Page 7 of Inked Obsession

Because I barely knew who I was anymore, and I didn’t want anyonetaking care of me. It seemed my brothers didn’t understand that. Then again, I really didn’t either.

Chapter 3

Beckett

The doorbell rang, and I frowned as I walked towards it. I opened the door, and Lee stood there, scowling at me.

“It’s late.”

My best friend looked down at my gray sweatpants and the fact that I wore nothing else and rolled his eyes. “You were either going to bed, or you have a woman in there. And considering I don’t think you actually have a woman in there, you’re going to let me in, and we’re going to talk.”

I set my jaw. I knew exactly what Lee wanted to talk about. And exactly why I didn’t want to talk about it. “Let’s not,” I said.

“Oh, let’s…” Lee said as he shouldered his way in. I let him—he was one of my best friends. I didn’t want to talk about certain things with him and didn’t need to. “We need to talk,” Lee said.

I shook my head before I rubbed the small of my back. Only small twinges, and they weren’t that bad. PT had helped, and I’d recover fully any day now, but it was still a reminder that I’d rather not have. “No, we really don’t.”

Lee’s brows shot up, and he sighed, pushing his dark hair out of his face. “You know we do. We need to talk about it.”

“You weren’t even there, Lee. We don’t need to talk about it.”

“I miss him, too,” Lee whispered.

My chest ached, and I shook my head. “I’m fine.”

“If you were fine, your family would know about it. Fuck,Brennawould know about it. You may call me your best friend, but we both know that you and Brenna are even closer than we are, and yet you’re not telling her about this. You’re not telling your fucking twin about it. You need to. They need to know what happened.”

I swallowed hard. “No, I can’t. I can’t.” I rubbed my back again as if doing so would make the memories go away.

Lee’s gaze went straight to the movement. “You at least doing PT?”

“Yes. I’m fine.”

“A whole shit-ton of shelving fell on top of you, Beckett. And your family doesn’t know about it. They don’t know about anything.”

“They would only worry about me, and we have enough to worry about. Fuck, Annabelle’s pregnant. I don’t want to hurt the baby by stressing her out.”

Lee pinched the bridge of his nose. “Fine, I’ll keep your secret. Like I always do. Jesus Christ, you need to talk to your family about it.”

“And I just need you to go. I need to get some sleep.”

Not that I would actually get much sleep because of the nightmares, but I let that go.

He scowled at me and then leaned forward, giving me a hard hug. I tapped his shoulder, hugging him back, and he leaned away.

“See? Not awkward with you all half-naked and sweaty.”

I barked out a laugh. “Well, thanks for that image. Not that you aren’t sweet, but I don’t see you that way.”

“I am a catch,” Lee said. I knew he was trying to lower the tension. “All are welcome and in need of exactly what I can give them.”

I rolled my eyes. “Get out of here. Maybe go find yourself a woman.”

“That would require actually talking to someone, and all I want to do is go to sleep.”

“Same here. So, why don’t you let me do that?”

“Fine, but don’t fuck things up, okay? Your family loves you. Brenna loves you. I love you, but not that way. Okay, I’m out. Honestly, you can talk to anyone. No one’s going to judge you.”

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