew loudly into stiff bunched-up tissues. He was a big guy, but his watery eyes diminished him to kindergarten days, when the rules and rote confused and chafed him.
“I’m coming back out,” she pleaded.
“Nah, don’t, I’m coming back to work in a couple of weeks anyway. It’s just Mom says we’ve got to be strong. And I can see he’s trying to hold it together for us. And we’re all just sitting around, so fucked up, not saying what we’re thinking, trying to hold it together for him. And I don’t know. Docs keep saying he’s going to be okay, and it’s not so bad. But it looks real bad, Sasch, it looks real bad.”
“Course it does, but, your brother, he’s strong.”
“Yeah, I hope so.”
Another thought struck him. “You doin’ okay?”
“Yeah . . . I’m trying to date a little.”
“Yeah? I want to wish you well and I want to wring his neck, all at the same time.”
Sascha’s response, a sweet, tinkling sense of humor, contrasted with her tattooed body and penchant for latex wear. Maybe he should let her come this weekend.
“That’s the other thing,” he growled, jealousy kicking back in and then waning over the thought of his brother in his chair. “You remember Phoenix liked that woman from work? Some smart, hot thing?”
“Yeah, and?”
“You know she was away when all this happened. I wanted to call her but he says no. He’d talk to her when she was back. And now, she’s back since the weekend and I ask Phoenix if she’s comin’.”
“What’d he say?”
“That she’s not in his life.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“I don’t know. It sounded like she can’t deal with his accident.”
She sucked a breath, sounding wounded herself. When they were little, Phoenix balanced Caleb’s wildness, by being the responsible son. Now, Caleb needed to be the reliable one . . . if he was up to it.
CHAPTER 23
LITTLE GHOST
Liv
Dex had prepared Liv for what to expect. “He’s in a wheelchair. I don’t know how much pain he’s in. He didn’t look—”
“What?”
“He didn’t look like he wanted to see us.”
Phoenix was an independent guy, one who walked into work every day like he’d just come from a shoot for some designer label. Of course he wouldn’t want his colleagues to see him less than perfect. Liv got that. Today, she was going to be selfish. She was visiting for her sake—not his.
