“Oh yeah.” A smile finally replaced the scowl he had been wearing most of the day. “He used to do that to me, too. He’s surprisingly good when he’s not singing like shit to be annoying.”
I looked back at Roscoe. “Why are you such a troll?”
“It’s fun.” He scooted closer, putting his arm around my neck. “C’mon. Let’s get wasted and make fools of ourselves.”
“Make a fool of yourself and leave me out of it.” I turned to Darryl. “Do you sing too?”
“Oh fuck no. The guitar is the extent of my musical abilities.”
“Remember when you used to play, and I’d—” Roscoe went rigid when Darryl bared his teeth.
“I think karaoke is a great idea,” I cut in, trying to disperse the tension. “You guys wanna leave when the storm calms down?”
“Sounds good,” Roscoe replied, giving a dangerously quiet Darryl a sideways glance. “Listen, buddy—”
“I’m not your buddy,” the larger werewolf interrupted before climbing to his feet. He took a few steps toward the front door. “Karaoke’s fine. I’ll be back later.”
With that, he disappeared outside, the door slamming shut behind him.
Roscoe stared down at the floor. “I’m sure he’s had some nice things to say.”
“Quite a bit, actually,” I whispered, the tension tightening like a noose around us both. “I can’t blame him for still being upset.”
“I know. I searched for that damn guitar for years, even though I knew the thing was long gone. Part of me thought he’d moved on when I brought you here.”
“Did you ever apologize?”
“Cody, what the hell am I supposed to say? ‘Sorry I sold the most important thing in your life for smack’? That was my lowest point, and I still hate myself for it.”
“You should open with that.”
“I can barely look him in the eyes, and in case you haven’t noticed, he’s way bigger than me.”
“Well, at least you heal fast.”
“That ain’t funny.” His tone was a lot more serious than it had been. “He almost beat my brains out that morning. I’m actually kinda scared of him sometimes.”
“Sorry.”
“I fucked up, and I lost one of my best friends.”
“I don’t think you did.” This was a good segue into what I really wanted to ask him. “Youareclean, right?”
“Almost ten years,” he said, his ears pointing a little higher.
“Then let that be the starting point. Find a way to make it up to him and apologize. If there wasn’t a chance, he would have never let us stay here. The fact that you two can even sit in the same room together proves that.”
“Let’s see how tonight goes. It’s up to him if he wants to hear me out.”
“Just don’t get too drunk, please.”
Roscoe let out a whine. “But that’s half the fun.”
“Yeah, but it’s not going to be much fun if you say something stupid and drunk Darryl gets your brain matter all over me.”
“All right. I won’t have that much, but you gotta sing a song with me.”
“No. I don’t know how many times I have to say it.”
