Chapter 21

21

Joey

The shrill ring of an old-fashioned phone wakes me from the best sleep I’ve had in weeks. Nick’s cologne fills my lungs and I don’t want to extract myself from him. He’s warm and comfortable and here.

The ringing stops but immediately starts up again. Shit. That means it’s either Charlotte or Mom. I kiss Nick’s chest and force myself to get up. He grumbles and tries to roll us onto our sides, but I manage to get off the bed and dig through my hoodie before it hangs up again.

“Hello?” I try to whisper, but my sleep-roughened voice cracks and I have to try again. “Hello?”

“Where the hell have you been? Mom is losing it!” Charlotte is damn near hysterical and I’m instantly awake.

“What happened?” I pace the length of the dorm room and my gut clenches. Did Matt finally hurt someone? Did he hurt himself worse than usual?

Charlotte breaks down and sobs for a second before pulling herself back together.

“He ran a fucking backhoe into a tree because he was high. This time the police were called, so he was arrested after getting treated for a concussion!” she all but screams into the phone and my stomach sinks to the floor. Motherfucker. What the hell is it going to take for that kid to get his shit together? Does he realize he could have hurt someone, not just himself?

Frustration burns through me and makes my hands shake. I want to punch something, yell, cause damage. There’s nothing I can do. Literally nothing. I’m hours away with no car, no money, no means to help him.

But his face when he was fourteen and scared, waiting for Mom after getting cut at school, pops into my mind. The trembling lip, the tears on his cheeks. He’s broken and hurting and somehow I didn’t teach him how to deal with any of it the right way. So he turned to drugs and alcohol to feel better. I failed him.

“Charlotte,” I say her name, but she’s still ranting. “Charlotte!” This time I bark her name and she stops. “Go home. Matt is not your problem. I’ll see what I can do to help him, but you’re going to stress yourself into a literal heart attack if you don’t stop.”

“I can pay for his bail⁠—”

“No.” My tone says this is not a negotiation, but Charlotte was never good at following orders. “Go. Home. Take a shower, hug your fiancé, read a smut book, or watch a true crime documentary. Whatever it is girls do to relax.”

“How am I supposed to relax when my little brother is in jail and my mom won’t stop blowing up my phone about it?” She sounds like a little girl. Unsure and scared. Not the bold, fierce woman I know she is.

“Turn your phone off.” It sounds so simple but I could never do it.

“Are you going to turn yours off?” There’s the sass I expect from her.

I sigh and Nick slings an arm around my waist, forcing me to stop pacing. He brushes his lips against the back of my neck and I let myself lean on him. This man. He deserves so much more than I can give him. Nick is too good of a man to come last.

“You know I can’t do that.” Even I hear the resignation in my voice. I’m burned out. Ready to snap.

“It’s getting turned off,” Nick says loud enough for Char to hear it.

“Who’s that?” I can picture her perking up to dig for information.

“It’s—” just a friend. “Nick.”

I can feel his smile against my skin and it makes my heart happy to know I made him smile, but it hurts too.

“And who is Nick?” Charlotte is not going to drop this and I don’t know how to explain him to her.

“Good night, Char.” I end the call before she can get started but before I can slide the damn phone into my pocket, there’s a ping from a message. I groan and drop my head back on Nick’s shoulder.

“If she’s anything like my brother, that was the worst thing you could have done.” Nick’s hand slides under my shirt and strokes down my chest. It’s not sexual, just comforting. “Turn it off.”

“I can’t.” I turn and bury my face in his neck, breathing him in on a deep inhale. “What if someone needs me? Coach or one of the guys?”

“They can be grown-ups and deal with their own shit.” His tone has just enough of a hard edge that I know he’ll take the damn thing from me and turn it off himself if he has to. Grabbing it, I give it to him.

“Can you just put it on do not disturb and check it every once in a while?” I drag my nose up the column of his throat. “In case there’s an emergency.”

He shudders but does it and tosses the device onto his bed. With strong pressure, Nick slides his hands up my back, making me groan. Fuck, that feels good. He chuckles and does it again, pushing me into him while he digs into the muscles of my back and shoulders.

“Who knew you were so noisy?”

I grumble but keep my cheek pressed to his shoulder as I relax into his hold. It feels so good to be seen. To be taken care of.

“What do you need right now?”

My head spins with everything I don’t know and lists of things I need to do, people to call—will Matt need a lawyer?

“Joey.” That commanding tone shuts off the spiral and I drag in a deep breath laced with his scent. “What do you need? Food? Go back to sleep? Work out? An orgasm?”

I smirk into his skin at the last offer. An orgasm sounds fantastic, but I don’t think I could keep my head quiet long enough to get there and that will just frustrate me more.

“Maybe a run.”

Nick runs his hands down my body again and slaps both palms on my ass. “Okay, let’s go for a run.”

The tightness in my stomach relaxes when it hits me that he means for us to go together. I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him. He’s too perfect.

“You said run but I’m happy to supply orgasms.” He smiles against my lips.

“Stop being perfect.”

Nick bites at my lip and kisses the tip of my noise. “I’m only perfect for you.”