BEAUTIFUL BROKEN MESS (Broken, Series #2)(119)

“She’s not here,” Em calls out.

“Then why is Chuck here?” I reach down and scratch him behind the ears.

“I forgot that I agreed to watch him while her and Lane went out of town,” she says, grabbing for her cereal bowl.

“They went out of town? Together?” I ask, trying to keep the uneasiness out of my voice.

“I thought you were going to make everything better last night?”

“That was the plan. Obviously things changed.”

“Last week, Audrey asked him if they could go check out New York to see if it was somewhere she’d want to move to...after graduation,” she adds timidly.

“Hell no. Hell no. Over my dead body,” I claim.

“I was hoping you’d say that. But since you’re in the same boat as I am and can’t afford to miss any more days of class, you’ll have to wait here for her to come back.” She smiles brightly as if that’s the best f*cking news she’s heard all day.

“You’re happy about this?” I ask incredulously.

“Hell yeah, I want to see you grovel in person. Hearing it secondhand is never as fun,” she confides.

“You’re lucky I have to love you,” I tease.

“Hey, I have to make up for all those years I never had a brother.”

“Funny, I never actually wanted a sister.” And just like that we fall back into our normal banter and easy relationship. “Chuck’s gonna stay with me, okay?”

“Go ahead, I guess he’ll be your dog soon enough,” she replies and pats him on the head.

“So how much longer do I have to suffer without my girl?”

“Shouldn’t be more than a week,” she replies with a smile.

I bite back a groan and say, “Well shit, I might as well catch up on my sleep this week. I sure as hell don’t plan on doing much of that when she finally gets back.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Once I told Uncle Logan I had Jax and Cole on board with me, his enthusiasm kicked into overdrive. Logan will keep the reins for another couple of years until we have the hang of everything, but I can tell he’s itching to retire. Something about buying a cabin in the mountains, being able to spend his days with the wife, and catching fish.

Every day, I’ve had the damn UPS man at my door with another box of documents for me to get familiar with. I don’t think Logan understands that I eventually have to move all of these boxes back to Texas. It’s nice to get a head-start on working there though.

All of his paperwork is teaching me the groundwork of the company and what I should initially be expecting in our day-to-day operations. I’ve been trying to familiarize myself with our clients and their backgrounds. The last thing I want to do is show up and not know who the hell I’m protecting.

It all comes down to security, whether it’s installing advanced systems on their properties or individual protection on their persons. The company itself is pretty well-rounded, and I can’t wait for the three amigos to jump in there and start taking care of business. Now I just need to get the third lady to permanently join this gang.

Thankfully, I convinced my professors to not drop me from their courses. A couple of them assigned an extra paper and one asked me to bring her a Diet Coke to every class until the end of the semester. The last one was a hard sale, but when I showed him that I have my entire business proposal that’s due for our final already drawn up, he quickly turned a blind eye to my absences.

It’s taken everything in me not to haul ass to New York and go all cavemen on Audrey. While I would love to drag her back here, Em is right. It wouldn’t do any of us any good if I get kicked out of school due to my deficient attendance record.