I grab my duffel bag and suitcase, shove them in the back of Hailey’s car, close it up, and slide in.
“What a heap of shit.” I laugh to myself as I slide the seat back to accommodate my legs.
I take my time driving back to Rock City so as not to push Hailey’s car too hard. My head is throbbing, my side hurts too much to sit for very long, and I don’t wanna show up with a black eye and stitches.
The only thing I tell my brothers and Hailey, who only calls once a day, is that I am enjoying my road trip.
When I arrive back home, Hendrix walks out of his garage, wiping his hand on a grease towel. “Get a new car?” He laughs at me.
“Hailey’s ride. Got rid of the—”
“What the hell happened to your eye?”
“Fell down the stairs when I was leaving. Vegas’s final kick to my ass to head me in the right direction.”
“Is that the story?”
“Yes, it is.”
“The pretty boy car?”
“Got rid of it.”
“Another lost bet?”
“I didn’t lose shit.” I look at the stairs leading up to the apartment. “She up there?”
“Nah. She went to work. Sally’s kid has a fever.”
“The youngest?”
“Yeah.”
“Kid’s sick a lot, isn’t she?” Hendrix nods his reply, and I ask, “The little chick?”
“Upstairs with your sister-in-law.”
“My sister-in-law, huh? You two on the outs?”
“Fuck no! Why would you say shit like that?” Hendrix clinches his fists.
“’Cause you said ‘your sister-in-law,’ not ‘my wife’ or ‘Livi’ or—” I shake my head, ’cause the fucker is confusing me.
“She is your sister-in-law. She’s family, just like that little chick is starting to feel, and just like your ‘friend’ is, too.”
“Good. They need family.”
“You have a plan?”
“A plan?”
“Don’t play fucking dumb with me, Morrison. You like her enough to bring her here and then go back to Vegas to win her freedom. You sell your place, saying you don’t need anything in it, but you basically ignore her. When she spends the night in your bed, you crash on the couch. Then you take your sweet time coming back here, not saying shit to any of us, having two-minute conversations with her, basically blowing her off. She and Livi are tight as hell, and Livi told me she’s into you, so what the fuck are you doing? The three of us are all in. But you? None of us have a fucking clue what’s going on in your head, then you come back here with some bullshit story about the stairs. You don’t do all that if you aren’t gonna claim her.”
“Claim her?” I laugh. “Hailey isn’t one to lay claim to, Hendrix. The minute I do that, she’ll jet.”
“She ain’t going anywhere, Morrison. She knows what you’ve done, and anyone with half a brain and a heart knows she is falling just as hard and fast—”
“I’m not in it for the fucking fall, Hendrix. What happens after you fall?” I don’t wait for him to answer. “You get up and move on. I’m not gonna let that happen.”
“You’re wrong, man.”
“You ain’t listening.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“Different strokes for different folks. Your approach with Livi—the caveman shit, moving her in without her even knowing what was going on—that worked for a woman like Livi. The underwear and shit; she already let you inside her—”
“Watch it,” he growls.
“Will you shut the fuck up and listen! It was exactly what she needed. She agreed to it, gave her consent to the thing that held her back. She wasn’t owned by her abuser in the literal sense of the word. You know that. But I know Hailey. That little momma isn’t gonna be around if it’s just because of the fall. I lay claim to her, and she’s gonna head for the fucking hills the second there is a problem. With her, she needs to feel freedom from everything like she never did before, so she’s gonna be the one to claim me, you feel me?”
He smirks.
“I’ll play bitch to Hailey any day of the fucking week until she feels free. Then, and only then, will I show her what a Caldwell man really is. She doesn’t just have to fall; she has to jump.”
“I wanna play twitch.” I hear the little one’s feet pitter-patter on the cement floor as she runs to me.
I squat down as she stops and smiles, and then I grab her and pull her into a hug. “You, I’m claiming.”
“Like the mermaid with that shell?” She giggles and hugs me back.
I have no fucking clue what the hell she’s talking about. I look up at Livi, who smiles at me and holds her hand to her heart.
“She’s been watching The Little Mermaid movie,” she explains. “Clams.”
“You wanna watch?” Marisa asks.
“How about you call your momma and ask her if it would be all right for me to take you out on a dinner date?”