Mystery Man (Dream Man #1)(80)

“Unh-hunh,” I repeated. “I don’t know what it is with you but if you have time to process this, we will. See, I didn’t cut the hair off your Barbies. I didn’t steal your shit to buy drugs. I didn’t put my hand down your boyfriends’ pants. And I didn’t f**k your husband.”

“I knew you’d eventually throw that in my face,” she returned.

Was she for real?

“You f**ked my husband!” I yelled.

“Yeah, Gwen, and then you got shot of his ass. You never shoulda hooked up with that dickface in the first place. Now you’re shacked up with Hawk f**kin’ Delgado, of all f**kin’ people, you should be kissin’ my f**kin’ feet.”

This point had merit.

“I knew you did that for me,” I said quietly.

“Someone had to wake your shit up.”

Oh. My. God.

Was that sisterly love I was feeling for Ginger? I couldn’t quite tell since I hadn’t felt it for what seemed like centuries.

“Ginger, honey, please listen to me –”

“No. I don’t know what Conan told you but you have no idea what’s goin’ down with me. What I know is perfect, sweet Gwennie doesn’t have the tools to help me sort this shit out. No one does. Not even Conan. I’m in this alone and I don’t give a f**k. I’ve always been in it alone.”

“Maybe if you’d accept a little help –”

“Fuck you, Gwen. You don’t want to help me. You want the drive-bys to stop.”

“Yes, I do. Definitely,” I agreed. “But I also don’t want my sister to be out there on her own against multiple bad guys when maybe I can help.”

“There is no help for this.”

“Ginger –”

“Don’t f**kin’ call back, Gwen. Ever. Yeah?”

More dead air.

I flipped my phone shut on a hissed, “Shit!”

Then it rang instantly and I flipped it back open, thinking it was Ginger and put it to my ear.

“Ginger?”

“No,” I heard, “Troy.”

Oh shit.

“Troy,” I said quietly.

“Yeah, remember me?”

Uh-oh.

“Troy, I –”

“Got your house shot up. I called four times, no call back. Heard you were okay from Tracy. You call when your bathroom faucet doesn’t shut off but you don’t call when I’m worried out of my mind, I hear your living room’s been shot to shit?”

“Things have been a little crazy.”

“Gwen, you got your house shot up in a drive-by,” he returned. “I know things are crazy but too crazy to call your f**king friend and let him know you’re all right?”

“Mom came by yesterday,” I informed him. “I was a little out of sorts.”

“I can see Meredith would be freaked about –”

“No, Troy, not Meredith, Mom.”

Silence.

I took in a deep breath. “Hawk hurt you and I’m sorry about that. He’s… um… well… whatever. That’s the way he is. I didn’t know what to say to you so –”

“You didn’t know what to say to me because you’ve been hiding a relationship from me for a year and a half. And, like a chump, you’re on the town with Rambo and I’m working in your kitchen and on your house all that time.”

“It wasn’t like that,” I declared and it wasn’t. I just had no intention of telling him what it was like.

“Bullshit. It was just like that. So I figure I deserve an explanation of why you’d play me for a chump, Gwen.”

All right, I was getting mad again.

“Actually, Troy, what it was like is none of your business. I didn’t play you for a chump. You’re my friend. When you need something, you call on your friends.”

“Yeah, you have no problem doing that.”

“And you don’t either,” I shot back. “Wasn’t it me you called when you got that terrible flu and I took you to the doctor and I took you home and I made sure you had your medicine and enough Kleenex and cleaned out your vomit bowl? News flash, Troy, I do not like vomit, at all. I avoid vomit like I avoid orange-hued lipstick, in other words, at all costs. But I’ll deal with it for a friend.”

“Gwen –”

“And wasn’t it me, when you wanted to impress that girl, that came over and made a three course meal for you to claim as your own when you had her over to your house?”

“I –”

I cut him off and pulled out the big guns.

“And wasn’t it me who dropped everything and flew down to Tucson with you so you could help your Mom arrange to bring your father back up to Denver for his funeral?”

“Honey –”

“This wasn’t a one way street and you know it,” I cut him off again. “I gave as good as I took and it upsets me that you’d say differently. Now, my living room is a disaster, I can’t go home, my parents can’t go home, my sister is in trouble and my mother showed up out of the blue because she heard I hooked myself a man who could afford Jimmy Choos so she wanted to get in there and get… whatever. I haven’t seen her for decades and there she was. I found out she’d always been close but didn’t give a shit to get closer until she thought she could get something out of it. I’m sorry Hawk hurt your feelings and, on top of all this, I’ve been worried that I’d lose you because of it. But I don’t need this shit now, Troy. I need my friends around me and if you aren’t that, I don’t know what to say except it would kill to find that out now after all we’ve been to each other.”