Page 10 of Shameless With Him

“Maybe. I have work to do. Men get in the way.”

“You know, that’s kind of what we do. It’s our legacy.”

“You’re a good man, Caleb. I hope that you’re not single in ten years, even if part of me kind of wishes you would be.”

I only hoped I’d be here in ten years. I quickly pushed that thought from my mind because I wasn’t going to think about it.

“It was good seeing you, Robin.” I kissed her on her cheek as the valet pulled up. As she slid into her car, my gaze met someone else’s, not Robin’s. Someone from my past—and my present. And maybe my future, only not in the way that I might want it.

Zoey stood on the other side of the street, her hands full of bags from wherever she had been shopping. I knew she worked hard, and sometimes she didn’t get to the grocery store until late in the evening. My brother had mentioned it to me once because his woman was best friends with Zoey.

Zoey had been in and out of my life for as long as I could remember. She had always been there, literally in every hemisphere I’d ever visited. Oddly, she was always there.

She gave me a halfhearted smile from across the way, looked at Robin in her car, and then laughter filled her eyes. I didn’t know what that meant. Then again, I never could read Zoey. She was so good at hiding who she was, that I sometimes forgot to search deeper. And every time I thought I should, she pulled away, and then I didn’t see her again for a while. Now, it was kind of hard to hide when I saw her practically every day. Or at least every week. Sometimes, it felt like every day because I spent more time with my family now than I ever had in the past, or at least the past decade.

Zoey shook her head and walked off to where she was presumably parked. I almost wanted to walk out and make sure she got to her car okay. An image of that asshole back at the bar when we were younger filled my mind. It had been what? Eleven years ago, now?

It still filled me with rage when I thought about it. I hadn’t been able to kill that asshole. Hadn’t been able to do anything except pull him off of her and get her home. I didn’t even remember the girl I was with at the time. Not that I remembered every woman I had ever been with, but I tried not to forget them. We hadn’t done anything more than hold hands and kiss that night. She had been shaken by what had happened with Zoey, too, and I was so pissed off that I hadn’t wanted to do anything but get her home just like I had gotten Zoey home.

Thinking about it now, I didn’t remember her name. I remembered Zoey’s face. And I was never going to get that image out of my mind. Holy hell, how was I supposed to do that when all I could do was imagine her drunk again? The asshole forcing the issue. Luckily, I had been there. Jesus Christ.

What if I hadn’t been there?

What if she had been forced to go home with him?

My hands fisted, and I made myself not think about that.

“Sir? Your car is here.”

I gave the valet a nod and a tip, then slid into the driver’s seat. I didn’t want to go home. Didn’t want to be alone. I hated the sound of my empty house. I hadn’t even put anything up on the walls yet, and I’d been living there for long enough that I should have. My little sister Amelia constantly annoyed me about it. One day, I was going to come home, and there would be pictures and art on my walls thanks to her and my sister-in-law, as well as my future sister-in-law. The women would take care of it, if I let them.

It was just hard to want to put permanence on a place where I hadn’t really had permanence until now.

Honestly, I didn’t know if I was ever going to find anything permanent again. Not when I was still waiting.

Still fucking waiting.

I put the car in drive and headed towards Devin’s.

I could have gone to Dimitri’s, only he was at least an hour south. Since it was still pretty early considering that I’d had an early dinner with Robin, driving down to surprise my brother and his very pregnant wife probably wouldn’t be the smart thing, especially not with the likely traffic.

I didn’t want to visit my little sister because Tucker was practically living there now, and imagining Amelia doing things I didn’t want to think about wasn’t high on my fun-things-to-do list. So, I would see Devin. Any of my siblings would open their homes to me in an instant. Even if I annoyed the fuck out of them, they would let me in. Like I would do for them.

I just didn’t want to be alone.

When I pulled into the driveway, I was grateful to see the lights on, and shadows in the window. They didn’t seem to be doing anything inappropriate, thank God, so I headed up to the door and knocked.

Erin answered, her hair piled on the top of her head, and a green face mask on her face.

“Hey there. Looking beautiful. Is green the new color?”

Her eyes widened, and she tapped her cheek and cursed.

“Crap. Devin!” She turned, and I followed her into the living room, closing and locking the door behind me.

“What is it, babe?” Devin asked from the kitchen.

“You let me answer the door with my face mask on.”

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