I have to admit, it was nice to hear his concern and to know that, even though I said we had to go back to the way things were before us hooking up, he doesn’t intend to do that. Well, not when it comes to my safety.
When I pick up my phone, though, I see it isn’t Declan calling, or Zander, who has yet to attempt contact with me, but Joey. I pick up immediately and straight away hear Joey’s concerned voice.
“Sasha, are you okay?” Joey’s tone jolts me from my relaxed state and worry creeps in.
“Yeah, why? Has something happened?”
He splutters for a moment. “What do you mean why? I might have missed that huge fight at the office, but you didn’t! You were part of it!”
“Oh.” I lean back against the couch, settling back in now I know this is about today and not something else. “Well, yeah, that was shit.”
Joey chuckles a moment before he turns back to being serious. “Are you okay?”
“I will be.” And I find I mean that. Today sucked, but tomorrow is a new day.
“You want company? I can bring around pizza, and we can watch some of your horrible chick movies,” he offers, making me wonder how I could be such good friends with people who have such horrible tastes in movies. How can they not appreciate a movie if there is romance in it without it being wrapped around gunfights and explosions?
“No date tonight?”
“Contrary to popular belief, I don’t always have a date, you know,” he drawls, clearly a little touchy about that.
“Could have fooled me.” And half the population of women in Chicago … “Are you sure nothing’s happened I need to be worried about?”
Joey is investigating my stalker, likely along with Zander now, so I can’t help fearing that something is just around the corner.
“After you left, Declan and Zander had an argument. By the time I got there, Declan had stormed out and Zander was left cleaning his office, which smelt like shit, by the way.”
“His kid can poop,” I mutter, my mind on what he said about Zander and Declan fighting. While I don’t like them fighting, I know they have to get through what happened today, too. Looks like we all could use a little calming down time.
“Since I heard what happened, I thought maybe you could use a friend.”
I find that incredibly sweet, but I can’t help thinking I am not the one who needs a friend the most.
“Have you spoken to Declan?”
“I called him earlier. He said he was at the gym. I figured he needs some time to cool off.”
I nod, though Joey can’t see it. “I appreciate you calling me, but I’m okay. I am already two glasses into a delicious bottle of wine and my bra is off. No way am I leaving my house for anything, and I’m not really up for a visitor,” I lie. I would totally love to have someone with me. “But today, Zander screwed up. He did with me, but he seriously did with Declan. And if anyone needs a friend right now, a reminder that he still has his family and he’s not alone, then it’s him.”
Joey audibly sighs down the phone. “Declan is a big boy, Sash—”
“He’s your brother, and he’s hurting. How would you feel if Zander found no issue with throwing your friendship away? What would you think if he could just hold that over your head whenever he felt like it?”
Joey is quiet for a moment, and I let him think it over, glancing at the frozen screen in front of me.
“Pretty shitty,” he finally answers.
“Exactly. So, I think he might need a reminder that he’s not alone, that while Zander is being an asshole right now, he still has one brother in his corner. I appreciate you looking out for me, and I totally plan to take you up on that offer soon, making you watch Ever After with me while you paint my nails, but Declan needs you tonight.”
“What the fuck is Ever After?”
I laugh. “Soon, you will find out, and you’ll love me for it,” I lie. He will hate me for it.
“It got fights? Weapons? Explosions?”
“Sort of,” I fib again. “So, we good?”
“Of course. And I know my opinion doesn’t matter, but just know that I liked you and Declan together. I liked seeing you guys happy. It was fucking nice not to have to hear you guys bickering like an old, married couple not getting any.”
“Oh, really?” I say on a smile, completely melting into my couch just knowing Joey was so accepting of us. He’s right; it isn’t needed, but it is fucking nice to know.
“Yeah, a younger couple, in the honeymoon stage, still not getting any, was much nicer. Now, call me if you need me, okay?”
