Page 42 of Unexpected

“Have a good night,” I said hurriedly, trying to leave before Crystal began what I knew was coming.

“Actually,” she started, and I paused because I was trying not to be rude, although I wanted to run away in the middle of her sentence. “I’m going to grab drinks with a couple of friends tonight. You should join us.”

I saw the hope in her eyes, and as much as I wanted to be a good guy, I knew I needed to end this once and for all. She wasn’t going to stop otherwise.

“Thanks for the invite, but I can’t tonight. I actually have someone waiting on me at home.”

Her face dropped immediately. I could see hurt replace the hope that was there only a second ago before she could school her features. It wasn’t an all-out lie; Hazel was waiting on me, just not in the way I had insinuated.

“Oh, well, sure. Have a good night,” she said with a half-hearted smile. She spun on her heels and hightailed it to her little silver Kia.

I jumped in my own truck and checked my phone one last time before I headed home and to Hazel. My phone had been attached to my hip the better part of the day, and I had texted back and forth with Josh about how Hazel was doing. He let me know that he’d found Hazel in my bedroom watching Michael pack his shit. Otherwise, they had been watching movies all day.

He got tired of my constant need for updates about an hour before and told me I was obsessed along with a few other colorful phrases.

I wasn’t obsessed, I was concerned and with good reason. My concern for Hazel had me driving faster than usual and stepping on the gas to make sure I made it through yellow lights.

Michael’s white BMW wasn’t in the driveway when I pulled up, and I prayed I never saw it in their driveway again.

Sadie greeted me at the door, tail wagging and dog hair flying all over the place, as usual. She promptly flipped onto her back in the middle of the entryway, and I scratched her stomach for a few seconds before I asked her, “Where’s Hazel? Let’s go find her.”

Sadie hopped up and bounded back into the living room.

“Hey, man, how’s—”

“Shhh…” Josh cut me off with his finger to his lips. He pointed to the other end of the sectional, directly in front of me. I took a step forward and curled up under my favorite thick red blanket was Hazel.

Josh hopped off the couch and motioned for me to follow him into the kitchen.

“How’s she doing?” I whispered and grabbed a beer out of the fridge.

Josh rolled his eyes and gave me a disbelieving look. “For the millionth fucking time today, she is okay. She’s not great, but she’s okay. We watched movies all day, and she slept.”

“Did she say anything about last night?”

He shook his head and took the beer I offered to him.

“You going to tell me what happened or am I going to be left in the dark forever?”

I sighed and scrubbed a hand through my hair. “Her fiancé beat the shit out of her.” Saying the words out loud hurt just as much as I thought they would, like my own punch to the gut. My anger flared.

“Fuck, I knew it. You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me!” he said too loud, and we both peeked over the island to make sure he hadn’t disturbed Hazel.

“Yeah, I had suspected something was going on for a couple of weeks, but the prick was out of town. He came back into town on Halloween when I was over at her house trying to help her fix some shit. When he walked in and saw us there alone together, he practically pissed all over her, marking his territory. She was insistent that everything was fine and wouldn’t let me help. Long story short, he beat the crap out of her last night and I’m sure that wasn’t the first time. Hopefully it’s the last, though.”

Josh stood wide eyed, shaking his head at me. I downed the rest of my beer, chucked it in the trash and took another one from the fridge.

“That’s why she ended up at Murphy’s… Makes sense why you’re overly protective then. Y’know, because of what happened with Mom…”

I cut my eyes at him as I popped the top off of the bottle. He threw his hands up. “I’m just saying…” He trailed off and I knew he was right. That didn’t mean he had to say it out loud, though.

“I found her in her bathroom covered in blood last night. Almost had to kick down the door…”

“Sounds familiar…”Josh’s face dropped, and I knew the memories were ambushing him, too.

Memories I had forced myself to forget so many years ago began frequenting my thoughts the morning I saw the first bruises on Hazel’s arm. Bruises, blood, tears—each memory contained it all.

“Anyway, I just want to make sure she’s safe. He’s not touching a hair on her fucking head again.” My whole body was buzzing with newfound adrenaline, thanks in part to the old memories the entire situation had drawn up along with the woman that lay on my couch. I felt a fierce protectiveness for her.

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