Unbreak My Heart (37 page)

Then the hamper caught my notice. What the fuck? Why had he dumped all of my clothes all over? And mixed them up? I had a dual-sided hamper for a reason—so I could separate what went to the drycleaners from the regular wash.

“Sierra—” Boone said, barreling into the room. He latched onto my upper arms to keep from knocking me over. “Shit. I forgot to put that stuff away. I got busy…”

Busy doing what? You weren’t busy doing the damn dishes.

He gently turned me around and curled his hands around my face. “Grab your lounge clothes and hole up in the bathroom. I promise when you come out this’ll all be gone, okay?”

His eyes held remorse. Not a look I’d seen very often so I knew he was sincere. “Okay.”

He kissed my mouth, the tip of my nose, between my eyebrows and the top of my forehead.

“Before I go, I need to point out that your explosion of stuff is why I gave you another place to keep it.”

“I know. I’ll be contained over there from now on. I promise.”

I kissed him hard and swatted his ass as I headed to the bathroom.

Ten minutes later I’d scrubbed off the day’s stress, donned my lounge clothes, put my hair up and was ready to eat.

Boone gave me a head-to-toe inspection and when our eyes met, I knew he’d take great pleasure in tearing the workout tank top and yoga pants off my body. “Let’s eat.”

The food was pretty good for a first attempt. There was a lot of it, which seemed to be Boone and Raj’s main criteria. And there wouldn’t be leftovers, much to Boone’s dismay.

After the meal, Raj helped me do the dishes. Someone had at least emptied the dishwasher while I’d been decompressing, so that was a plus. By the time I’d cleaned the kitchen to my specs, an hour had passed.

When I heard the video game start—the sheer volume sent me outside to the patio.

I’d brought work home I could’ve done in the office, but I wanted to backtrack records and I was always getting interrupted and I’d lose my spot or my train of thought. I had ten years’ worth of data to crosscheck. Data I should’ve gone through the proper channels to get, but I’d asked my dad for six months ago. Since this was a pet project of sorts, I worked on it when I had time.

When my eyes started to burn and my mouth was dry, I realized in my effort to escape, I hadn’t brought anything to drink. The second I opened the sliding glass door, the noise assaulted me, louder than ever.

Enough.

They weren’t chasing me out of my own house with this. I marched into the living room and focused on the noise, not the huge fucking mess.

“Guys,” I yelled. “Turn it down.”

“Hang on a sec,” Boone said, hand busy on the game controller, eyes rapt on the screen.

“Take that, motherfucker!” Raj taunted.

“You cocksucker. That was a total dick move.”

“All’s fair in
Doom
, baby.”

And they were ignoring me. Awesome.

“Hit pause. Right. Fucking. Now.” I might’ve shrieked that.

The noise ceased.

“What?” Boone asked, a little testily.

Sorry I had to yell at you to get your attention away from a video game, asshole.

“Turn it down. You guys aren’t the only ones in the house.”

They exchanged a “what’s her problem, it ain’t that loud” look.

“It’s echoing down the hallway.”

“Fine.” Boone turned the game back on and pointed the remote control at the AV equipment. The volume dropped.

“Wait! Fuck, I wasn’t ready,” Raj said.

Boone hit pause again. “Quiet enough for you now?”

“Peachy, dude.”

My sarcasm was lost on him—or lost in the loud fucking noises still pouring from the speakers.

I poured myself two fingers of Crown and retired to my room. So I couldn’t even watch TV to wind down. My eyes still burned from looking at computer screens all day so I had zero interest in reading. I pulled out my phone and checked Facebook. Boring. Where did these people get the time to post so much stuff?

Then I opened Snapchat. I clicked a shot of me holding the lowball glass of Crown over my head and pinged Lu.

She responded immediately with an image of her face pressed into a textbook.

My phone buzzed with a text message.

Lu:
Wazzup?

Me:
I might need hearing aids. Or a machete.

Lu:
Why?

Me:
R&B are playing a LOUD video game.

