“Damn right, sweetheart. Now, what can I do to help? Let’s get this show on the road.”
Between us, we cooked the scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, toast, and took that with coffee to the dining table, sitting side by side to eat.
“This is amazing,” Henley murmured between mouthfuls. He was eating like he really had been starved, but something about it was endearing. And more than that, the satisfaction I felt for cooking, and for it being appreciated like this, was another boost to my spirit. Maybe all I needed was to not be taken for granted. And he did that. He always treated me like I mattered, appreciated the things I did, and was just as willing to step in and help.
“He never helped,” I blurted, rolling my eyes at myself, “we just said not to let him in, and here I am, but I felt like it needed to be said.”
Henley nudged my knee with his.
“If talking helps, then do it. You can disparage him all you want, and I’ll join in, but he doesn’t get to live rent free in your head anymore. You can do and be whatever you want now.”
I nodded, setting aside an empty plate with satisfaction, because I served up a decent sized meal, and I ate it all without guilt or recrimination. I wrapped my hands around my coffee, and mused quietly.
“I said talking’s okay, Glory. I won’t get mad or blame you for any of it. I think that’s part of the problem with people outside of what you’ve been through. They judge, even if they don’t mean to. Who the hell cares how they’d have handled things? They weren’t there.”
“You’re right. It’s why I didn’t go home to my parents. Not only did they resent my distancing from them, but they can’t really understand how I let Sean have so much power over me.”
I sipped my coffee. “I don’t even really know how it happened, but it was so gradual that it just seemed like natural progression. It wasn’t a fast thing. Like I didn’t just go from having familyand friends to nothing, it was a little at a time. Missing going to things because of date nights, and him feeling like I spent too much time with certain people, him introducing me to other people, and drawing me into his life. It seemed normal, but now I see it for what it was. Him choosing my friends. Him deciding who I spend time with. Him isolating me, until he was all I had.”
Henley groaned, shoving his plate aside, and resting a hand over his stomach.
“Fuck me, I’m so full, but it was delicious. Thanks, sweetheart. And look, I’m sorry for my part in that. I know I drifted away, but it hurt so much to see you choosing him instead of me, and I get it. I was being a petulant little prick. I just… I felt like I had to move on, because you had. I wish to god that I’d pushed more. I should have started stalking the hell out of you when you disappeared from my life, but instead I accepted it, because I figured it was what you wanted.”
I reached over and grabbed his hand, squeezing it gently, my wounded hand from yesterday wrapped around my mug and feeling mostly back to normal thanks to plenty of ice and anti-inflammatories.
“It wasn’t my fault or yours, and that’s what we’re taking from this. He was an asshole, and now he’s simply a dead asshole.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Prospect duty had beenmore fun with Rocket, but now he was patched back in, he wasn’t loitering at the gate with me anymore. In fact, today it was just me, while the other prospects helped lug building supplies back and forth. At least they were getting a workout, while I stood here growing carbuncles. It was boring as hell.
“Pouting, prospect? It’s like you think you’re hard done by, or something,” Micro said as he passed by with Harley, both of them looking over designs or something.
“You want me to take a shift there, and let one of them rest?”
Micro snorted. “They’re all working off bad behaviour. You’re my only well behaved prospect, although,” he grinned at Harley, “he’s kinda whiney, right? Poor me standing by a gate all day. Poor me not getting punishment duty like the others.”
I flipped him off, but apparently that wasn’t enough to get me off the gate either.
“Can you at least get some guys to come and go more, so I get to open the gate a few times?”
His laughter faded as he and Harley kept walking, but then Micro was heading back over to me alone.
“Look, I get that this is a boring job, but you’re getting the easy life as a thank you for all this,” he gestured to the temporary housing I’d supplied, “I’m sure you’re Phoenix material, only we’ve had complaints that we’re letting people in too fast, and you’re new to everyone. Try to interact more with them, because just hanging with Rocket and chatting to the other prospects isn’t exactly mingling.”
I gestured at the building site in progress with frustration.
“Hang where? We have no clubhouse, and I’m not giving up my home for this. Every fucker who comes in heads straight for my supposedly secret man cave!”
Micro grinned. “There are these things called pubs, and people can hang out in them and shoot the shit. Tell you what, you organise something to get a group of brothers hanging out, and not just the ones you like, and I’ll shave another week off. How’s that?”
“Two weeks,” I countered, and he snorted.
“Ten or more brothers, and I’ll agree to two weeks.”
Fuck yes. I grinned at him, and dug out my phone. I knew exactly where this could go down, and be a great night out. This was going to be epic, and I knew just who to enlist to help me plan too.
“Glory? You wanna help me out with something?”
