Page 23 of Kissing Chaos
Shrugging off the thoughts, I return to the gym to find Kristen encasing Drew’s shoulder in ice packs. Some of the tightness in my neck and shoulders releases as I take in the color returning to Drew’s face.
“What caused the flair up?” I ask, placing the pill containers in Kristen’s awaiting hand.
“Got pissed off. Punched the bag a few times.”
Declan opens his mouth, I’m sure to call his brother all sorts of words—I’m ready to as well—but Kristen stops him.
“Honey, if you aren’t going to be helpful, go outside please. Drew, where is your stability brace?”
“I saw it upstairs,” I mumble. “I’ll grab it.”
As Declan storms out, I trek back up the steps to get the brace from the bathroom. Except when I find the brace, Drew’s phone is on top, screen lighting up with a text message. I try to ignore it, but the name draws me in.
“Not my business,” I mumble to myself as I slip back downstairs and help Drew slide into the brace.
He looks at me. “You aren’t going to tell Jace about this, right?”
Shaking my head, I grin. “Of course not, man.” As Drew sighs in relief, I add, “You are.”
Kristen laughs while she double-checks the straps and placement. If it were anyone else going back over my work, I’d be irritated, but Kristen did time as a trauma nurse before she transitioned to psychiatry. She knows her stuff.
Drew hangs his head.
I give his good shoulder a squeeze on my way out. “If I go gray before thirty-five, I’m blaming you.”
I swear, friends in this town are good for nothing but stress. But damn, do I love them. At least I no longer have the urge to knock Reece Taylor on his ass.
9
Jett
“I think that’s the last of it,” my brother says as he slips past me with an overflowing box of my favorite blankets. The house behind him is empty, save for the appliances and years of memories that I wish I could burn.
“Okay, cool.”
“You wanna do another pass through any of the rooms?” Reece asks.
“Nope. Not interested in stepping a toe over that doorframe again.” I fidget with my fingers, tearing up the edge of a slightly too-long nail and cursing when it pulls too close to the quick.
The last two weeks have been slammed with packing, paperwork, trying to squeeze in conversations with potential clients, and not letting the little voice in my head talk me out of moving to Havenwood. I’d finally settled my thoughts by last night, but the anxiety kicked back in as soon as McKenna bailed on me earlier, saying she would make a coffee run. Our plan is to meet at my new loft apartment above the bar that Jace owns, but I think we are all trying to avoid stepping on each other’s toes. Things have been awkward all around since that day she, Reece, and I had lunch together.
I packed all my clothes and books while Reece and Jace loaded all the heavy furniture into a “clean” livestock trailer. Trust me, I nearly had a cow (no pun intended) when Reece told me this was their plan to move everything from Covington to Havenwood in one trip. One of the brothers that he works for, Drew, tagged along with the guys, but is clearly only that—a tag-along. Something about just needing to be around people but not being able to lift anything. Jace introduced us, immediately apologizing for Drew’s “surly asshole-ishness.”
“Drew’s not as grumbly as Noah, but it’s a close second,” he’d said. I’d rolled my eyes, because Noah Slater is anything but the town grump that everyone thinks he is.
Drew and I don’t say much to each other. He keeps to himself, and I’m too socially awkward to start the conversation. But as the guys load the last of the boxes in behind the sofa and bed, I can see physical pain etched along his features. I may not be great at reading emotions or social settings, but I’d recognize pain anywhere. Like calls to like, and all.
I step into his line of sight. “You good?” I ask.
“Sure thing,” he grunts, his eyebrows pinched together. An uncomfortable vibe rolls off him in waves, and his arm is cradled tight to his side. His breathing seems off, too.
“You don’t look it, ya know. I’d say you’re hurtin’.”
He looks at me quizzically. “You ever break a bone?”
“Nope, but I’ve run into enough walls and hit my head a few times.”
He lets out a breath in a huff of air. “I’ve got multiple breaks and fractures that refuse to heal up right but quit taking the pain meds.”