“I promise,” I assure him, not sure I want to know how he knows we weren’t getting any. Maybe he heard about that part of the fight with Zander.
“I’ll call you tomorrow to check in,” he promises.
“Okay, and please give me any updates about what is happening,” I say as I play with the remote control.
“Will do. If anything happens, or if you get freaked out about anything, you call me.” His voice is deadly serious. As much as Joey is a fun time kind of guy, he is also deadly serious when he needs to be.
“I will,” I promise again. In no way am I stupid enough to deal with anything like that alone. I have seen enough scary movies where people make idiotic decisions. I’m all for handballing that off to the right people. I am no superhero.
“Love you,” Joey says, which gives me pause. While I love the guys and they love me, we have never felt the need to verbalize it. And this is the second person today to say this to me. It’s a shame it takes a crap day and drama to get us to speak our truths.
“Love you, too, Joey. Now go save Declan from himself.”
Joey laughs as he hangs up the phone.
I don’t love that I’m sitting alone, yet I don’t feel like I’m wallowing now. I’m just sad, and to me, that is an improvement. I know I will wake up tomorrow feeling a little better, and then each day will get easier.
At least, I hope that is the case.
As it turns out, the drama isn’t over yet.
Chapter 15
Thursday comes around quickly. I have finally gotten bored enough to begin the long, tedious task of scanning all the photos I want to keep on file from when I was a kid. Thanks to Sadie, there are now a countless number of them.
Just the thought that someone easily broke into my house numerous times gives me the creeps. It also makes me worried that I could have lost these photos if they wanted to steal them. At least, if I scan them and save them to a digital cloud, I will always have them.
Glancing over the photos brings up a lot of memories, all of them involving the guys. While my mind wanders over Artie and moments we shared, now looking at it in a different light to see if I missed anything, I also can’t stop thinking about Declan.
I have occasionally looked at these photos over the years. I don’t often feel nostalgia hit me, but when it does, I always end up looking at them. One thing I never bothered to do was look too closely at Declan. Yes, he is in many of them, but I always just ignored him.
He was there, but he was never part of the memory I wanted to relive.
Now I do.
I take long looks at him, noticing his scruffy clothes compared to our nicer ones. I note his lanky, tall frame, while the others have chubby faces and full bellies. I look at the dark circles under his eyes and the forced nature of his smile, making me wonder how we never noticed.
I was aware Declan wasn’t living in luxury, noticed his clothes often had holes or were dirty, but he was also a boy. He played hard, and I doubted he even cared about holes or cleanliness. I imagined he just picked up the closest article of clothing and was out the house a moment later.
I know the other parents took a shining to Declan, often having him over to their homes, as well as Maude, for dinners and special events. Meanwhile, my parents never had any of the guys over. They never put on a meal for any of my friends. They aren’t even in many of the photos I own. They were never around enou
gh.
Seeing Declan forces me to realize how much I miss him now. It might have only been two weeks, but since returning home and before the fight on Monday, we spent every night together, with dinners, breakfast, plus most lunches. I missed bingo and quiz night at the nursing home this week, and part of me wonders if Amara and J would think their ratings did better or worse without me.
That has to be a sign that I’m losing it, right?
A knock at my door brings me out of my reverie. I glance at the clock as I set down the photo album, wondering who could be here at almost ten o’clock at night.
It isn’t until I am a few steps away from my door when I consider that maybe I don’t want to answer it. What if it isn’t someone I know?
Unease settles in my gut as I tiptoe toward my door, my mind racing ahead as I consider the fact that Declan mentioned that every entrance to my house has cameras and motion sensors. Therefore, Jerry should be seeing who is there, and since my phone isn’t going off, it must be safe for me to answer, right?
I check my peephole and see nothing. There is a light on, yet I don’t see a person waiting.
Reluctantly, I open my door, moving my hand to my pocket where I shoved my cell and grip it tightly as I take a step out onto my empty doorway and look around.
