Crazy Girl(69)

“Thinking about my book,” I fibbed.

“You said you’d be back tomorrow,” Deanna griped on the phone. Kate and I glanced at each other, but quieted down. We didn’t want to eavesdrop, but we also didn’t want to talk and interrupt either.

“You’ve been gone twenty out of the last thirty days, Allen,” she went on as she walked into the living room.

“They okay?” I whispered.

“I think so. He’s just been gone so much this entire pregnancy, and I think she’s just lonely. Sucks being preggers and by yourself all the time.”

“I’m here, bitches,” Courtney hollered as she strolled in the kitchen with two bottles of wine. She’d just had her hair colored purple and it looked amazing.

Kate and I put our fingers to our lips so she’d know to quiet down then laughed as we both hugged her.

Deanna entered the kitchen again, tossing the phone on the table with a huff. “You okay?” Kate asked her.

“Yeah,” she grumbled. “Just want to strangle my husband.”

“Been there,” Courtney piped in.

“Do ex-husbands count?” I queried. “Because if so, I have one I’d like to strangle.”

“They do.” Courtney bobbed her head with a serious expression.

“He’s just so damn frustrating. He wants this promotion so bad…we don’t need the money.”

“So why is he going for it?” Kate asked.

“Money,” Deanna snickered. Pulling a chair out, she plopped down in it. “I’m sorry. You guys know Allen is the best…we’re just in a funk. He wants to supply the baby with a college fund all before the baby is born.”

“We know that,” Courtney assured her as she went to her and kissed the top of her head. “You know, ladies, I think Deanna is having a rough day. The three of us need to do our due diligence as her best friends and drink heavily tonight on her behalf.”

“Done.” I shook my fist in the air.

“I’m always here for you, Deanna.” Kate raised her glass in toast.

Deanna grinned. “Aww, you guys would really get shit-faced while I was forced to watch stone-cold sober just to make me feel better?”

We all laughed.

“That’s what real friends do,” Courtney told her.

“Gee, you guys are the best,” she said dryly. “Don’t choke on your drinks.”

And then she laughed at her joke, and we drank all the wine while Deanna watched, stone-cold sober.





Apologies





I reeled in my fishing line, frustrated I hadn’t caught anything. It was my first day of a month off, and I was trying my damnedest to find my happy place; my Zen. I wasn’t an avid fisherman—amateur at best—but I liked it and having a place to do it within walking distance was all the more reason for me to partake.

I’d just cast my line in the water again when I heard Kegs shout for me. He was walking up the pier toward me, dressed in his usual work attire—fitted black T-shirt and cargo pants. I looked like a bum wearing nothing but a pair of basketball shorts with holes in them. I hadn’t really been that concerned with my looks the past few days. “You caught anything, bro?”

“Not a damn thing,” I grumbled.

When he reached me, he gave me his usual hard slap on the back. “Just got off. Thought I’d come by and check on ya. I wasn’t sure if you’d be home, or with Hannah.”

I grimaced. I’d put Hannah off for a couple of days now, and I knew I was an ass for it. “Haven’t seen her in a few days.”

Kegs crossed his arms as we stared at my line in the water. “You guys break up or something?”

“No. Just in a shitty frame of mind and don’t want to subject her to it.” I didn’t want to hurt her, but I was the kind of man that dealt with problems on my own. I didn’t want to purge on her. I’d thought keeping some distance from her would give me a chance to calm down about my own personal problems, but it hadn’t. In fact, it had made it worse because not only was I missing work…I was missing her, too.

Shaking his head, he let out an audible sigh.

“What?”

“You do realize she’s a woman?”

I smirked as I cut a sideways glance at him. “She has all the right parts.”

He ignored my smartass comment. “You do realize women like attention and laying low is probably freaking her the hell out?”

Releasing a deep breath, I reeled in my line. “She doesn’t need to be around me when I’m all pissy about personal problems.”

“Do you like the woman, Wren?” he asked bluntly. “I mean, is she just a hook-up, or do you think you guys might have something?”

His question took me off guard. “I like her. She’s…scary,” I chuckled. “Definitely a mess, but yeah,” I nodded with certainty, “I like her.”

“Then let her in, man.”

Kegs was one of the few people that knew about my life and the losses I’d endured. He knew about my mother and my sister, and we’d lost mutual friends while serving. He understood it was hard for me to let people in. Staying unattached to people protected me from the hurt experienced in losing them. I cared for Hannah and I knew he was right. Either I needed to let her in, let her be close to me, or I needed to cut her loose.