Page 72 of Worlds Collide

He’s fiercely protective of Hawk and I’d say he’s protective over Wolf too. I’m pretty sure things have changed now though, and I don’t want all of that making things worse for Wolf... wherever he is and whatever he’s doing.

With all of that in mind, I walk out of the house and straight to Theo’s bakery. If there’s one person who I trust to talk to about all of this it’s him, but I know he’s probably busy, so if he doesn’t have time to see me, then luckily, Sebas’ gallery is right next door and Carter just so happens to work there.

I see Oscar, Theo’s huge gray Great Dane, and Tony, Mike’s even bigger Tibetan Mastiff, chilling in the doggy area of the bakery as soon as I come in, since it’s pretty hard to miss them. But before I go say hi to the two sweethearts, I go over to the counter—I need coffee.

Casey, Theo’s childhood friend who I met at his wedding, is ringing people up today, so at least I know she can recommend something I can use to entice Theo to take a break.

I get two cinnamon rolls—apparently Theo finally perfected his recipe—and two coffees, one black and one with almond milk and sugar, and wait by the dogs while Casey goes to the back to talk to Theo.

It feels like my soul starts to heal over the two minutes I spendgetting licked by the dogs, and when Theo comes out, throwing a jacket over his shoulders and grumbling at someone behind him, I feel steadier. Like my world isn’t ending and I need to finish a quest to prevent it.

Theo sends me a rueful smile when he sees me with the dogs and comes over right away.

“How are you?” he asks as I stand. He throws both arms around me and hugs me tight—tighter than normal, which gives me more than a clue.

“How do you know?” I wonder.

“Sebas called me last night after Adam got home.”

“Please tell me no one called Hawk,” I beg unashamedly as I pass him his bagged cinnamon roll and coffee. “Or Derek.”

“No, Sebas calmed Adam down—” I wince, not really a fan of what comes to mind. “And then he called Carter and told him to not do shit unless he wanted to have a very unpleasant work week.”

“I should’ve given Sebas the cinnamon roll,” I mumble, truly amazed at my best friend’s husband.

“You can give him yours,” Theo tells me as he quickly reaches into his bag and pulls out the pastry to take a huge bite.

“No chance, I’m starving,” I confess and do the same .

“Come on, let’s walk around the block before you go next door,” he says and gestures to the door.

“You don’t want to take the dogs?” I ask with longing.

“Sorry, but Mike just left a little while ago and I need a quick walk then to get back to work.”

“Right,” I agree, and then don’t know what else to say while we start to walk. “So, did Sebas tell you everything I told Adam?” I wonder.

“I don’t know, honestly. He gave me the cliff notes, I guess. You’re in love with Wolf.” He whispers the name because it’s apretty recognizable name. “He relapsed, Wolf had a big fight with Hawk—which isn’t surprising, and I always thought it had to happen at some point.”

“Why did you think that?” I ask, confused.

“Because they never argued. Not really. Siblings fight, they’re mean as fuck to each other, they say terrible things—true things—to your face, and then you just move on. At least, that’s my experience. I’ve seen Wolf and Hawk argue, I guess, but not really. It’s always been more like a... debate,” he settles on. “When you don’t let yourself fight for real with your siblings, then things just keep adding up and eventually it explodes.”

“I wouldn’t know.” The deep longing I feel in that moment is something I thought I’d gotten over a long time ago. Because I thought Adam filled that role for me, the sibling role, but we’ve never fought the way we have over Wolf the last few times we’ve talked.

“Yeah, your parents did you dirty by not giving you a sibling,” Theo says casually.

“You don’t know the half of it,” I tell him, trying to make it lighthearted. There’s no need to get into the whole thing with Theo. At least, not right now.

But deep inside, I can’t help but think that the way I told Wolf everything about my parents is the reason why he drank again.

“Anyway, I know Hawk blames you and he told you it was your fault and that’s about it.”

“Well, all I want now is to get my shit together, but I can’t seem to do that because I’m still suspended from my job.”

“But your job is a very small part of who you are, CJ,” he argues and I stop walking to look at him.

“What do you mean?”

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