Besides, I was glad he got a meal and a ticket to Buffalo. I still didn’t like that coat, though. It was ugly.
“Anyway, this coat has always meant a lot to me, but Tommy slashed it with his knife,” Rett said, holding out the fabric and showing me the long slash in the sleeve.
Tommy was about to learn the true meaning of fuck around and find out.
Gently, I tugged the coat away to carefully drape it over the back of the couch. “Don’t stress about it, baby. I’ll fix it.”
“You can sew?” His big, wet eyes looked so impressed and enamored that there was only one response.
“Of course.”
He smiled, big and bright. His happiness was so pure it actually made me feel dirty.
“Thank you, Hiro.”
I mean, sewing a coat couldn’t be that different from closing gunshot and knife wounds. Right? It’s definitely less bloody.
I plopped down on the couch and immediately got a lap full of feet.
I can’t believe he kept these socks.I remembered pacing at the door the night I left, knowing I had to go but not wanting to.
I’d given him all the cash I had on hand, cookies, the bag, the stuffie… paid for the motel room through the week. But it still hadn’t felt like enough.
Just as I was about to walk out, he’d made a small noise in his sleep that had me rushing back to his bedside, panicking that something was wrong.
He’d just been shifting in his sleep, his bare foot hanging off the side of the bed. When I grabbed it to slide it back beneath the covers, I’d noticed how icy his toes felt. I immediately stripped off my boots to put my socks on his feet.
After that, I forced myself to go.
“Hiro?”
I snapped out of the memory to glance around theransacked room. “What happened?”
“Tommy wants me to deal drugs for him.”
I was not prepared because:
What do you mean he wants my little Pip to deal drugs?No.Absolutely not.
and
“I did not expect you to answer that easily.”
Rett made a face. “It’s easier this way, and I’m tired.”
The dark circles beneath his eyes backed up his words, as did the pallor of his skin. I couldn’t shake the feeling he wasn’t just tired. There was something else. I’d had that sense two years ago too, but I’d refused to acknowledge it because it would have made leaving even harder than it always was.
“Are you an addict?” I demanded, suddenly impatient to know. Kieran seemed completely convinced, and while I admit he was a drama queen, his judgment of character was usually spot on. I trusted him. More than anyone else. So even when I told him his head was full of bullshit, I still respected his word.
Rett sat up a little straighter. “W-what?”
