I shook my head. “Not pressing charges.”
Wayne reached out for me with his good hand. “I’m srry, M’llie.”
My throat tightened, heart pinching. “It’s okay, Wayne. You’re going to be okay.”
This man … this poor man and what he had to deal with. I couldn’t handle all this trauma. The weight of Colin’s death was about all I could bear. I couldn’t take this on too, it was too much. How did Ashton deal with it? What if my dad caused the crash that killed Colin, how would I even look at him every day?
“We need to get him to the hospital for surgery, ma’am.” The EMT snapped me from my thoughts and I realized I was still holding onto Wayne.
He still hadn’t let go of my hand, and I didn’t have the heart to pry it away. Was he a fucking hot mess? Yes. But I just couldn’t leave him in his time of need.
“Can I ride in the ambulance?” I started to walk out with them, keeping Wayne’s hand in mine. “He’s actually my boyfriend’s dad. Long story.”
Technically not my boyfriend and it felt weird as hell to say, but I didn’t want Wayne to be alone. Julie looked at me like I was crazy, but I saw the tears lining in her eyes.
They took in Wayne’s disheveled appearance and nodded. “Sure, but tell the hospital he’s your father-in-law and they’ll give you more information.”
I nodded. Father-in-law, got it. What’s another lie at this point? Even pretending that I was married to Ashton did weird things to my stomach. I mean, obviously I wasn’t ready to move on that quickly … but someday?
Maybe…
As I crawled into the back of the ambulance, Wayne’s death grip in my hand, I peered down the alley of the bar.
Ashton. Smoking a cigarette and glaring at me with blue eyes.
Was he broken beyond repair? Sometimes I wondered.
Ashton
What the fuck was Millie’s deal with my dad? She thought he could do no wrong. Seeing her looking at me like I was the scum of the earth for the way I talked to him cut right into my heart. She had no fucking idea what I’d been through with that man. How many times can you try to help someone, try to love them, before you have to pull away to save yourself? It was like cutting off an arm with flesh-eating bacteria. If you didn’t, the whole body went with it. My dad was a flesh-eater, and I cut him off months ago to save myself.
Then Millie rides in on her fucking high horse with her judgey eyes and goes in the ambulance to the hospital with him!
Unbelievable.
Saint Millie.
I had the hots for a girl who took every one of my nerves and lit them on fire and it was infuriating. But I couldn’t deny that I liked her. I wanted to date her, bring her flowers, take her out to dinner and wear a collared shirt and shit like that, liked her that much. I wanted a future with her. The way that frat boy had looked at her in the interview drove me insane. The thought of another man getting to be with Millie made my entire chest go tight and I couldn’t breathe.
I paced the restaurant after sweeping up the glass and waited for the glass repairman to come give me a quote. What did I want to bet that either insurance wouldn’t cover it or it would be exactly one thousand dollars, the amount of my deductible before insurance paid anything?
Motherfucking Wayne.
I was going to be eating kitchen scraps for a month at this rate. First my truck, and now this. I needed to sell this place and be done with it. Buy out Millie, take my profit, and start over somewhere else. I couldn’t work with Millie, I couldn’t run a business with someone I liked. Each decision I made would take her feelings into account, and my feelings, and feelings didn’t belong in business. This wouldn’t work. It would crash and burn like two comets colliding in the sky.
Millie had her big grand Saturday night bash in three days. I didn’t think I even wanted to wait that long, I wanted to call Darcy and tell her to sell before these guys walked. She’d been so furious at me for telling her I still needed more time.
I needed a cigarette. Reaching into my pocket, I felt the flat pack and cursed myself for not buying a carton. I had been trying to quit for Millie and Gran. I still had some of that nasty gum upstairs in my apartment though. Stepping out of the back door of the bar, I slipped into the stairwell to get the gum, taking the stairs two at a time.
As I passed Millie’s place, I couldn’t help but overhear her friend Julie talking loudly.
“John, it’s crazy. Millie has completely fallen for this guy and she’s not going to tell him about Colin.”
I froze.
Colin? Who the fuck was Colin? Did Millie have a boyfriend back in New York?
I leaned in closer to the door and pressed my ear against it.
“Babe, I know, I’m trying to be supportive but seeing this guy … the scar on his chest. Knowing he has Colin’s heart and she’s hooked up with him … it’s weird.”
The whole hallway spun as I processed her words.
Colin’s heart…
Without thinking, I yanked the handle and burst through the door, relieved it was unlocked. Julie looked up from her phone, mouth agape.
“What the fuck did you just say?” I growled as my hands shook.
She paled, swallowing hard. “Babe, I gotta go.”
She hung up and lowered her head in shame.
“Start talking,” I warned, the adrenaline pulsing through my veins so fast I felt dizzy and hot.
She gulped. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this.” Her hands wrung together and she bopped on her heels nervously.
If she was about to say what I thought she was, I would
