Sam marched by me, uncaring, and went to get his coffee.
I leaned against the truck, crossed my arms, and waited for them to come outside. It would be a beautiful day. It was still early, around nine in the morning, but it wasn’t too hot, and the sun hadn’t come out from behind the clouds yet, which was a blessing because a lot of the work we had would be outside today.
Each of them came back with a steaming cup of coffee, and they already seemed awake.
Yeah, they definitely would be after they tried it.
“Okay, before we get started today, I wanted to give everyone a heads up. I have a guest, her name is Abigail, and she’s mine, so don’t go hitting on her or I’ll fire you without a second thought.”
They hooted and cheered for me, and Mark with a ‘happy for me grin,’ tilted his mug to drink his coffee, but I stopped him. “Don’t,” I said, and he brought the mug back down. “She had an accident a year ago and only remembers the last year, everything else is gone, so she didn’t remember how to make coffee. It’s horrible. You’ll hate it, but she tried, which is the most important thing, so you fucks are going to drink every last drop of it without a complaint, and when you meet her, you’ll tell her how good the coffee is. I won’t have you assholes ruining her new confidence that she is building.” Every one of them stared in their mugs like something was about to jump out and bite them.
None of them said a word.
“Do you understand?” I barked.
“Yes, Mr. Green!” Jacob said and took a big gulp of it and then spit it out. “It’s hot,” he said.
“Better be the only reason you spit it out,” I grumbled, watching his face pale. “I’m serious guys. Her memory is serious; she’s fragile right now. She needs support, so I told her she was going to be our intern for the day. She doesn’t even know what nails are, so be patient with her. Everything is new.”
“That sucks. What happened to her?” Sam asked, and his question took me by surprise since he never really cared to ask anything about my life before.
“She doesn’t know.”
“Fuck, that really blows, Logan.” Mark took a sip of his coffee and winced. “Jesus Christ, that is terrible.” He saw the pissed off look on my face and swallowed another gulp. “I feel the love in it. I really do.”
The guys all chuckled and drank their coffee, wincing with every swallow. I’d have to tell her eventually, but I didn’t have the heart too right now. Abigail’s big doe eyes staring at me with pride came to my mind when she handed me my cup, and there was no way I was going to disappoint her.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I reached into my jeans and took it out. This time it was Maria calling me. Fuck. I couldn’t keep ignoring her, but I didn’t want to talk to her either. With a reluctant sigh, I swiped the green button to the side and answered. I walked to the end of the driveway, kicked the dirt, and sat down.
“Hello?” I answered, unable to keep the annoyance out of my voice.
“About time. Where have you been? You’ve been M.I.A for a few days. I miss you being around.”
All I got from that was that she missed me.
I didn’t miss her. Not one bit.
“I’ll be there for Easter, and I’ll be bringing my girlfriend,” I told her, not wanting to hold back the truth of what Abigail was to me. Hell, if I knew it wouldn’t make Abigail run away, I’d whisk her off somewhere and marry her.
She was perfect for me, absolutely perfect.
Maria didn’t say anything. Her breathing was static on the other end on the line, and I just sat there too, knowing that what I just said really did put a nail in the coffin with whatever this thing between us was. It wasn’t going to happen and was never going to happen.
“You have a girlfriend?” she asked me, and I heard the tears in her voice, but a part of me was angry. She had no right to be sad. She had been dating Cortez for a while now, and I never said a word to her. All I ever wanted was for Maria to be happy, and I knew if she were with me, she wouldn’t be.
It was just one of those things I felt, like Abigail, and if I wanted to be honest with myself, I wouldn’t be happy with Maria either. Abigail needed someone to care for her, and that someone was me. Maria didn’t, she could take care of herself while flipping off the entire male species, and Cortez loved that about her.
I didn’t.
“I do,” I said. “She’s it for me, Maria. I can move forward now. I realized I was just a safety net for you, and I deserve more than that. I’m not mad about it because I let you use me. Cortez deserves better, and I wanted to give Abigail my full attention.”
“Abigail? That’s her name?”
“You don’t get to talk bad about her when you don’t even know her.” Okay, I was getting pissed off now. “You have no right, Maria. I wish you the best, I really do, but you could be a good friend and wish me the best too.”
“I can’t do that, Logan. You know…you know how I feel about you. I know things are confusing ri
ght now because of Gabriel. I love him, but—”