Page 116 of When We Were Reckless
I called his name. Twice. He held up a finger, indicating that I had to wait a minute. Since he was the only one working, I had no choice but to wait. I tapped my foot, agitated. Tonight was taking its toll.
Holden was a good brewer, but he hadn’t mastered the art of multitasking. How hard was it to pour two beers and talk on the phone at the same time? He wasn’t even talking. He was just listening and nodding.
“I’ll get the message to him, okay? I can’t make any guarantees, but if I know Jesse, he’ll make every attempt to be there.” At the mention of Jesse’s name, I perked up. “I’ll tell him. Take care, Alessia.”
Alessia?
Holden had been talking to Alessia? Why was she still calling him?
“What did Alessia want?” Just saying her name left a bitter taste in my mouth.
“She had no way to reach Jesse. She wanted to let him know that her mom died.”
“Wow, she’ll use anything to get Jesse back. How low can she go?”
I hadn’t even realized I’d said that out loud until Holden frowned. “Her mom just died.”
I immediately felt chastised. He was right. Her mom died, and that was horrible. Even though I couldn’t stand Alessia, I still felt terrible for her.
But why couldn’t she leave Jesse alone? They weren’t even together anymore.
As if he’d read my mind, Holden said, “If something happened to Avery’s mom, I’d want to know.”
Holden had been close with Avery’s mom. Her whole family, really. I guess that was all part of being in a relationship.
You get close with their family and friends, and when you split up, you lose them, too.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Quinn
After my shift,I drove to Jesse’s house. It had been a long night. Declan was still annoyed about those stupid duck breasts, and nobody held a grudge like he did.
Mason had gotten Carly pregnant, and I couldn’t wrap my head around that. He was going to be a dad. He was going to have a baby with someone he didn’t love, and something about that just seemed so unbearably sad to me. It happened all the time, I knew that, but I guess I always pictured my brothers finding true love before they settled down and had kids.
And Holden had been in a funk all night. I couldn’t help wondering if it was because I’d mentioned Avery. He’d been distracted and had barely spoken.
I was tired, and all I wanted to do was go home and crawl into bed.
So I wasn’t sure why I’d driven to Jesse’s house. He hadn’t called or texted, and maybe he didn’t even want me here.
I found him in his garage riding the Air Bike. He was shirtless and dripping with sweat.
It was ten-thirty at night, and I had no idea why he was working out so late. Knocking himself out like this.
I took a seat on the weights bench across from him. Our eyes met, so he obviously saw me, but he didn’t stop cycling. If anything, he increased his speed. The news about Alessia’s mom must have really upset him. Maybe they’d been close. I didn’t really know what to think.
He was wearing AirPods, and I wondered what kind of music he was listening to that would help him set this punishing pace. I watched him for at least five minutes, maybe ten, long enough to question why I was still here before he finally slowed to a stop and climbed off the bike.
He wiped his face with a towel and removed his earbuds, but I couldn’t read his expression. It was blank. He grabbed a bottle of water and drank half of it before he finally spoke.
“What are you doing here?”
Good question. I had no idea why I’d come. Curiosity? Fear? A gnawing sense of dread? “I just wanted to see how you are.”
“I’m fine.”
He wasn’t, though. He had that same closed-off expression as he did at the beginning of the summer. Everything about his posture and flat tone warned me not to push for more information. But I couldn’t help myself. We’d gotten too close for me to just back off and pretend I didn’t care.
