“Listen, sugar, I’m done for the night. Not interested in coming onto a guy who isn’t interested. I enjoyed myself and now I’m going home. If you want a ride I’ll give you one. Or you can sit here all night.”

I needed a ride. I could fight off a female if I had to. Leaving with her was better than sitting her and having to get in the car with possibly two wild topless females when Ace was ready to leave.

“Yeah. I need a ride,” I said walking over to her car.

She nodded and opened her door. I opened the passenger side and climbed in. I needed to talk to Eva. Now. I wanted to hear her voice.

“You must be one of the good guys. The ones that actually fall in love,” the girl said as we pulled out onto the road.

“You could say I was damn lucky,” I replied keeping my eyes on the road. I wasn’t going to look at her. Even though she was dressed her top was showing everything but her nipples.

“Yep. One of the few,” she replied. She reached forward and turned on the music. Hinder filled the car and we listened to music. The only time we spoke was when I told her when we needed to turn.

Ten minutes later she was pulling into the parking lot of our apartment. “You can let me out here,” I said as she drove over to a parking spot and parked her car.

“I could but just so happens, I live in the same building. You must be Ace’s new roommate,” she said.

“Yeah,” I replied.

“I’m Hayden Step. Your next-door neighbor.”

“Thanks for the ride,” I said, opening my door and getting out. I was thankful for the ride, but I wasn’t making friends.

Chapter Eight

EVA

Daddy didn’t eat breakfast again this morning. I had even tried fixing something light: oatmeal and peaches. He said he wasn’t hungry just yet and kissed me on the cheek before heading out the door. I was trying to remember that Jeremy had said his pain meds probably messed with his appetite. I just wished he’d eat.

I sat down at the table alone with a cup of coffee. The early morning sun out the window didn’t cheer me up the way it used to. Today I had too much weighing on my heart. Daddy not eating and Cage not calling.

The kitchen door swung open and Jeremy walked inside. His easy smile was comforting. I didn’t feel like smiling but it was nice to see someone else smile.

“Good Morning, sunshine,” he drawled, and walked over to fix himself a cup of coffee. “You aren’t looking real chipper this morning. Do I need to go kick someone’s ass? ’Cause you know I will.”

If I wasn’t so worried about everything in my life that would have gotten me to smile. “No. I’m okay. Just having a moment to feel sorry for myself. Pathetic I know.”

Jeremy spun his chair around and straddled it before sitting down across from me. “Don’t let me hear you call yourself pathetic again. I’d hate to kick your ass.”

That time I almost smiled. “Thank you,” I said. I didn’t have all the words to say more.

Jeremy however didn’t need them. He understood. “You’re welcome. That’s why I’m here,” he replied.

We drank our coffee without saying much for a few minutes. Finally he sat his coffee down on the table and looked at me. “He didn’t call?”

I shook my head. I had expected him to call or text when he got home late. It was just odd. It also hurt. I wanted him to have fun and make friends. I didn’t want to hinder his life their but I was used to being first. Last night something else had been first. I was afraid this was the beginning of many nights like that.

“He’ll call and he’ll have a reason for last night’s text. The dude worships the ground you walk on. Don’t stress over it. You got enough to worry about.”

I set my coffee down and reached over and took Jeremy’s hand and squeezed it. He squeezed mine back then stood up. “I need to go help your daddy. He’ll be doing shit by himself he ain’t supposed to if I leave him alone too long.”

I nodded because he was right. Daddy wasn’t giving in easily to cancer. He was determined to live life like he didn’t have it. Each day I watched him go on about his life and ignore the treatments that could give him a few more months I wondered if this wasn’t a better way to spend the rest of his days. Seeing him enjoy the life he’d always lived instead of seeing him sick from the chemo treatments. If the chemo could cure him then I would force him to take them… but they couldn’t. So maybe… maybe this was better.

My phone rang startling me from my thoughts. I jumped up and ran to get it off the counter. It was Cage.

“Hello,” I said, unsure of what else to say. It was six in the morning.

“Baby, I am so fucking sorry. I couldn’t find my damn phone last night. I lost it. Then I got it back and the motherfucking battery was gone. I couldn’t find it anywhere. Ace found it in his car and brought it in here and left it by my bed in the middle of the night. I almost called you then but I was worried that you’d be sleeping and I didn’t want to disturb you so I’ve been waiting until I knew you’d be awake to call you.”

He didn’t mention the text. “It’s okay. I was confused after the text you sent, but I went on to bed early. Did you have fun last night?”

There was a pause on the line. My stomach knotted up. Why wasn’t he responding to that? Was he going to tell me something I didn’t want to hear? Oh God. Was I ready for this? “What text? I didn’t text you. My phone was gone then it was dead.”

He didn’t text me? Yes he did. “Um, yeah you did. Hold on a sec. I’ll send you a screen capture.” I pulled the phone back and found the text from last night and quickly took a screen shot of it before texting the photo to Cage. “There it’s sent.”

Another pause. I knew he was looking at his text. Maybe he’d been drinking and didn’t remember. It could have been a drunk text. That would make more sense. “Motherfucker’s gonna get his ass beat,” Cage roared into the phone.

Uh-oh. “Cage’s what’s wrong?” I asked, trying to think of a way to calm him down over the phone.

“I didn’t send this shit text, Eva. I’d never send you a fucking shit text like this. It had to be Ace. He had my damn phone.”

“Cage, wait. It’s okay. I was confused when I got it, but knowing you didn’t send it makes sense. It’s okay. Please don’t go hurt your roommate. He was probably just trying to get you away from the ball and chain for a little while,” I joked hoping to make him smile.

“Don’t! Don’t fucking call yourself that, Eva. Ever. I’m not in a good place at the moment and I don’t need you calling yourself that. I can’t take it.”

“I was kidding. I wanted to make you laugh. This isn’t a big deal. I swear it isn’t.”

“It wasn’t funny. You are my world. Don’t ever accept something like that from me because that shit will never be me. You get a text like that again and you know it isn’t me. Also know your probably going to have to come bail my ass outta jail because I’m about to hurt a motherfucker.”

Oh, crap. What could I do to calm him down? “Cage, please. If you get into trouble you might not get to come home Saturday and I really want you to come home. I miss you. Please don’t hurt anyone.”

“Baby, ain’t nothing keeping me from getting in my car and coming to you Friday afternoon. You got that? Nothing.”

“If you get in a fight with a teammate that could be a problem. What if you have to move out of your apartment?” I tried to think of reasons why he needed to keep a calm head. Anything to make him chill out. I wasn’t a fan of this Ace either if he’d been the one who sent the text I wasn’t sure it was meant for a good reason. I was the girlfriend keeping Cage from partying with the guys.

“Think I’m gonna move out now anyway. I don’t like people touching what’s mine. I sure as hell don’t like them sending my woman text. That shit don’t fly. I hate to think about you going to sleep last night thinking I’d sent you that damn text message.”