Page 89 of Absolutely Pucked
It was actually over.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FOUR
KILLIAN
I couldn’t bringmyself to go back to California. Not after my accounts opened up. Not after Damir decided he wanted to see me, so he drove his ass all the way down to Turenne to pick up my car and bring it to the little vacation rental I’d procured for myself a few blocks away from Jonah’s place.
Not even when I was stable again.
It took less than a week for everything to turn upside down—or was it right side up now? Whatever it was, I could breathe again. And yet, it still felt like I was choking on my own emotions. Damir took one look at the sorry sack of shit I was and went back home, but only after making me promise that I would either get a real place to live and start applying for either the bar or reciprocity.
It was an easy promise to make, but I wasn’t sure it was an easy one to keep. I loved my job—at least, I thought I had loved my job. I wasn’t so sure anymore if that was true. Law school had originally been the choiceI’d made to compete with Tucker. And I was good at it. But was it something I wanted to keep going in?
Corporate law was bullshit, but I had other options.
I had enough money to live on for a while—if I was careful—if I wanted to look at a new area. Something to do with sports, maybe? To stay close to Jonah. We were still friends, even after I’d moved out. I still came over to hang with him and give Athena cuddles. And while I missed Ford like breath in a room with no oxygen, I was starting to feel like this could be home.
But I was still floating in a void.
BAM BAM BAM!
The sound of a fist hitting my front door scared the absolute shit out of me, and it was that shock that had me throwing it open without looking to see who was there. I half expected Delia in some wild rage after taking everything back and cutting her off.
But no.
It wasn’t her. It was the only other person I did but didn’t want to see.
Tucker stood there on my doorstep, leaning heavily on his walking cane, his face a mask of fury. I took a breath, but before I could say anything, he socked me in the stomach. Hard. The force knocked the wind out of me, and I stumbled against the door as he let himself in.
“What the fuck?” I wheezed.
He spun to face me. “Tell me you didn’t deserve that.”
“I…” I couldn’t, of course. I’d been expecting that a lot earlier. Even before Vegas. “Come on in. Do you need me to show you around?”
“I can see fine in here,” he said. He breezed past mewith a speed I still wasn’t used to him having. In Vegas, most of the time we spent together was sitting. Before that, the last time I’d seen him, he was still clutching parallel bars as he willed his prosthetic feet to move one in front of the other.
I followed, still trying to catch my breath as he dropped to the edge of an uncomfortable armchair and stared at me.
I had no idea what to say. I had no idea what he could possibly want.
“How did you find me?” Not the question I meant to ask.
He scoffed. “Jonah, obviously.” When I made a startled noise, he laughed. “Dude, come on. He might be your friend, but he’s my ride or die. And I bribed him with burrito delivery for a week.”
I finally lowered myself to the couch. “Okay. Well. I’m glad to know I’m worth something to him.”
“Is that all you have to say to me?”
“No, but do you want to hear another apology?”
He laughed again. The sound wasn’t as bitter as it was when he first found me and Ford together. “Not really. I’m not the one who needs it. I just want to know what the fuck is wrong with you.”
I sighed. “Look, I told you that it just happened, okay? I didn’t target Ford or anything. And I left.”
“Yeah. That’s the fucking problem. You’re alwaysleaving.”
