“What happened?” Scarlet’s eyes swept over me as though assessing for damage as I ushered her inside. “Sal came to our house on an absolute tear demanding Cole step shit up, whatever that means,” she blurted. “I’ve never seen him so pissed off.”
“Where’s Gracie?” I asked, shutting the door and following her inside. Holding the baby would have done wonders for me.
She wrinkled her nose, clearly unhappy at having to leave her. “Cole let me come over here because Wes is downstairs on guard duty,” she explained, sitting cross-legged on my bed. “But he wouldn’t let the baby out of the house. I had to check on you. Now spill,” she directed, her green eyes looking up at me expectantly.
“We ran into my mother,” I grimaced, ignoring Scar’s gasp of surprise. “It was ugly to say the least. After ten years, she hasn’t changed much. I think Sal was pretty pissed at the way she was talking to me, but what really got him riled up was how targeted the whole loan was. It was no coincidence,” I told her. “Whoever it was, they knew my ma and her deadbeat boyfriend couldn’t pay it back. It was the perfect way to use me as collateral,” I told her quietly. “It’s all fucked up.”
“Sal will never let anything happen to you. None of the guys will,” she replied with conviction.
“Yeah, well, as you can see, Sal isn’t here,” I retorted, surprised by the venom in my voice. “He got out of here so fast you would have thought the place was on fire,” I scoffed.
She eyed me carefully for a moment before reaching over to squeeze my hand briefly. “I’m sure it was shitty to have him bail on you, but, we both know it isn’t because he doesn’t care. Hell, he’s on a freaking rampage as we speak trying to sort this out,” she explained.
“That might be true, but it’s not what matters to me. What matters to me is we’re in the same fucking place we were before he left,” I groaned as I got up and started pacing, exasperated.
She let me pace for a few minutes, her gaze watching me patiently. “Do you really believe that?” she asked finally in her no-nonsense manner.
I stopped, met her eyes, and sighed in resignation.
“No,” I was forced to admit.
“No one knows you better than I do, Kat. And I know part of you doesn’t want him to change. Because if he does, if he can be more to you, then it means you have to be more, too.”
Damn, she was right.
Rather than gloat as she sometimes did, she continued, “You’re both going to have to give the other a little leeway to fuck up. But, you both seem to want it to work. You might have taken a step back tonight,” she allowed, “but I have no doubt that man loves you. He’ll come around. Just watch,” she assured me.
“We’ll see,” I muttered.
She winked.
“So, you’re pretty much on house arrest again,” I commented with a raised brow. Cole was on high alert ever since my attack.
She snorted. “Don’t remind me. We both know Cole was protective before. Now with Gracie, he’s kind of a nightmare,” she grimaced.
“He’s just worried,” I replied quietly.
“Yeah,” she agreed as she moved to stand up. “My boobs are about to burst,” she winced. “I gotta head out and feed the babe.”
I smiled sympathetically. Her boobs had always been big; now they were in the ginormous category.
“Love you, Kat,” she said and hugged me before she walked out.
“You, too,” I replied.
It was after midnight by the time I decided I might as well take a bath. Yes, another one. Sleep wasn’t going to happen and it was the only thing I could think of.
When a knock sounded at my door, I jumped and was immediately on edge. I threw on my robe and crossed my place to the door, dripping water as I went, for the second time today. I looked in my peephole and found Sal on the other side of the door.
I opened the door and looked at him in confusion. He shrugged. “I know I’m not good with this shit,” he admitted ruefully. “I feel like I’m on a fucking boat without a paddle.” He crossed into the room and ran both hands through his hair, looking bereft.
I was floored that he’d come back. The old Sal wouldn’t have, and I realized in our war to overcome our pasts, there were smaller battles to be won.
This was one of them.
I shut the door quietly behind him. “I don’t want to fuck this up,” he admitted quietly.
In his way, he was asking me to steer our way through and I could do that. For tonight, I could do that.