“Well then I’m calling Logan,” I tell him and scroll thorough my contacts until I find my brother’s name. He doesn’t try to grab my phone when I say that and I take it as a good sign. My brother answers on the second ring. “Hey. Can you come to Abbott’s? He’s drunk and I don’t know what to do.”
Logan doesn’t even pause to think about it. “On my way.”
I shove my phone back in my pants pocket. Abbott is glaring at me. “Aren’t you going to look like a good best friend.”
“Look, you’re all over the place right now. And you’ve said a load of stuff that I can’t even begin to unpack with you in the condition you’re in,” I tell him flatly. I drop my hand from his chest and walk over and start collecting the beers. “But mark my words, we will unpack it. Even if, when you sober up, you still want me gone, we are talking about the things you said.”
He mutters something I can’t quite hear and don’t ask him to repeat. Instead, I march into the kitchen with the beers he didn’t drink. There I open each of them and pour them down the drain. As I walk out to the back porch to dump the bottles in the recycling, I see Logan’s car turn onto the street. Thank God his and Chloe’s place is just around the corner.
I walk to the back door and open it as Logan gets out of his car, which he parked behind mine. His face is solemn. I probably look pale and haggard because that’s how I feel. Behind me Abbott, who must have entered the kitchen, yells, “You threw out all my beer!”
Logan gives me a grim smile. “You did the right thing, Deck.”
He slips past me into the house and I close the door and lean against it. “Well, if I did, it would be a first.”
I whisper it to myself, or the universe, I guess. Even if Logan can get Abbott back on track, this night has left me kind of derailed. And I don’t know who can fix that.
20
DECLAN
I wakeup and my back aches. I don’t think the mattress is actually shit or anything. I think my body is complaining about being so far from Abbott. Fuck, we’ve only lived together for eight days and my body already considers him — his bed — home. I try to stretch out the ache and my toes stub the sturdy metal cylinders that make up the footboard of the bed frame. I reach for my phone on the antique night table and my heart leaps into my throat.
It’s almost ten-thirty in the morning. I was supposed to help Nova open the restaurant at seven. Fuck! I’m a cyclone of movement for the next four minutes, throwing on clothes, finger combing my hair, and then flinging open the guest bedroom door with one sock on and one in my hand. I make it five stumbling steps when I hear Logan’s voice. “I forgot to tell you, Finn is covering your shift.”
I stop abruptly. Well, all of me except my left foot does. It’s the one with the sock and no grip so it keeps sliding forward. I must look like Bambi on a skating rink for a second but I manage to right myself. Logan just smiles and then scratches the back of his head. “You were really going to rush into work? After the night you had?”
We were up until five in the morning with Abbott, helping him sober up and talking through a lot of what tipped his sobriety. Not all of it though, because Abbott didn’t want to tell Logan about us. And I know the fact he thought I was on a date with Gael was a factor. Maybe a big one.
“Yeah. I have a responsibility to the family,” I reply and give him a look that screams ‘duh’. “And I’ve let you guys down enough.”
“You’ve never once, that I can remember, let us down.” Logan’s words are firm and flow from his mouth without an ounce of sarcasm or flattery.
“I don’t believe that.”
“I know. I wish I could figure out how to make you.” Logan sighs and then his eyes drift to the stairs. “Abbott is asleep. Can you make me some coffee with that spaceship of a coffeemaker of yours?”
I nod and motion for him to start down the stairs. He does and I follow. We’re on the back staircase so we end up directly in the kitchen. It’s immaculate. I walk past the coffee bar where I set up my expensive, amazing machine when I moved in, and glance through the archway into the living room. It’s also immaculate. “Aspen went on a cleaning spree when she came home, I guess. She walked in just as Abbott and I were heading to the meeting.”
I nod. I went to bed at five in the guest room. Abbott and Logan had both fallen asleep in the living room. One on the couch and Logan in the leather recliner. Logan promised me he’d get Abbott to the first AA meeting in the morning and introduce him to a sponsor. Apparently, Abbott is open to that idea now. I hadn’t been right there with them the whole night. I went for a walk on the beach at one point to give them some time.
“Did she have a meltdown?”
“She was surprisingly calm about the news,” Logan tells me as I walk back to the coffee bar and he sits at the island. “She was upset and I could tell she kind of wanted to cry and slap him at the same time.”
“Get in line, Aspy,” I mutter as I flip a few switches on the machine and reach for a bag of special roast Columbian beans.
“She didn’t though. She just hugged him and when we got back from the meeting an hour ago, I found the place like this.” Logan points toward the living room. “And she left a note saying she was running errands and would be back in the afternoon.”
I nod and concentrate on making him a latte. He likes lattes. At least he used to. It’s been a long time since I had coffee with Logan. “Thanks again for everything.”
“Don’t worry about it. Happy to help. Just wish you didn’t need the help. Well, that Abbott didn’t,” Logan says and stifles a yawn as the beans grind and the machine gurgles and I pour some milk into the frothing cup.
“And it went well? The meeting? Will Cookie sponsor him? Is he open to that?” I glance over my shoulder and Logan’s mouth is pressed together in a firm line. He’s not talking. “Right. Not my business. It’s anonymous for a reason.”
“Abbott can tell you if he wants to,” Logan explains. “But it’s not my place.”
“Understandable,” I agree as the hot brown deliciousness that is coffee begins to trickle into the cup I placed on the machine. A few seconds later I hand him his latte and he smiles. “Thanks.”
