Page 107 of Just This Once

So I took a shower and changed into fresh clothes. My stomach wasn’t so happy after all the drinking I’d done, so I wasn’t really hungry.

After checking in on my various investments and answering a dozen or so messages, I chewed on my lip, bored.

And that’s how I found myself logging into the location of my Lucid Air.

I knew I really should stop stalking her, but I couldn’t fucking help it. I just kept wondering where she was, what she was doing, and if she was thinking about me as much as I was thinking about her.

It was sad and pathetic, I knew. Still didn’t care.

When I saw that she was at Archer House, however, I couldn’t help myself. It’d been a week or more since I’d made an appearance there. The guys were going to think something had happened to me if I didn’t show my face sooner or later.

And if I just happened to run into Trouble while I was visiting…

Well then, so be it.

27

PARKER

Iarrived at Archer House twenty minutes later, parking behind my Lucid Air at the curb, and I entered through the back door, already holding my breath for that punch of need I knew I’d experience when I saw her again.

But she wasn’t the first face I encountered upon entrance.

Damien and Keene were in the kitchen together, where Dugger was tearing his way through a hot pocket and Damien was sitting across the table from him, reading something on his phone.

They both looked up in surprise as I dragged ass through the back door with a moody grunt.

“Well look what the cat yakked up,” Keene greeted with a quick smirk. “I almost had you written off for dead in a ditch somewhere.”

“Close enough,” I muttered as I went to the cabinets to fix myself a coffee from their Keurig.

Neither of them said anything, just watched as I prepared my mug and then carried it to the table to sit at the opposite end as Archer.

“Seriously?” Dugger asked as I took my first moody sip.

I shuddered, hissing at the heat, and then muttered, “What?”

“How many days didthisbender last?”

“Depends,” I croaked. “What day is it?”

The other two chuckled, even as they glanced at each other in concern, no doubt wondering what was making me nosedive this time. “It’s Thursday, man,” Damien finally answered.

“Damn.” I took another sip, and my body finally started to adjust to the coffee.

Damien and Keene exchanged another glance before Damien quietly asked, “What caused it this time?”

I scoffed. “The sun dared to rise. Fuck, I don’t know. Do I need a reason anymore?”

I definitely couldn’t tell them the truth, that I couldn’t stop wondering how long it’d take for them all to drop me if they ever learned what I’d done to Alec; that I’d do it again in a heartbeat if given the chance; that I’d actually come here, hoping to find an opening for that very chance.

God. I had to be the worst friend on the planet.

I wiped a hand over my face, exhaling heavily.

“This coffee’s missing something,” I muttered, shoving my chair back to stand again.

“Oaklynn moved the creamers to the door of the fridge,” Damien advised. But sugar and cream had not been what I was talking about. Going directly to the liquor cabinet, I pulled down a fifth of Crown and opened the cap before pouring a generous serving into the coffee.

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