“Rob!” Mike sounds relieved when he answers. “Did you get my text? I know it’s a lot, but Jesus, it’s highway robbery what these assholes charge?—”
“I’m okay, by the way,” I interrupt. “I mean, you didn’t ask, but just in case you wanted to know.”
“Uh. Okay. What do you?—?”
“There was a fire last night. A bad one. I had to pull my best friend out of a burning building.”
“Ames? Was he at the mill fire? Damn. I didn’t know.”
“Because you didn’t ask. Because youneverask. You went straight to asking for whatyouneed.”
“Robbie, that’s not fair. I’m desperate here?—”
“You always are. But when was the last time you called me to talk? When was the last time you asked what was going on in my life?”
“I… I’ve been busy. Fucking Luc Tremblay fired me, and?—”
“And there’s always someone else to blame, isn’t there? Jesus Christ, Mike, we’re all busy. We’re all tired. We all have bad shit happen. But we make time for people we love. Like me, making time to send you money for fuckingyears, bailing you out every time you got in a jam. You know why I did that?”
“Because you love me. Because you’re my brother?—”
“Because I kept hoping if I helped you enough, you’d become the brother I need. That you’d start to give a shit about me. But you never have. And I’m understanding,finally, that you never will.”
“Robbie, come on,” Mike pleads. “Don’t do this now, okay? You can be mad at me later, but right now, I really need?—”
“Don’t call me again, Mike. Don’t text me. I’m blocking your number. Until you’re ready to have a relationship that doesn’t involve me bailing you out, we’re done.”
I end the call and climb the rest of the stairs to the fifth floor. The door to Ames’s room is partially open, and I hear him talking—maybe muttering to himself and trying to get out of bed. I have one moment where I let myself imagine his eyes lighting up when he sees me like they did last night?—
But when I push the door open another inch, I see that Auden’s still here. He and Ames are listening to a comedy bit on Auden’s phone and chuckling together at whatever the comedian is saying.
My stomach, which has been in free fall since lunch, hits bottom. And I force myself to turn away and walk back down the stairs and out to my truck, alone.
What I thought before, with Lissa, was right. I’m not in the headspace for serious conversations, and the last person who deserves my emotional overwhelm is the sweet man in that hospital room already dealing with enough discomfort.
Just because I want to be Ames’s number one person right now doesn’t mean that’s whathewants.
And what Ames Axford wants is my priority, no matter how much it kills me to walk away.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
AMES
“Never!”I glare at Robbie with every ounce of strength I can muster… which admittedly isn’t much, considering my body feels like it’s been tenderized with a meat mallet. “Absolutely fucking not.”
“Absolutely fuckingyes.” Robbie stands at the foot of my hospital bed, arms crossed.
He’s fresh from a decent night’s sleep and a morning shower I’m incredibly jealous of, wearing clean jeans and a Winsome FD hoodie that makes his shoulders look impossibly broad. His green eyes are locked on mine with an intensity that makes me really glad they removed my betraying heart monitor yesterday afternoon.
“Maybe you could—” Auden pipes up from my side, but neither of us is paying attention.
“Ames.” Anna takes a little piece of paper from the pocket of her pink scrubs and records something—probably my rapidly increasing blood pressure—and shakes her head so her blonde ponytail swishes. Her voice reminds me of my mother’s—not mad, just disappointed. “You heard what the doctor said. Minimum one week bed rest, followed by another week at home taking it easy, then PT.”
She sounds way too composed for a person who’s reminding me I’m out of commission for a while.
“But that doesn’t mean I need to live with anyone,” I protest, though I don’t believe my own lie. I still can’t get to the bathroom without help. “I don’t need a… a nursemaid.”
“No, of course not,” Robbie says. “Just look at how you took care of yourself last night when you tried to get out of bed. Remind me again how that ended?”
