The Way Back to Us by Howard Jamie

Author:Howard, Jamie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2017-12-12T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23: Gavin

Someone was knocking on my door. I knew it even through the fog of sleep. And just as soon as I got up the energy to move I was going to fucking kill them. Who the hell did they think they were showing up here at—I lifted my head just enough to search out the time—eleven o’clock in the morning . . .

Shit.

I rolled onto my back and kicked off the covers. My eyes were sandy, my mouth drier than Ben’s sense of humor. For some reason I was still wearing my jeans, which made absolutely zero sense. Sleeping with pants on was one of my biggest no-nos. It ranked right up there with having sex with socks on and squeezing toothpaste from the middle of the tube.

Another knock, softer this time.

A groan slipped through my lips, and holy hell. My nostrils flared. That wasn’t just morning breath, it was death encapsulated in a scent. Door first, then toothbrush. I forced myself out of bed and almost immediately tripped over an empty bottle of bourbon. It spun, the hints of morning sunlight creeping through the curtain reflecting off it.

The spinning bottle was like the damn loading circle on the computer and when it stopped revolving, the memories filtered back into place—going to The Blackbird, the absence of Dani there, my heart annihilated, the bourbon. I must’ve eventually passed out.

My heart gave a painful throb, but I brushed it off. Door, toothpaste, then wallowing.

Scuffing my feet across the floor, I ran a hand over my hair quickly, trying to at least tame the rioting curls on top of my head. Good enough. I yanked the door open, half-expecting to find Felix on the other side waiting to reprimand me, but instead there was Dani.

I rubbed my eyes again, hard. Clearly I was hallucinating.

“Gav, are you okay?” Cool fingers brushed my arm. “You look . . . not good.”

“That’s probably because I’m not good,” I snapped. “Where the hell did you go? You just left? You couldn’t even bother to be like, hey Gav, the Bat-Signal just went off and I’ve gotta run, I’ll catch up with you later?”

Her cheeks flushed a light shade of pink and her gaze dipped to the floor. “I’m sorry. Really sorry. It wasn’t intentional. I was just so frazzled after everything that happened that night that when I got the message . . .” She shrugged.

I held the door open for her. I might’ve been mad but I knew for sure I wasn’t sending her away. And I was absolutely positive this wasn’t a conversation we needed to have in the hall. “Where were you last night?”

“Last night?” She set a plastic bag down on the counter, filled with what looked like groceries.

“The Blackbird.”

I saw the moment the pieces all fell together and her eyes filled with understanding. “I was off, remember? We weren’t supposed to be back yet.”

Motherfucker. I leaned my elbows on the kitchen counter so I could support my pounding head in my hands.

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