Wasted (16 page)

“
Bye.”

Releasing her, I went to find Haley. My
bedroom door was open, so I peeked in. She was nowhere to be seen,
and the bathroom door was open, the light off. I quickly changed
into my gym clothes, grabbed a ball cap, and headed toward the
living room.

Haley sat on the couch, nibbling on a piece
of toast while she watched television.

“
Hey,” I called.

She turned to look at me. “Hey.”

“
Get ready.”

“
For what?” she asked,
surprise etched on her face.

“
You’re going to the
grocery store with Lexi. Here.” I tossed my credit card down on the
coffee table in front of her. “That’s for groceries. And get me
some shaving cream.”

Grabbing my keys, I headed toward the front
door.

“
Where’re you
going?”

“
To the gym. I’ll meet
y’all back here a little later.”

“
Bye,” she called as I
walked outside and pulled the door shut behind me.

It didn’t take long to drive across town to
the gym. Hawk and Cade were shooting the shit with the cute fitness
model working the counter.

“
Guys, what’s up?” I asked,
approaching them.

Turning to face me, Cade slid his arms off
the counter. “Waiting on you, as usual. Damn, dude, where’ve you
been lately?” He pointed at me. “Look at those puny arms. I think
you’re losing muscle mass.”

I flexed an arm. “I might’ve been
preoccupied lately and missed a few workouts, but losing muscle
mass? I don’t think so.” In reality, it was easier for Hawk and
Cade to maintain their muscle. Hawk had plenty of free time to work
out at the fire hall, and since Cade and his brothers owned the
gym, he practically lived at it.

Cade scoffed. “If you say so….”

“
Does your preoccupation
have anything to do with Lexi?” Hawk asked, pulling on his
weightlifting gloves.

“
Are your lives so dull
that you have to live vicariously through me?”

Hawk grinned. “I don’t think rushing into
burning buildings classifies as dull.”

“
I was referring to your
sex life.”

“
Ouch.” He squeezed his
hands into fists, allowing the gloves to adjust
accordingly.

I almost felt bad for saying it because Hawk
wasn’t one for hook-ups. He was one of those guys that would treat
a girl like his queen. I’d seen him do it, although none of the
relationships seemed to last for more than a few months. And even
though I’d asked him what happened, Hawk wasn’t one to kiss and
tell. I’d never heard him say anything derogatory about any of his
dates. I sure as hell couldn’t say the same for me. Or Cade, for
that matter.

“
I’s just messing with you,
man,” I said, my guilt getting the better of me.

Cade looked at Hawk. “No, he was trying to
take the heat off of him by throwing it on you. Notice he never
answered the question.” Cade turned to me. “If you’re not
interested in that little hottie rooming with you, just let me
know. I’ll make her an offer she can’t refuse.”

“
Stay the hell away from
her,” I warned him, my tone taking a little bit more anger than I’d
intended.

Cade laughed and turned back to Hawk. “Does
that answer your question? Cade slapped me on the back. “Man, I
haven’t seen a woman get under your skin like that since
Rachel.”

I scowled, hating that he brought her name
up. “Are you ready to lift weights?”

Lexi

Haley and I had finally carried all the
groceries to the apartment. While I normally liked taking the
stairs because it was a good way to burn a few more calories, I
wouldn’t have minded an elevator.

Glancing at the bags piled all over the
counter, I took note of the storage space, wondering if I was going
to have room for everything. Spotting the flowers that Mason had
given me, I picked up the vase and lifted it until I could easily
smell one of the roses. Its heady fragrance made me breathe in even
deeper than I’d intended.

“
He really likes
you.”

My attention was drawn to Haley. I hadn’t
realized that she was watching me. “You think so?”

“
I know my brother.” She
put the luncheon meat in the refrigerator. “Heck, he practically
raised me.”

“
I like him, too.” I
thought about the day I’d first met him. “I hadn’t really planned
on liking him, but I think it’s that damn grin of his. It just
makes my heart melt every time.”

She gave me a smile that was virtually
identical to his. “The girls definitely notice him. I can’t tell
you how many times I’ve had to tell my friends to shut up. If they
ever laid eyes on him, that’s all they wanted to talk about.

“
And I’m talking from
elementary school all the way to college.”

I set the flowers back down and went back to
putting up groceries. “Yeah, I kinda sensed that he was popular
with the ladies.” I threw her a package of sliced cheese, and she
caught it and put it in the refrigerator.

“
I’m sure you don’t have
much trouble with men, either,” she said as she turned around and
waited for me to throw her something else.

Tossing her a container of margarine, I
groaned. “I have more trouble than you think.”

“
I’m with you, sister,”
Haley agreed with me. She laughed. “I’d give up on them if I didn’t
want one so bad.”

“
You have plenty of time.
Besides, you know how that works—as soon as you stop looking for
one, one’ll find
you
.”

“
Is that what happened to
you?” she asked, catching a bag of frozen corn. “Had you stopped
looking?”

Dark memories tugged at my mind. I didn’t
want to talk about it, but I finally decided that it wouldn’t hurt
anything to answer her question. “Yeah. I guess I had.”
Concentrating on the bag in my hand, I pulled out some canned
goods, lining them up on the counter. “But it’s not like Mason and
I are exclusive or anything.” I pulled out a carton of ice
cream.

“
Here,” Haley said. I
looked up, and she was holding a can of shaving cream in her
outstretched hand. “Will you put this in Mason’s
bathroom?”

“
I’ll trade with you.” I
took the shaving cream and handed her the ice cream. I walked down
the hall, through his bedroom, and into his bathroom. Spotting his
old can of shaving cream, I opened his shower door and put the new
can on the shelf beside it. Wondering if the old can was already
empty, I tried to spray some in my palm. It sputtered mostly air
with a few foamy remnants. After closing the shower door, I set the
old can down on the vanity while I rinsed and dried my hands.
Picking it back up, I searched the room for a garbage can, spotting
a small wastebasket in the corner. I tossed the old can away and
noticed something lying on the floor beside it.

