looking at it made you want to cry.”
I could barely breathe through my cackling. “I can’t do this with you, Young. I—” Laughter overtook me completely as Jax jutted out his lower lip and batted his eyelashes. “Oh, God, stop! You’re killing me.”
“Just say it,” he whined in a high-pitched voice, reaching over to grasp my forearm with both hands. “Say, ‘Jax, your dick is huge and Luke Turner’s, whose name I didn’t even know, is like a baby’s and seeing it made me weep.’”
“Yes, that,” I said through my uncontrollable giggles. “Whatever you say. Lord, just stop with the eyes! I’m dying!”
“Oh, thank God.” He slumped over to lie next to me again and looked down at his crotch. “We dodged that bullet, Thor. We’re still the champs.” He glanced over at me with a wink. “Oh, yeah. I renamed him Thor. Like the God of Thunder? I don’t think I need to explain why.”
I was still grinning so wide my face threatened to crack, laughter echoing in my chest. “Thank you for keeping me up-to-date on the latest happenings in your pants. I appreciate it.”
“Not a problem.” He took my hand once more. “I know how you like to stay informed.”
We spent another half hour or so like that, laughing and teasing and generally just being us, something I don’t think we ever really got to do away from each other. At least I didn’t. After a while, when my mind started to wander, Jax squeezed the hand still in his grasp to get my attention. I pulled myself from my thoughts, which kept straying back to Preach and the newly named Turner, to look over at him.
“Think you ought to go to the hospital?”
I shook my head firmly and didn’t have to elaborate further because Jax, of all people, knew. Servers don’t have insurance and they sure as hell don’t have the money to pay a hefty E.R. bill and still pay the rest of their bills. He didn’t offer me the money he didn’t have or say we could skip out on the electricity, and I was grateful because, to me, that was a real friend. One who accepted the situation and your decision and didn’t try to argue it. Even if they did have a misguided notion that it was their job to keep you out of trouble.
“Well, kid, I have to be at work soon. Unless you’d rather...?”
“No. Go,” I told him firmly. “I’m good. I’ll probably go back to sleep.”
“Okay. Well, if you need anything—”
“I’ll call.”
He looked mildly satisfied as he stood, then helped me up. I let him just to humor him and not because I felt as if I’d been hit by a freight train.
“Take your pill,” he instructed once I was fully upright. “Hell, take two. I can always get more from Fury.”
I gave him a mock salute and he strolled off toward his room. I found the fallen Vicodin in the mess of glass and water. It was slightly dissolved, but I stooped to pick it up anyway, ignoring the rest. I grabbed another for the road from the bottle next to the sink, then shuffled back to my own room, vowing to curl up around my bottle of Jäger and sleep the aches away.
Chapter Six
I ended up calling off Saturday, which I couldn’t really afford to do. I told Jax it was because I was still sore. The reality was I just didn’t want to face Preach. Cowardly, maybe, but junkie or not, I kinda cared about the old fucker.
I forced myself to go Sunday. I’d never avoided anything in my life and I sure as hell wasn’t going to start now. I was nervous and it was a foreign feeling to me. What if he was there? What if he was waiting for me and he had an explanation, a good explanation, for what had happened? What if he didn’t have one at all? I wasn’t sure which would have been worse.
Until I pulled into the lot and parked in my usual spot, despite Jax’s warnings about sticking near Duke’s. I knew then which was worse. Preach not being around at all.
My mind was instantly on overdrive and I was considering every possible scenario. He was avoiding me.
Andrew Hunter
Ōgai Mori
Dorien Grey
Jaz Johnson
Leslie Meier
Patricia; Potter
kit Crumb
Chrissy Peebles
Devin Graham
The Love Detectives (SS)