wasn’t the case. I closed my eyes and tipped my head back.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. While Mattie and I are here, why don’t you call her?”
Maybe because I was afraid she’d hang up on me?
I sighed and brought my head forward as I opened my eyes to look at my brother. “What if she tells me to fuck off?”
“Then you either grab yourself by the fucking balls and fight for her, or you walk away. Your choice,” he said as he crossed his arms. My fingers clutched my hair. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror by my dining room table. I looked like absolute crap on a stick.
Taking a sniff at my shirt, I wrinkled my nose and pulled it over my head. “I stink,” I said with a grimace.
“Yeah, dude, you really do, but I wasn’t trying to make your day worse.”
“Gee, thanks,” I said with a mirthless laugh as I pulled my phone out of my back pocket. For a few seconds I stared at it like it was an alien object. Then I paced.
I looked at my phone again.
“It’s not going to call her for you,” Coop said before he walked off down the hall.
He was right. I pressed her contact information and it started to ring. She didn’t answer, so I left a message. Then I decided that was the coward’s way out. So I called again.
When she didn’t answer the second time, I called again.
On that last call, she finally picked up. Except it wasn’t her.
“What the fuck do you want?” a man’s voice asked.
“Barely Breathing”—Duncan Sheik
When my phone rang for the third time, my brother gave me a pointed look. “Are you going to answer that or am I? He’s not going to stop. I’ll give him an A for persistence.”
“I’ll give him an A for asshole. You can answer it, for all I care,” I mumbled into my pillow. Jake was lying next to me. He hadn’t left me since I cleaned up the mess of puke. Thankfully, he took his shoes off before he settled in next to me to keep me company. He was really trying for best brother award.
Maybe I didn’t think he’d actually do it, but he sure as hell did. “What the fuck do you want?” He growled into the phone.
My head popped up in surprise.
There was silence. Then I could hear Alex ask, “Who the fuck is this?”
“Not the guy who made her cry. Now I’ll ask you again, what the fuck do you want?”
“Ask her to call Alex,” he said tightly.
“I’ll think about it.” My brother was intentionally being a dick. I rose up to my elbow.
“Give me the phone,” I whispered. Jake raised a dark brow and gave me a look that said he wasn’t done playing. I held out my hand. Though I may have been upset, I couldn’t deny the part of me that still craved to hear what Alex had to say. I deserved answers.
Finally, he rolled his eyes and handed me the phone. “You’re no fun at all. I could’ve easily strung that out for another several minutes.” He went back to his phone, but I knew he was listening.
“What do you want, Alex?” I asked, proud of how I was able to keep my voice from wavering.
“We need to talk. This wasn’t what you thought. Today, I mean. When you came over.” He was stuttering, and he stopped to suck in a deep breath and exhaled roughly. “I need to talk to you.”
“So talk.”
“Can you come over? Please?”
“Uh, I don’t think so,” I huffed in disbelief that he’d want me there with his baby and baby mama. That was likely the last thing on my list of to-do’s.
“I probably don’t have the right to ask, but who answered the phone?” His voice was definitely firmer than it was before, yet I caught a waver of uncertainty. In fact, there might have been a hint of jealousy—which served him right.
“You’re right. You don’t.” My brother snorted next to me, and I swatted him.
“Please. I—Hold on.” The phone muffled and I could hear him talking. The reply sounded like a man’s voice. That had me wondering if my uncle was still there. It also had me wondering what he’d been doing there to begin with.
He came back on the line. “If it’s okay with you, I can come over. Please, Syd. It’s important.”
I sighed heavily. “Alex, I don’t know.” That was the God’s honest truth, because I could