My phone vibrates in my pocket and I pull it out, seeing AJ’s mug appear on my screen. I answer, asking, “What’s up?”
“I might need you to come get me,” he says.
“Where the hell are you?”
“Downtown,” he says simply.
“You had too much to drink?”
“No.”
“AJ, where the hell are you?”
“County jail,” he mutters.
“Jesus, AJ. What the hell did you do?”
“Please,” he begs quietly.
“I’ll be there as soon as I can.” I drop the phone onto the couch and grab Olive’s jacket from the coat hook. “I’m taking you over to Lana’s. Grab your things,” I tell Olive.
“What about you?” she asks. “I want you to come, too.”
“I need to go help Uncle first.”
I scoop her up, along with the Barbie dolls she planned on taking over to Lana’s. We run across the street Charlotte opens the door as we approach. The front step. The poor thing opens the door with a large grin, but I’m about to ruin that.
“AJ got locked up; I have to go get him out,” I tell her.
“What?” she asks, shocked. “What the hell did he do?”
“No clue.”
Charlotte takes Olive by the arm and pulls her into the house. “Come in, honey, Lana’s upstairs. Go on up.” Olive turns back around and gives me a quick hug before she runs inside. “Do you need me to do anything?”
“No, if you could just watch Olive, I’ll let you know as soon as I find out what happened. I should just leave the moron there, but—“
“That’s not who you are,” she says, pushing up onto her toes and leaving me with a soft kiss on my cheek. “There’s always time for ‘whatever’later.” Her words float into my ear, crashing into my already confused thoughts, and I respond with a smile.
I should say more to her, like,I can’t wait, or something, but words don’t come to me, so instead I just wrap my arm around her shoulders and leave her with a kiss on the top of her head. “I’ll let you know as soon as I find out what’s going on.”
CHAPTER TEN
“Really?” is allI have to say to AJ as he walks through the alarmed door in the Sheriff’s office.
“I can explain,” he mutters. His usual happy-go-lucky grin isn’t plastered across his face and his eyes are half-lidded. Actually, he’s got a black eye. AJ is a lot of things, but he isn’t a fighter, so this surprises me a bit and I ease back on some of my anger.
“What the hell happened to you?” I ask him quietly.
He avoids my question as he turns to the security window. An officer hands him a small pile of belongings and AJ turns around, still avoiding me while he heads for the main door.
As we make it out to the car, the silence becomes alarming. He can’t find one word to explain how he managed to get himself arrested tonight? “Unlock the door,” he says.
“Not until you tell me what happened.”
“Alexa happened,” he growls, pressing his thumb into his bottom lip, which I now see is split open.My God.
“Alexa did this to you?” I ask, sounding doubtful. That girl is by no means big enough to do the type of damage that has been done to him, so there has to be more to this story.
