Julie had been the best day of his life. He’d just had no idea that day would be his last truly happy one. He slung back another burning swallow, stumbled back to his bedroom, and slumped down the wall, settling to the floor where he stared morosely at the bed while he drank.
The phone rang ten minutes later. Levering himself up off the floor, he stood, surprised at how unstable his balance already was. He looked down at the bottle. He’d already made a pretty good dent in it.
“Chris, are you there?” Cassie’s worry-filled voice floated across the apartment. “Pick up. What’s going on? I tried your cell, but you’re not answ—”
Dammit, of course Cassie would sense that he was upset. He stumbled toward the machine and turned the volume off. He should have been expecting it and hated that he could manage to screw up her honeymoon. After digging his cell phone out of his jeans pocket, he quickly texted Cassie. “Don’t worry, just jammed my thumb. Give Jake a kiss for me.”
She probably wouldn’t buy it, but his brain was already too fogged by alcohol to come up with anything better. At least she would know he was alive and not bleeding to death in an alley, although at this point, that might not be such a bad thing. Damn, he probably should slow it down on the Scotch, if he was having thoughts like that.
He left the Scotch on the counter and flung himself onto his couch, turning on the TV. The room spun as he tried to focus on it. He flipped through the channels and literally gasped when he came across the movie that he’d watched with Julie on Valentine’s Day. Sitting there watching it, he was completely transported to a day over a year ago, watching it with her in his arms, a fire roaring in the fireplace, snow falling outside. As he rubbed across his face, he was surprised to find it wet with tears. What had he done so wrong to the universe to deserve to lose everything?
He awoke to Colton’s voice. “I’m in his house now, Cass. Besides being drunker than a skunk and passed out, I think he’s okay.”
Chris could hear the sound of something being poured down the sink. That was probably the rest of his Scotch. He sat up and rubbed at his face. The room continued to spin and he fought back the nausea that came with it, swallowing hard.
Colton came and stood in front of him, scowling, with the cell phone to his ear. “Yeah, he’s waking up. I’ll stay here tonight. Don’t worry. I’ll take care of him. Try to tune him out and enjoy your honeymoon, okay, sis?”
After hanging up the cell phone, Colton crossed his arms and continued to stare down at him. “Do you want to explain what happened?”
Chris laughed loud and bitter. “Nope.” He stood and then lurched a little, until Colton grabbed him to steady him. He headed toward the kitchen, hoping he was wrong about the demise of the Scotch. Colton dogged his steps, seemingly ready to catch him if he stumbled again. And wasn’t that always the way with Colton? He was always there to take care of them all. “I’m okay. Go home to Pen.” He looked in the trash can and pulled out the now empty bottle and scowled at his older brother.
“I don’t think so.”
Chris staggered to the refrigerator, opened it and grabbed a beer.
Colton immediately snatched it out of his hand. “I think you’ve had enough.”
Grabbing another, Chris replied, “I don’t really care what you think.” He shoved past Colton, not really caring how hard he hit him as he walked past into the living room.
He could feel Colton’s stare on the back of his head as he flopped back down on the couch. Damn, he really hated it when the room spun like this. He leaned his head back against the couch and started flipping channels.
“Something happened. You were fine when you left work this afternoon. Now it’s 7:30 at night and you’re falling down drunk. This isn’t you, Chris. Tell me what happened.”
Chris didn’t want to think about this afternoon. He didn’t want to think about the nightmares. His lost dreams. The mess his life had become. He just wanted to find oblivion, just for a few hours or days. Was that so much to ask? He took a long draw off his beer, ignoring the queasiness that ensued because of it.