Page 21 of Loving Trent
“It doesn’t really matter to me who I am as long as I get to be myself,” Harley says, taking the pills and glass of water from me.
“Everything going forward will be run by you, and if you don’t like it, just let me know. That is something I want you to be a hundred percent aware of. Everything moving forward will be your choice,” I say, sitting back beside her. I tell her the plan, and she listens intently. “So, what do you think? I don’t know anything about taking care of anyone but myself, but the one thing I can promise you is that you will be safe and able to be your true self.”
Harley hits me with a huge smile that warms my chest. “Like I said,” she points at me. “Angel.”
Harley agrees to calling Demon and telling him everything he needs. As those two talk, a sense of peace falls over the building that was used as a place of torture. While at first I hated beinginside here, now I’m glad this is where our talk happened. Once we leave, at least Harley will have one good memory attached to this very room. The moment she gained her freedom, along with an overbearing sort of brother figure. Because there is no fighting this feeling inside that has claimed Harley as my family, just like I couldn’t fight the feeling of wanting to claim Shawn Foster.
Twelve
SHAWN
Over the last five months, I’ve spent all my free time figuring out who I want to be. The person who lets people like Steven walk all over him, or the person who takes no shit from anyone. I chose the second option and have worked my ass off to be that guy. Then I proceeded to throw myself headfirst into work, swearing off guys for the foreseeable future.
The moment Mom shut the door after our impromptu family dinner, I grabbed my laptop and made the to-do list that puts other to-do lists to shame. First, I reached out to my tenants.
A single mother and her small daughter lived in the smallest of the apartments located on the first floor. Luckily, Belinda wasn’t home when the fire broke out.
The Ramirez family rented the apartment on the second floor. Juan Ramirez heard a noise coming from the hallway and went to investigate, only to find the fire. Thanks to his quick thinking, he was able to get his wife and two children out of the building safely.
While none of my tenants were harmed, they lost not only their home but also all of their personal items. When I tracked down Juan, he informed me that they were staying in a small motel room at the worst motel in town. Within the hour, I hadthe keys to another Airbnb owned by the same couple as the one I’m staying in. Juan and Sofia, of course, insisted that they couldn’t possibly let me pay for their temporary housing, but I wasn’t taking no for an answer.
After dropping Sofia and their children off, Juan got into my car and silently cried all the way to Walmart. Two hours of shopping later, we pushed out two carts overflowing with clothes, personal items, toys, stuff for Sofia to continue her remote job, and food.
Belinda was harder to find. Two weeks before the fire, she came to my apartment to inform me that she had lost her job and wasn’t sure if she could afford the rent next month. So, when I received a recorded message telling me her phone service had been shut off, I wasn’t surprised. But I wasn’t giving up. After a few phone calls, I found out Belinda and her daughter had moved back in with Belinda’s father. The car door wasn’t shut fully before I heard a deep voice screaming at Belinda from inside the mobile home. Wasting no time, I ran up to the front door and pounded my fist against it, demanding to speak to Belinda.
The man who answered the door didn’t look happy to see me and thought I was her shady ex, but I let it go. I told Belinda to grab Savannah and get in my vehicle. I did the same thing with them as I did with the Ramirez family, got them settled in their new temporary house, bought them whatever they needed, and made sure that Belinda had minutes on her phone. But with Belinda, I made sure she knew that if she needed anything or had issues with anyone, she was to call me first.
Next on the list was calling my insurance and lawyer. I didn’t get far with either because we had to wait for the investigation into the fire to conclude. Adam and Levi were working hard, drawing up two different plans. One for a complete teardown and one that just fixed whatever needed it. Adam was pretty sureit would be a complete teardown based on what he had seen from the outside of the building. It didn’t matter to me which option we chose or how much it cost. I wanted the building to look exactly the same as before the fire.
Thankfully, both Juan and Belinda said they would love to rent from me again.
The investigation took a week to finish, and it determined that the cause of the fire was a wire shorting out in the hallway ceiling. The fire inspector also reported that the building was not structurally sound. Unfortunately, both my apartment and the Ramirez’s’ apartment were a total loss. But Belinda’s only had smoke and water damage. A meeting between my insurance, my lawyer, and both families was set up. No amount of money could cover the loss of their personal, non-replaceable items. Still, I wanted to do everything I could for them, including covering the cost of the temporary housing until construction was complete.
As soon as I called Adam and Levi, life became so hectic that I never thought I’d have time for anything else. Between the apartment, keeping up with the demand at the gym, and the drama of the restaurant, I was struggling to find time for myself. Thanks to my hands-on approach to opening a business, I have a little construction knowledge, so I jumped straight into the mix, helping Hill Construction. Adam wanted to oversee the project himself, but since Carly was placed on bed rest, he sent a friend up in his place.
Boe Aldridge. The first time we met, we hit it off and became fast friends. For the first time since I was eighteen, I found myself opening up to someone about everything. That’s how I was able to notice that something wasn’t right with Boe. He was struggling being away from home. One day, while working, he broke down and told me all about the girl he liked but was terrified of pursuing, which, of course, I didn’t let go.
Unfortunately, Boe couldn’t stay up here long due to his mom’s health. So, after two weeks, he went back home, and someone new replaced him. Although in those two weeks, Boe became my best friend. Instead of working all my free time with the crew like I had done with Boe, I cut back because I didn’t get along well with the new guy Adam sent in Boe’s place.
Boe and my friendship kept growing, so when Boe showed up at my apartment looking like someone had killed his favorite pet, I opened my home up to him. It was right after Adam and Carly welcomed twin girls into this world. I wasn’t able to make it to their birth, but I did send them lots of gifts. It took Boe a while to open up to me, but once he did, I was shocked, almost speechless.
Boe was struggling with the pressure that society puts on men, and he fucked up big time when it came to his woman, Bec. I set his ass straight by telling him that society’s view of men is still very much screwed up. I knew that more than anyone. I felt it too, but coupled with the fact that I supposedly wasn’t a man because I like dick. It took me a couple of years to be okay with failing at living up to society’s pressure. A couple of hours later, while at work, I got a text message telling me he was headed back to make things right.
Boe has tried to get me to put myself out there, but I keep telling him that I’m too busy, but those stupid brown eyes haunt me late at night, no matter how rough of a day I had. How can I be so obsessed with someone that all I know about him is that he has brown eyes? The hospital was a dead end. They wouldn’t give me any fucking information. I lucked out with the fire department. They assured me that I wasn’t going crazy and that there had, in fact, been a guy there saving me when they showed up. The only thing they didn’t know was his name.
No one knows his name because when the police showed up at the hospital to talk to him, he was already gone. So, without aname, I had nowhere to start in my search for him, but at least I knew I was not going crazy.
Unlocking the front door, I sigh and drop all my shit on the floor, not bothering with the mess. My whole body aches from pushing myself too hard at the gym this morning, and after a long night at the restaurant, my eyelids feel like they are the weight of an elephant. All I want to do is fall into bed and sleep, but I can’t, and that thought pisses me off. My phone dings from the mess on the floor, and I reluctantly bend over to find it.
Boe
I need some good news.
Me
Well, you came to the wrong place. I’ve got nothing but shit going on right now.
Boe