There is no one here. At least, no one I can see.
Did some kids do a ding-dong ditch? Is that even still a thing?
Feeling uneasy, I close and lock the door, immediately jumping when a noise sounds from my backyard.
Without bothering to investigate, I pull out my cell phone and call Declan, who answers straight away. As soon as he hears my voice and what I have to say, he tells me to hang tight and keep everything locked up until he gets there.
Ten minutes later, I hear his voice calling out as he knocks on my front door.
I open it, and he charges in, closing and locking the door behind him.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“Heard any other noises?” He is already scanning my place as if an intruder is about to jump out from a shadow or behind my couch.
“I heard something around the side”—I point to the left side of my place—“about five minutes ago, but nothing since. It could just be an animal or something, but someone definitely knocked on my front door first.” And animals aren’t known for their knocking skills.
“Stay inside, keep everything locked up, and have your cell in your hand in case you need it. Got it?”
I nod, and without hesitation, Declan walks back out of my house.
Five long minutes later, he knocks to be let back in.
“I can’t see anything. I called Jerry, and he said the cameras picked up nothing.”
“But I thought you said they had motion sensors; that as soon as something moves out there, it starts recording? The lights came on, why not the cameras?”
“The cameras recorded, but they recorded nothing,” he explains with a scowl still over his face. He is not happy.
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know. I want to check your house out.”
He moves with determination as he checks the inside of my house, not leaving any closet door unopened. It’s reassuring to see no new horrors left for me.
I can’t help glancing at the inside of my closet door every time I open it now, looking for more photos or something else that is equally as creepy.
“Your spare bedroom looks different,” he notes.
“I changed the sheets and cleaned it up a bit. Cynthia is staying with me as of tomorrow.” I try not to think about how full of crap my garage is now. Definitely time to throw out some unneeded junk.
“She is?”
I nod, straightening up the quilt, even though it hasn’t moved since this morning when I fluffed it up a little. “She’s breaking up with Vanessa tomorrow.”
“Oh.” He nods, frowning a little afterward. “Are you going to be there with her?”
“No, she wants to do it alone. I’ll just be waiting for her once it’s over. I’m going to help her carry her stuff out and drive her to mine.”
“You guys need a hand?” he offers, staring intently at me.
“I think this is a bit too personal for Cynthia for you to be there.” I’m not sure what state to expect her in, but either way, I’m sure it won’t be something she will be keen on Declan seeing.
He nods, his hands on his hips, his gaze back to shifting around my house like he’s expecting to find a new clue.
“Dec, I’m sure it was nothing,” I say on a sigh.
“It wasn’t nothing. I don’t fucking get what is going on. Who is messing with you? With us?” he growls, stomping out of the spare room and back into the living room.
“I don’t know, but I doubt we’re going to figure it out tonight.” I take a few steps toward him until I’m standing in front of him, resting my hand on his arm. “Do you mind staying for a while?” I ask, too desperate for his company to wish him to leave yet.
He doesn’t hesitate to accept. “Of course.”
I nod to the couch where I was before. “We should talk.”
He shrugs off his jacket before sitting down, immediately reaching out for the photo album, staring fixedly at each photo. “I haven’t seen most of these before.”
Before the creepy shrine in my closet, he probably hadn’t seen any of them.
“I haven’t for a while, either. I’ve been scanning them so I can make them digital. I was going to send them to you all once it’s complete.”
He nods, carefully scrutinizing each photo.
“You remember Ms. Glassener?” he asks out of the blue. I certainly don’t have a photo of our ninth grade English teacher in any album.
“Yes, she was gifted enough to make any topic boring. I’m pretty certain almost everyone in my class fell asleep at least once while she was rambling on.”
Declan snorts before settling on a grim smile. “Ever see her yell at someone?”
I think back, barely able to remember what she looks like anymore. “I don’t think so.”
