Page 5 of Rent Free

After staying with her for hours at the hospital and having to nearly force her to let me go, I was well and truly worn out. Mentally and physically.

I was exhausted by the time I got home that night.

The woman I’d been seeing—who my family would give me so much shit for if they knew—had called me four times over the last hour to find out where I was.

I’d sent multiple texts to her saying that I was caught up with work stuff, but that had apparently fallen on deaf ears.

When I pulled up to my place, I found her standing outside the door with her arms crossed and an angry look plastered across her usually beautiful face.

I didn’t have the energy to deal with her bullshit today.

I truly didn’t.

Emory Cline was a beautiful woman.

Tall, model like, and wispy thin, she had this ethereal appearance that usually hit all my buttons.

Today, though?

I wanted to see the inside of my door as it closed on her face.

“Emory,” I said tiredly. “I’m sorry I missed you today.”

She snorted. “I highly doubt that since you didn’t rush home after you got done at the hospital.”

I felt my eyelid twitch. “I had to go to work and finish the report on the victim.”

She rolled her eyes. “And you didn’t go and talk to multiple female officers, laugh with them, while you did that?”

Was she stalking me or something?

“I try to be nice to everyone I see,” I said stiffly.

And I did.

I wasn’t a mean person like my twin brother, Auden.

See, I had faults.

I had OCD—obsessive compulsive disorder.

In my younger years, I’d had a really hard time making friends because of my OCD tendencies. As a result, I tried to be nice to everyone, even when they weren’t nice to me.

That niceness had extended to my adult life, and at this point, it was just the way I was.

In addition to the OCD, I also had a sleeping disorder where I liked to sleepwalk to fuck knew where.

That was why I always tried so hard with girlfriends—like Emory—that I should’ve let go a long time ago. I liked to ignore red flags.

That was just the man I was—the man I would always be.

“You are too nice,” she snapped. “That woman didn’t need you there the entire day.”

No, Sage Solomon probably didn’t.

But she’d had no family come to see her, and I’d felt guilty leaving her there all by herself.

After learning that Sage not only had parents who were alive, but three siblings who also refused to come check on her after the hell she’d suffered, I’d promised her I would stay.

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