Page 9 of Forever Mine

“Shit.” Beck sounded really far away. “Sorry about that, Jim. Let me get ya another one. Next round is on the house.” The guy, Jim, mumbled something but he was really, really far away, and I was too floaty to give a fuck. Beck said something, maybe about me spouting a bunch of bullshit, but it was too hard to make out his words. My eyes drifted closed and I swayed on my stool.

“C’mon, Jay, let’s get out of here.” I blinked up at the face that was swimming in front of me. The pretty brown eyes, the almost ginger hair, all those fucking freckles I just wanted to lick with my tongue.

“Kota?” It was harder to say than I thought, and my words were slurred. How’d that happen? “Kota! How’d you get here?”

“I drove.” His lips were pressed in a thin line, a face he only made when he was annoyed.

“Are you pissed at me?”

He grunted. “We’ll talk about it later.”

Pretty sure that was a yes. “Beck?” I asked, looking around, but nearly fell off the barstool.

“He’s the one who called me. He’s cleaning up out back. Glad someone called me after you never showed up tonight and weren’t answering my calls.”

“Shit.” Dakota was definitely pissed. Not that I didn’t deserve it.

Dakota snorted. “Yeah. Shit.”

“Darlin’, I’m s—”

“Shh, I don’t want to hear it right now when you’re drunk like this. We’ll talk in the morning. Let’s just go.”

It was harder than it should be to stand up, and I needed to lean on Kota to walk straight.

“Beck’s gonna drop your truck back off at my place.”

“Okay.” Didn’t give much of a fuck about my truck right now. Way more worried about how stiff Kota was as he helped me to his Camry. Not the good kind of stiff, either. But the “he’s pissed as fuck and trying to rein it in” kind.

My stomach soured. “Maybe I should go home with Beck?” I didn’t want to, but Dakota wasn’t happy. I’d known the end of us was nearing, even if Dakota kept saying otherwise, and this bullshit probably brought him over the edge. I was a special kinda asshole for not even sending a text. He should leave me.

“I swear to fuck, Jay. Do not pull this bullshit right now. If this was some dumbass attempt to get me to push you away it’s not working. You’re coming back to my place, and I don’t want to hear another fucking word about it.” Kota shoved me into the passenger seat. Didn’t know if he pushed a little too hard, or if I was just that drunk, but I kinda fell into the car and just righted myself when he huffed his way to the driver’s seat, slamming the car door when he got in.

I couldn’t help it, I smiled. And if I wasn’t so drunk, my dick probably would’ve taken notice of Dakota’s tone. “I love itwhen you get all bossy with me,” I slurred-mumbled, happy to be sitting.

Kota rolled his eyes, but I saw the little tilt of his lips as he tried to fight a smile. That made me smile harder. I’d get him to stop being mad before he knew it.

CHAPTER 4

DAKOTA

Jay madeevery step from leaving the bar, the car ride to my apartment, and getting his clothes off and into bed difficult. He wasn’t doing it on purpose, but since he couldn’t even stand up on his own, I had to do all the work to keep him on his feet long enough to get him safely to bed. By the time I locked my apartment door, he couldn’t even keep his eyes open anymore.

“Fuck, Jay,” I muttered under my breath as I dumped him unceremoniously on my bed. I could probably have been gentler—I’d never handle one of my ICU patients like that—but I was still pissed, so maybe I wasn’t being as careful as I should.

“I-I fucked up,” Jay slurred as he splayed like a jellyfish across my comforter. I wasn’t sure if he was talking about his drinking or the fact that he ghosted me and didn’t answer any of my calls after he promised he’d come back here after work. It didn’t really matter now. I wasn’t taking any drunken confessions or apologies. We were going to have a full- blown come-to-Jesus talk tomorrow once he was coherent. Now, I was just focused on getting him settled.

“Shhh,” I muttered as I pulled his boots off. His pants were much more difficult. “Fuck, baby, you gotta help me here.”

Jay made some noises, but didn’t actually move. So I managed to maneuver him enough on my own to get his pants off. After a similar struggle with his hoodie and t-shirt, Jay was finally just in his underwear, and passed the fuck out.

I rolled my eyes and left him where he was to fill up a water bottle and get some aspirin in case he woke up in the middle of the night. I placed them on the bedside table and threw another blanket over him since I wasn’t going to struggle with the comforter that he was lying on.

Once Jay was settled, and I was sure he was okay, I let the anger come. It had been there, just hovering under the surface, but I was good at compartmentalizing, and making sure Jay was safe was top priority. Now though, I had all the time in the world to stew in it.

I wasn’t even sure what I was most pissed about. Or who I was the most annoyed with. Beckett told me he monitored Jay’s drinking and cut him off eventually, but clearly he did a shit job of it. It wasn’t fair to blame him. He was working. Beckett couldn’t spend every fucking minute babysitting. He wasn’t Jay’s keeper. Jay was a grown man and capable of making his own decisions. Just lately, he’d been making shitty ones.

I sat on the edge of the bed and just watched Jay as he slept. He looked so much younger like this. Innocent and vulnerable. His dark brown hair was all mussed and falling into his eyes. It was getting long again, and would start curling around the ends. I loved it, but Jay hated it. He said one of his mom’s boyfriends used to rip him out of bed by his hair when he was sleeping. He kept it short for years after that, and only recently started to let it grow longer, though it still made him uncomfortable.

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