Page 51 of Hello Handsome
“I put a travel pack in your glove box just in case.”
My brain was too wrecked to be annoyed at my overprotective son. Instead, I opened the door and fumbled through the contents, finding a small pink case at the bottom. When I opened it up, I said, “The white ones?”
“Yes. Just one. With water if you have it but spit will do.”
I grabbed the jug I always carried from the floorboard and gulped it down. Too weak to even get to the driver’s seat, I bent and slumped over the passenger side, chest to the threadbare seat cover.
“You got it?” Fletcher asked.
“I did.” My breath was still too shallow. My heartbeats painful slices of muscle on muscle. “How long does it take to work?”
“Not too long. I’ll stay on with you, Dad,” Fletcher said. “Tell me what you see right now.”
I opened my eyes, the seat spinning for a second. “I’m in my truck. The seat covers are gray with bits of black and pink and blue.” Tears burned in my eyes, embarrassed that my son had to hear me like this. That I fucked up so colossally with Aggie that she was better with someone else. “I’m sorry, son. I should be the one helping you.”
“We’re family, Dad. I’d help you if you broke an ankle or needed stitches. Why is this any different?”
Maybe it wasn’t, but I said, “This hurts a hell of a lot worse.”
33
AGGIE
Gray hadn’t beento the diner in weeks now. It was my own fault because I hadn’t invited him. Even though he’d hurt me… I missed him. But I didn’t know how to let him in again when that moment kept flashing through my mind.
So a strange sense of loneliness and relief washed over me when one of his younger sons, Hayes, came into the restaurant for a late lunch and sat at the counter so I could talk to him.
He and Knox looked the most like their father. Light hair, kind blue eyes, lopsided smiles that instantly warmed you to them. But while Knox was a dependable and affable cop, Hayes looked like pure trouble on the outside—tattoos all up and down his arms and even on his neck, ripped jeans, a piercing in his lip, and a wicked gleam in his eyes. But I’d known him long enough to know he was good, deep down.
When Enzo had been getting bullied on the way home from school, Hayes whipped his truck off the road, parked, got out, and threatened to beat up the kids bothering him if they even looked Enzo’s way again. The bullying stopped that day, and Enzo wasn’t afraid to go to school anymore. I’d always be grateful for that.
“Hey, trouble,” I said, setting a glass of water in front of him.
He gave me a flirtatious smile. “Hey, gorgeous.”
I laughed at the compliment and the way he batted his eyes. “How’s your dad? I haven’t seen him around.” I tried to keep my voice from revealing all the emotion of that statement and then instantly regretted speaking. Gray was so close with his sons. What if he’d told them about what happened?
Hayes dipped his head to the side as he tore the wrapper off the straw. “He’s been staying with Ford a lot lately. He’s worried about him.”
My eyebrows rose. “What happened?”
Hayes told me that Ford had been injured while visiting and had to get stitched on the bottom side of his foot.
I covered my mouth in horror, knowing how much football mattered to Ford. It was his life–even as a kid, he always had a ball tucked under his arm.
“How’s he holding up?” I asked, remembering to get my notepad out of my pocket.
“Not great.” Hayes shrugged. “But that’s to be expected. Football’s his life, you know?”
I was about to ask how I could help, but let’s be honest. I was a waitress on the outs with his dad, and Ford was making millions. Positioning my pen over the notepad, I asked, “Know what you want?”
Hayes said, “Burger and tots, please.”
See? Bad boys didn’t say please. He was good deep down. “You’ve got it,” I told him, taking the ticket over to the cook and pinning it above the range.
While Hayes’s food sizzled on the grill, I thought about Gray and got to work wiping up the counters. Maybe I should reach out to him… but what would I say?You’re a good dad for showing up for your son?... I want to hate you, but I can’t?… You’re the most consistent person in my life, and I don’t know how to be without you?
When the cook rang his bell signaling an order was ready, I brought the food over to Hayes. “Need anything else?” I asked him.