Stooping down to pick it up, I flipped it
over. It was a receipt dated yesterday for one thousand dollars
made payable to Rachel Cambridge. I remembered Mason mentioning
that he had wired money for his mother’s rent, although I thought
he’d said he sent it directly to the landlord.

Maybe it went in the landlord’s account,
labeled with his mother’s name, so it could be applied properly.
Knowing that he might need the receipt if something happened and
the landlord didn’t get it and not wanting the receipt to get wet,
I laid it face up on his chest of drawers.

By the time I got back to the kitchen, most
of the groceries had been put up. I gathered up the grocery bags
and stuffed them under the sink.

“
Do you have any brothers
or sisters?” Haley asked as she put up the last few canned
goods.

“
No. I’m an only child. I
always wanted a sister, though.”

We both walked into the living room. Haley
sat down in the recliner while I dropped onto the couch, the
cushions giving way beneath me.

“
I don’t know what I
would’ve done without Mason.” I could hear the admiration in her
voice, and she stared into the distance as if she was remembering
her childhood.

“
Yeah, Mason told me that
things were a little difficult when y’all were growing
up.”

She snapped around and looked at me. “Mason
told you about our mom?”

“
A little.” I wondered if I
should have kept my mouth shut. It could be a sensitive subject for
her.

“
Unbelievable.”

“
I’m sorry,” I mumbled. “I
shouldn’t have said anything.”

“
No,” she responded
quickly. “I just meant…Mason hardly ever talks about our mom to
people, especially people he hasn’t known very long. I’m surprised
he said anything to you.

“
I think it’s affected him
more than it has me. I wish things were different, but I also
accept them. I think Mason struggles with it. Of course, it could
be because on top of dealing with her insanity, he also had to deal
with me.”

“
It’s a shame that y’all
were put in that position. At least Miss Anne looked out for y’all
while you were younger.”

“
He told you about Miss
Anne?” she shrieked, shooting forward in the recliner. “What did
you do to him? Hypnotize him?”

“
No.” I smiled at her, and
I thought about how Mason had said that night that he listened to
other people’s stories, but he had no one to listen to his. Maybe
there was some truth to that, or maybe he just didn’t open up to
people very easily. Something akin to pride bloomed in the pit of
my stomach. I felt like he had chosen me to discuss some very
personal matters, things he had difficulty discussing with anyone
else. Haley’s reaction was helping me realize the extent of his
trust in me.

“
I said something to him
about Miss Anne one time, and he told me he didn’t want to talk
about Miss Anne or Mom or none of that shit. Those were his exact
words.”

“
I’m sure he would’ve
talked about it if he thought you wanted to talk about
it.”

“
I don’t know. I figured it
was one of those topics I should add to my
things-not-to-discuss-with-my-brother list. I penciled it in right
under
tampons
.”

“
What was he like when
y’all were growing up?”

“
Very protective. I
remember one time when we were outside playing. This girl who was a
lot bigger than me came along and decided that she was going to
take my bike away from me. And she did. She rode it about ten
seconds down the road until Mason caught up with her and dumped her
off it.” She laughed. “Never saw that girl again.

“
I thought he was going to
come to college one time when I told him that there was a guy who
wouldn’t leave me alone, but luckily, I talked him out of
it.”

“
So how’d you get the guy
to leave you alone?”

“
I showed him a photo of
Mason, and told him that if he didn’t leave me alone, my brother
was going to kick his ass.” She chuckled. “It was very
effective.”

The love that they shared for each other was
obvious, and I was a little envious. My parents were fantastic, but
it would have been nice growing up with a sibling. I always
pictured a sister, so we could giggle together and talk about boys,
but a brother would have been nice, too.

Being an only child had made my parents
incredibly cautious. Growing up, they had been extremely
overprotective, and while I loved that they cared about me, I
wouldn’t have minded a bit more freedom. But when I thought about
the opposite end of the spectrum, about the kind of parent that had
raised Mason and Haley, I knew I was extremely fortunate. I would
take overprotective over neglectful any day.

A knock sounded at the door, and Haley and I
looked at each other.

I shrugged my shoulders and stood up.
Crossing the room, I swung the door open, wondering if Mason had
forgotten his key.

Surprised by the woman who peered at me, I
stood slack-jawed until my brain caught up with the situation. “May
I help you?”

Her eyes were half-lidded as she licked her
lips and swallowed a couple of times. “I’m looking for Mason.”

Before I had the opportunity to respond,
Haley appeared at my side.

A flicker of recognition crossed the woman’s
features as her line of vision slid from me to Haley.

I watched as Haley’s brows furrowed as she
took in the woman’s unkempt appearance. “Mom?”

Chapter
13

Obituary Cocktail

Lexi

Haley quickly stepped out of the apartment
and escorted her mother back down the steps that led to the parking
lot. Not wanting to appear nosy, I closed the door and busied
myself by dusting the living room furniture.

A few minutes later, she came in, grabbed
her purse, and was gone again without a word.

I wiped down the already-clean kitchen
counter and swept the spotless floor. Opening the cabinet, I lined
up the glasses in perfect rows. I was nervous, and I wasn’t sure
why. Maybe because Mason had opened up to me about his mom. He was
already helping her financially, and I wondered why she had shown
up unexpectedly. Did she want more money? Was she just
visiting?

The vacuum hummed as I pushed it
strategically around the room. When Haley came back through the
front door, I watched to see if her mom came in behind her. She
closed the door, a piece of paper in her hand, and I turned the
vacuum off. “Is everything okay?”