Three more times and with each one of them I was sent straight to that damn voicemail. Fuck. She was probably still pissed. Grimacing, I waited for her voice to fade on the greeting and left a message. “Kin…” I cleared my throat. “We need to talk, baby. Call me back. Fuck, I’ve missed you.”
Lowering my phone, I hit end and sent her a text. The message quickly showed that she had gotten it, but she didn’t text me back. I wasn’t expecting her to, but it didn’t keep me from hoping. Kin was stubborn as hell and while most of the time I thought that was cute, it annoyed me right then.
I must have dozed off, because the next thing I remembered, early morning light was shining through my window and my phone was buzzing. Hoping it was Kin, I reached for it blindly and lifted it to my ear. “Kin?”
There was a long pause before I heard a harsh exhale. “Nope, sorry, dude.”
Harris. Disappointment washed over me and I clenched my jaw before forcing my eyes open and glaring at the ceiling. “What’s up, man?”
“You bailed on me last night,” Harris grumbled.
“You didn’t seem to know I was there, bro. Who was the hot chick?” I remembered the brunette with all the curves and big brown eyes that I’d thought had been full of pain and maybe a little regret when she’d looked at my friend. “Lucy, right?”
“Lucy.” Harris blew out a tired sigh before chuckling with little humor. “She’s my best friend in the world, man. Or she was a million years ago. I’m heading over to her house after I pick Trinity up. Figure I need reinforcements to get me through her door. I have to talk to her about Jenna.”
Picturing Harris’s baby sister, I figured she could get him in to Fort Knox with those damn cute dimples that popped out every time the six-year-old smiled. Trinity looked just like her brother and father, with the exception of her blue-gray eyes that she’d gotten from her mother. “Yeah. Pretty sure she could
get you in anywhere, dude.”
“So…Kin?”
“It’s a long story,” I told him honestly, but didn’t tell him anything more. I wasn’t ready to talk about Kin to anyone except her. First I had to see her again.
“Like that, is it?” Harris’s laugh held actual humor this time.
“Yeah,” I muttered, rubbing my hand over my face.
“I’m getting Jenna into a rehab in Arizona. She leaves in the morning.”
As subject changes go, that was a good one. I sat up in bed, more than a little shocked that Harris had finally been able to talk his roommate into taking the first step to getting clean. “That’s great, man. It’s about time she got her act together.”
“It was under duress. I told her I was going to tell her brothers and Natalie if she doesn’t go. Only clincher is that she wants Tessa to stay in the apartment while she’s gone.” I could actually hear Harris gritting his teeth and knew why. Tessa was a toxic bitch. She would cause trouble for Harris and Jenna any way she could. “I can’t say no, because the apartment is half hers and I don’t want to give her a reason to back out of going.”
“You can crash here any time you need to,” I assured him as I sat up on the edge of the bed. Harris and Jenna had an apartment in the same building as I did a few floors up. The first year’s rent had been a present from Alicia when we’d moved out to California.
“Thanks. I might take you up on that before all this shit is over.”
I talked to him for a few more minutes until I heard movement in the apartment. Tossing my phone aside, I headed into my bathroom, stripping off the clothes I’d worn out and had ended up sleeping in. Thirty minutes later I was in the kitchen making a bowl of cereal and debating if I should call Kin again or find out where the hell she was staying.
“That’s a dark look. You scare the fuck out of me when you get that look in your eyes, man.”
I didn’t bother to lift my eyes from my phone as Gray moved around the kitchen making himself some breakfast and coffee in nothing more than a pair of boxers. Since I hadn’t heard any giggling this morning I figured he’d already gotten rid of his hookup from the night before.
After seeing Kin the night before, I was more pissed at Gray than ever. If he hadn’t filled my head with bullshit about Kin moving on without me if I gave her space, maybe I would have asked her to try the whole long-distance thing. I could have been faithful to her.
Now here she was in the same state with me and I didn’t have her.
Fuck.
“Talk to Kassa today?”
I grimaced. Kassa. No matter how pissed I got at Gray, just the mention of my sister’s name was the one—the only—thing that could get me to talk. “Yesterday.”
“She tell you Alicia has been having headaches?”
“Yeah,” I said with a nod. Kassa had told me she’d found Alicia in the bathroom throwing up from a bad migraine. I didn’t remember Alicia ever having migraines so I’d been worried ever since Kassa’s call. “She said she was going to try and get her to go to the doctor.”
“Good luck with that. You know how Alicia is. She isn’t going to go to the damn doctor unless she’s hogtied and dragged there.” Gray picked up his mug and swallowed half its scalding contents before filling it up again and taking a seat at the island across from me.