Page 112 of Mother Parker
“Nothing,” I grumbled.
“It doesn’t sound like nothing.”
He put a beer in front of me, and I immediately picked it up.
I needed to forget. To stop. To…to go away.
“Come on, Parker. What the hell happened?”
When I slammed the beer back down, only half of it was left, and I stared at my teammate with defeat.
“I’m just tired.”
“Of?”
“Getting my heart broken.”
I collapsed on the bartop and breathed in the smell of sticky old beer, sanitizer, and nut dust that hadn’t been wiped.
Kinda described the mess I was.
“Heartbro—wait. Who? Oh! Hwan? And you? Oh my God, Ash isn’t going to believe it,” Maddox said in one breath.
“Shut up, Shepherd,” I told him.
“So what’s this crap about the shop now?” Wyatt asked, leaning on the bar next to me.
“I can’t do it anymore. You’ll have to find someone else. Maybe Ash can do it. I…I’m going. I’m gonna go. Can I crash at your place until I can make arrangements?” I turned to ask Maddox.
He didn’t reply. He looked from Wyatt to me, then back to Wyatt.
“Go on. I’ve got this one,” he told our old commander, and Wyatt left with a huff. “Have you eaten?” he asked me.
I shook my head.
I didn’t think anything would go down now.
“Let’s get him a burger while you’re at it,” Maddox shouted after Wyatt before he turned to me. “Now, from the top. What happened?”
I tried to drink the question away. But he didn’t let me. I didn’t want to talk. I wanted to drink. To drink so much that I forgot.
I thought Mayberry Holm would be my safe haven. I didn’t think I’d end up with another broken heart barely a month after I arrived.
But Maddox insisted. He even took my glass away and refused to give it back until I told him what had happened.
So I did. In no particular order.
I told him what had happened tonight, what had happened the first time we kissed, what had happened before I even came to this fucking island.
I only stopped talking when Wyatt dumped a burger in front of me, and I’d gotten so tired recounting everything I snorted the entire thing under Maddox’s watchful gaze.
“This is delicious, by the way,” I said between mouthfuls.
I didn’t know what he understood. If I’d even made sense. If anything I’d said made any sort of sense.
“So you’re here crying me a river because what? Because he didn’t know what to say? Because he didn’t say I love you?”
“It’s not that—”
