A rare break.
“Got something to talk to you about,” Hutch said.
“Shoot,” Stormy replied.
“It’s personal.”
Storm smiled a rare smile, and it wasn’t lost that was the way Hutch used to be.
Before Mabel.
“Cleaned a lot of fish next to you, brother.I know you’ve been through more intense bonding rituals, but that’s what works in Misted Pines.”
Hutch returned his smile.
Then he got up, went to the door, closed it and came back.
“Shit, thisispersonal,” Stormy said, eyeing him closely.
“You been serious with a woman since Angelica?”Hutch asked.
Stormy’s face got hard.“I wasn’t serious with Angelica.”
“You know what I mean.You seen anyone you started to give a shit about?”
“Is this about Mabel?”
“Is that you avoiding my question?”After he said that, Hutch realized how edgy he was about all this, and that question was taking it out on Stormy, so he lifted a hand and shook his head.“Sorry.Not my business.You don’t have to?—”
“It’s not that it isn’t your business.It’s just…yeah.”Now Stormy was shaking his head.“I saw Lillian.”
Christ.
Of course.
How could he forget?
They’d been together awhile.
It was just that now Lillian and Harry were so much a couple, it was like they always had been.
Stormy kept talking.
“Angelica screwed me.I screwed the pooch with Lillian.But other than Lillian, no.”
“What screwed the pooch with Lillian?”
Storm had a ready answer.
One that Hutch also felt in his gut.
“Me being pissed at Angelica.Me holding on to being pissed at Angelica.Me letting what Angelica did to me color how I saw Lillian.Allowing it to hold me back when I had genuine feelings for her that were growing, and it tripped my shit, so I blew it.”
Hutch looked beyond him at the grimy window behind Stormy’s desk, consciously letting every word Stormy said sink in and do it deep.
“My turn, so I’ll repeat the question.This have to do with Mabel?”Stormy asked.
Hutch looked back to him.“Yeah.”
