insane. “Blair, I need your help.”
“You want me to move in with you? Leave my job and my new house and just move back to Kansas City with you?”
I reach around the back of my neck, gripping it with my hand, knowing she’s going to be really pissed now. “I, uh . . . actually live here now.”
“What?” Yup. Pissed. “What the fuck are you talking about? Here where?”
“Downtown St. Louis. Chris gave me my own shop here, and I live above it.”
I expect her to give me shit about my long sentence, but she doesn’t. She’s just plain furious because she’s smart and connected the dots. “You knew you were moving here when we fucked in the bathroom and I told you I was moving to St. Louis?”
I nod because she already knows the truth. I look guilty as fuck. “Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me then?” She doesn’t let me answer and throws her arms up in the air. “Of course, you didn’t fucking tell me. Because that would be offering information about yourself, letting me in slightly. And you don’t fucking do that.”
“And I've never hidden that fact about myself.”
Her eyes roll, and I'm glad she folds her arms over her chest because she looks like she wants to claw my eyes out. “No, you haven’t. I’m just a fucking idiot.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
She laughs, but it’s cold. “Why the fuck do you want me to move in with you here? Are you lonely, Rhys?”
It’s a cold mocking tone. “No. I need your help with a little girl.”
Her eyes narrow, and I see the curiosity under the fury. “A little girl.”
“An eleven-year-old foster girl. I need to get her out of the home she’s in.”
“How long have you been here?”
“A month,” I answer quickly. No point in lying and again, no fucking time. I need to get all of this moving.
“And you’ve already met an eleven-year-old girl who needs your help, and you want to what? Adopt her?”
“No.” I shake my head, dropping my hand from my neck. “I don’t know. I just need to be a temporary place for her to stay until they can get her into a good place. And I can’t do that as a single man.”
“So you want me to play house with you to help get you a little girl?”
I groan, “Please don’t say it like that. That’s fucking creepy.”
“Yeah. It is.” She waves her hands, dismissing me and starts toward the parking lot again. “Find someone else. I’m sure you can get some dumbass girl to pretend to love you.”
I follow her across the street to the parking lot and run in front of her to make her stop. “I can’t do this with a stranger, Blair. I need your help.” I hate asking for help. The words taste bad in my mouth. But there’s no way I could do this with anyone else. Even if she’s mad at me, Blair gets me on some level. She knows I’m fucked-up.
“You might as well be a stranger to me, Rhys.”
I stare at her, unsure what she wants from me. “You never wanted me to talk before. You never asked questions.” I liked that about her.
She folds her arms over her chest, just staring at me.
Is it answers she wants? Because I don’t know if I can do that.
This has to be a fucking joke, right?
He wants me to move in with him so he can get custody of some kid. He fucking lives here in St. Louis. And has for the same month that I have. “Do you know this kid?”
“I just met her.”
His short answers make me homicidal. “Yeah, well. Good luck with that, Rhys.”
I move past him, still careful not to make contact even though I'm pissed-off. He’s still following me, and when we reach my car, I make a huge mistake and turn around to look at him.
God. Damn. It.
“Explain.” I fold my arms over my chest, staring at him with fury because I want to kill him. He didn’t fucking tell me he was moving. Because he doesn’t give a damn about me.
“A kid came into my shop yesterday. Scared.” He shakes his head. “No. Fucking terrified. She told me her foster father hurts her. She asked me to hide her.”
“Why would she go to you?”
He seems so lost. Out of control. And it’s awful to see. “I have no idea. None. But she did. For whatever reason, she flew into my shop yesterday,