Every Night (Brush of Love 1)

“Oh, that’s no fun. I could keep you company in the morning while you got up. Maybe accompany you in the shower,” she said, grinning.

“While that’s a tempting offer, showers at four in the morning are rarely as exotic as people make them. However, the least I can do is pay for your drink.”

I threw a fifty dollar bill down onto the table and told the bartender to keep the change. I took the woman’s hand and brought it up to my lips, giving it a light kiss before I told the bartender to make her one last drink. She giggled at me, her eyes lighting up as my tall stature loomed over hers, but when I looked back up into her face, I didn’t see the giggling blonde with the crimson red lips.

I saw the woman with the creamy-colored skin and the purple hair cut to just below her earlobes as she held the slightest smile on her cheeks.

But as quickly as I’d blinked, she was gone. I slowly walked out of the bar, trying my best not to stumble. I needed to walk off some of this alcohol before I got home and laid down in bed. I needed to make sure I would wake up ready to work. Ready to take on any emergencies that might occur in the middle of the night.

I still had to conduct myself professionally while I was drowning my sorrows in the refreshingly piercing brown liquid.

The crisp evening cut deep with the salt from the sea. I sniffed deep, allowing the cool breeze to blow through my hair before I started walking down the block. I crossed over streets, slowly feeling my body metabolize the alcohol. My vision became crisper and the world no longer tilted, and soon, I was feeling confident in the steps I took as I continued to walk blocks away from where I’d just been.

The bar was only three miles from my home, and by the time I took another deep breath of the salted air, I realized I was only a mile away. I stopped on the corner and waited for the street sign to beckon me across the road, but a movement caught the corner of my eye.

A homeless man, getting up to his feet and turning down an alleyway.

The street sign called for me to walk, but I backtracked. I followed the man down the dark alleyway as I fished for my wallet, taking out a couple of twenties before I called for him. He turned around, his eyes wide with fear before he realized what I was holding out to him.

He took the money and thanked me profusely before stuffing it into his pocket.

I couldn’t stop seeing my brother in all of their eyes. I knew there was a time where John lived on the streets of L.A. I knew there was a time where he literally didn’t have a home. It’s why I’d tried to convince him to come live with me and claim a room as his own until he could get on his feet. I wondered if people stopped for him while he sat slouched over in alleyways. I wondered if people stopped for him when he was in those drug dens, screaming for help inside his mind.

I wondered if people stopped for him while he was dying from a fucking overdose in the middle of the damn sidewalk.

I felt my blood boil as my fists clenched. I felt my vision swim as my blood pressure skyrocketed. I whipped my fist around and punched the brick wall of the alleyway, screaming out the hurt and anguish I’d tried to drown in whiskey. I shrieked at the top of my lungs, feeling the burning, searing pain ricochet up the bones of my hand. But the pain erased his face. The pain erased his gray skin. The pain erased the ringing of my phone and it erased the guilt I still harbored deep in the pit of my soul.

But when I stepped back out onto the sidewalk and saw people passing by me as if nothing had happened, I had the answer I was looking for.

No one stopped for him.

Just like no one stopped for me.

Chapter 4

Hailey

“Seriously, Anna. Thank you so much.”

“Hailey. It’s not a problem. You can stop thanking me,” she said, giggling.

“I just didn’t expect to have to ask you for help, that’s all,” I said.

“You also didn’t expect to stumble upon a run-down shack you had to completely redo that was obviously the perfect match for your gallery.”

“Are you mocking me? Need I remind you who the older sister is here?” I asked.

“I’m not mocking you,” she said, giggling. “The place is perfect for you.”

“So you got the pictures?”

“I mean, there isn’t much there now, but your descriptions are apt. I enjoyed the drawings you sent of how you wanted to set up the place, but you know I would’ve given you the money anyway. Without all the drawings.”

“I wanted you to know I was serious. I didn’t think this project would eat through the money I’d already saved,” I said.

“Well, I called up the places you did just to give them the rundown. Had to make sure they weren’t swindling my sister on the prices. But you also didn’t expect the inspector to run into termite problems.”

“Though I should’ve expected it, with how old the building is,” I said.