Zenith in Love (Zenith Series #5) - Leanne Davis Page 0,67

out.

Unlocking the door, she pushed it open and stepped inside. Clicking the entryway light on, she stared and frowned. It was far worse than usual. She was naturally concerned. If things progressed with them, they would surely have all kinds of adjustment issues with each other. Let alone, if they ever dared to share the same quarters. Jim was a slob who never opened a drape or a window, and hoarded books and any kind of literature like a quarantined mad scientist.

But now? He must have swiped everything off his table, counters and shelves. There wasn’t much space to begin with, but the floor was covered with junk, including every square foot. Food and dirty dishes filled the sink and spilled out onto the counter. It smelled foul inside. She cautiously passed it, rather shocked to see how disgusting he was.

Stepping down the few steps to the single bedroom, she shoved the door, expecting to find an empty room but recoiling when a figure on the bed met her peering eyes.

Lord. He was there.

Lying on the bed in the half darkness, a light shone from his bathroom. The floor in there was just as covered with stacked books and piles of clothes and whatever else existed of Jim’s life. Was he sick? Fear stabbed her in the chest. If he were, why didn’t he call her? Why couldn’t he answer her? A simple text would have sufficed. How could he not?

Stepping into the room, her foot kicked something that slid on the floor and hit the wall with a thunk. Glass. She leaned down and picked it up. She was holding an empty bottle. What? Moving forward, she found two more bottles. They were empty as well. All were thrown carelessly into his piles of junk. She sniffed the air, and was horrified when the scent finally registered in her senses. Alcohol. Lots of it.

He reeked of booze.

She kneeled nearer to him. His shirt stunk, along with his breath and his entire body smacked of the pervasive alcohol stench. It nearly gagged Kayla. He was passed out obviously.

She stared at him and tears filled her eyes. Blinking in surprise, she assumed he was holed up here for the past several days. Drinking the whole time? Drunk and sloppy? All evidence pointed to that. Jim was on a bender.

Pastor Jim.

Why? Why would he do that?

Their first night together, he said he was drunk. Kayla argued until she was blue that he was not. He didn’t seem drunk at all. No. But Jim said he could hide it well and drank a lot without anyone realizing how drunk he actually was. When she asked if it were a problem, he said maybe.

And that subject was never visited again. They didn’t grab a bottle of wine when they went out to dinner. Or a couple of beers when they ate pizza. Certainly, there was no hard alcohol. Except for that very first night.

The subject totally disappeared from her memory. She didn’t bother to give it a passing thought and literally forgot all about it.

She sat down and sneered at the overwhelming stench. Yuck. Gross. But Jim was so wasted, he didn’t stir. Passed out drunk. All alone. After downing several bottles of booze.

His night stand had some empty drinking glasses on it. His eye-glasses were also tossed haphazardly there. Seeing those made Kayla’s heart dip and swell. It hurt. His signature glasses that were so indicative of him, and somehow encapsulated all her thoughts about him. Tossed like trash to the side as he drank himself into a stupor. But why?

She jerked upright.

The services at the church tomorrow. What did he plan to do? He couldn’t get this much alcohol out of his system or off his skin in that amount of time, obviously. She wondered if he’d written anything down in the way of a sermon yet. What could he possibly be thinking? How could he allow himself to get like this? But Kayla realized he wasn’t thinking. Or even conscious. He seemed barely alive.

Shuddering at that thought, she rose to her feet, feeling compelled to do something productive. There was no way she could leave him. Not like this. What if…? Well, she just didn’t feel right about leaving him now.

Starting in the kitchen, Kayla began washing the dishes and throwing away the old food and containers and half eaten snacks. She cleaned out his refrigerator and discarded most of the contents. She took several filled garbage bags out to the