“Trust me; you’d know. I threw a note to Artie one time, and she saw it. She blasted me so badly I thought her head was going to pop off her shoulders. She was bright red, her eyes were bulging, and I am pretty sure with the way her hands were fisting at her sides that she wanted badly to punch me in the face.”
“Over a note?” I gape. I got more of a snooze vibe off her rather than abusing a kid vibe.
“Think she just had enough. She was cursing me and threatening me with suspension, at the very least, but she was going for expulsion.”
“What the hell?”
Declan grins now, looking away from the photos in his lap to me. “Then Zander stepped up; tried to calm her down.”
“That sounds like Zander.” Always putting himself in the middle of things.
“It didn’t calm her down, but it did shift her anger to him. She started approaching him, and we all knew she was going to lose it on him. Then Joey stood up and called her a bitch.”
I gasp, not only because I wouldn’t expect that from a young Joey, but also because I never saw anyone speak to teachers like that. How did I not know about this story? It should have been a legend, or at least rumored about.
“Then Artie started to slam his hands down on his desk, over and over, like a steady drum beat. He hit his desk, and the whole class picked it up. Ms. Glassener just started screaming then, like actually losing her shit. Another teacher heard from outside and rushed in. We calmed down, and Ms. Glassener was removed from the room. She didn’t come back for a month.”
I’m openly gaping at him. “How come I never heard about this?”
“No idea. I know some of the kids talked about it, but the news got old fast. I heard a rumor she was going through a divorce,” he says on a shrug.
“That’s sad,” I murmur, not sure it excuses her behavior.
“Yeah, but I will never forget that day
.”
“Because she went crazy on you?”
He shakes his head. “Because Zander saw her going crazy on me, and his first thought was to jump up and have my back. Joey and Artie were right there with him. I never had anyone have my back, not my parents, and as much as I loved my grandma, not even her. She struggled just to support me, and I know she did her best, but when I had some asshole giving me shit about my clothes, about my dad being in prison, or because my stomach was grumbling in class, my grandma wasn’t there. My brothers were.”
I nod, glad he had that, but feeling uneasy that he is bringing this story up now.
“I’ve always had that with them. I’ve always known I can count on them,” he continues.
“I’m glad you have that, Declan,” I say softly, moving the photo album out from his lap and taking his hand.
“But on Monday, I realized I didn’t have that anymore.” He looks directly into my eyes as he says this, and I see that he is still hurt.
“No, you do—”
“Zander wasn’t my brother on Monday,” he cuts me off. “He was yours. And I was just some stranger he couldn’t trust. He didn’t take my back, and it didn’t even click until I heard you talking to him.”
My heart breaks for him, as well as for this situation. Zander was an asshole. However, Declan is thinking too much into this. It was a mistake, not a declaration of which side he would take forever.
“Zander loves you. He made a mistake—”
“I know he fucked up. But I fucked up, too. I was so used to Zander having my back that I couldn’t even see it when he wasn’t there. When I realized I might lose him, I couldn’t deal with it. It was all too much, and I took the coward’s way out. I knew it the moment you stormed out of my office.” He shakes his heads. “Fuck, I think I knew it as I was doing it. It didn’t feel right, but … I’m not proud to say this, Sash, but I was scared.”
He glances down at his lap, at our joined hands, like he’s ashamed to admit this to me and can’t bear to look me in the eye. “I’ve been friends with those guys since I was little, since Artie threw a ball at my head in second grade, and I caught it, amazing the shit out of him. But when we lost Artie, I lost a brother, and it fucking hurt. When Zander said I’d lose him, I couldn’t bring myself to let that happen. I need him, but I didn’t let myself consider what I’d be giving up with you. I might need my brother, but I want you. I need you, too, and I don’t think I can let you go.” He shifts himself on the couch so he’s facing me properly. Then he takes my other hand so both my hands are now held by him. His eyes are back on me now.
I Knocked Him Out (Love at First Crime Book 2) Page 24