Lu:
I wondered how you’d like that. You’re right. It is loud.

Me:
Is that why you aren’t studying here?

Lu:
 

Me:
You suck. I miss you
 

Lu:
Miss you too.

Me:
Why are you at the library?

Lu:
In the BFF vault?

Me:
Of course.

Lu:
Needed break from Raj tonite.

Me:
Why? The dick don’t fit anymore?

Lu:
LOL. No! Just too much togetherness. He’s in my face all the freakin’ time or n my pants. I have school & a job.

Me:
I hear ya. I’m feeling very stabby w/B

Lu:
Why?

Me:
He’s messy

Lu:
How messy?

Me:
Like an F5 tornado messy.

Lu:
HAHAHAHAHA

Me:
Not funny! Third nite I’ve come home to dishes in the sink, stuff from Sunday is still in the great room. His dirty clothes all over laundry room & bedroom. He even dumped out my hamper. As far as the kitchen…he cooked dinner. Yeah yeah yeah he’s trying. But then he left the fucking mess for me to clean up. Took an HOUR. That ‘if you cook you don’t have to clean up’ rule doesn’t apply since I’ve cleaned up EVERY FUCKING TIME.

Lu:
Ooh all caps = mad Sierra!

Me:
Fuck yeah. Now loud video game and HE acted annoyed when I asked them to turn it down. Fuckface asswipe. I can still hear it.

Lu:
Come to the library. It’s quiet here.

Me:
Thanx. But I’ll drink my Crown and go to bed.

Lu:
Wish I could sleep. Big tests tomorrow and Fri. Be a late one for me.

Me:
Sorry, hon. Miss you
 

Lu:
Let’s hang this weekend. Just us. No messy boys
 

Me:
Deal. XOXOXO

I didn’t feel like texting anyone else. Or scrolling through social media. I didn’t even feel like popping in my earbuds to drown out the constant sounds of gunfire and explosions.

Maybe you just want to be mad.

No. I had legit complaints about the state of my house.

Then talk to him about it instead of stomping around griping about it under your breath.

That last helpful advice sounded like my dad’s wife Rielle. I adored that woman. Not just because she loved my dad like he needed after the shit-show he’d suffered through with my mom. Rielle taught me real life skills. She never treated me like her husband’s bratty kid—although I’d certainly acted the part a few times during the years I’d lived with them.

After downing the whiskey, I cut the lights and crawled between the sheets. I’d tuned out the game enough to drift off. Then I heard the sound of breaking glass and that shot me straight out of bed.

Shit. Was someone trying to get into the house?

I cracked open the door and listened. I heard that shattering glass sound again. It echoed from the great room.

Stupid video game.

I grabbed my favorite blanket and my cell phone. Boone could play his obnoxious video games at a million decibels. I’d just sleep on the patio.

“Sierra.”

The voice startled me out of a deep sleep.

“I’m picking you up. Hang on.”

I pushed his arms away. “Don’t.” I blinked and pulled the blanket around me. “Why’d you wake me up?”

Boone loomed over me. “Because I’m not letting you sleep in a fucking lawn chair the rest of the night. Jesus. It’s bad enough that you’ve been out here this long.”

I yawned. “What time is it?”

“Three something. Raj and I lost track of time. I went to bed and you weren’t there. I searched the whole house and couldn’t find you.”

“Did you look under the gigantic pile of your dirty clothes in the laundry room?”

“What?”

“Never mind. I would’ve been fine out here. You should’ve let me sleep, since it took me so long to
get
to sleep.”

“Fuck that. I can tell you’re cold. Let’s go inside and warm you up.”

It wasn’t until we were in bed and he’d wrapped me in his warm body that I understood what he meant by
warm you up
. He’d drawn out his caresses and kept kissing my shoulder, each kiss a little closer to my neck.

“Let me make your body burn,” he rasped in my ear.

I pushed away from him. “Just because you’re wide awake at three a.m. doesn’t mean I wanna be your post-video-game booty call.”