As he explained some of the things Jimmy had done, I agreed it was better to have no father at all than to have one like that.
“We located him in a house yesterday morning with his brother Joe. They’d barricaded his wife and kids inside, and he was refusing to let them out. It spiralled from there. We had the house surrounded and they started taking shots at us through the front windows.”
I grabbed his arm, fingers digging in. “Jesus, you all wear vests, right?”
“Babe, of course we do,” he replied, exasperated. “Anyway, Jimmy’s wife moved at the same time one of the cops took a really bad shot and it nicked her in the arm. She started screaming and shouting, and Joe turned and shot her dead right in front of the kids.”
“What the hell?” I shouted. I shot off the bed and stood up, pacing the length of the room before I planted one hand on my hip. The other I used to jab fiercely towards the window. “I can’t believe there are people out there who do that. How could anyone do that? Those poor kids.”
He nodded his agreement at my outburst and rolled further on to his stomach with a wince.
I rushed back to the bed, and sitting on the edge next to Jared I peeled back the bandages to check his stitches. I was no nurse but they didn’t look red and angry, and I assumed that was a good thing. I put the bandages back in place and asked him if he was okay.
“Yeah.” He nodded. “Just sore. I got a clear shot and took Joe out, and then Jimmy started threatening to shoot his own kids. Coby and I and two others stormed the back of the house, but Joe mustn’t have been down like we thought and next thing I knew he was behind me with a knife.”
“Christ, you’re lucky he didn’t come up behind you with a gun.”
It was like a bad Steven Seagal movie. No particular one, they were all bad.
“So what happened to Jimmy?” I asked. “And Joe?”
“Jimmy disappeared in the scuffle. Fucking Houdini. The cops have likely been out all night looking for him. I know Travis and Coby would still be out there. Don’t know about Joe."
Henry chose that moment to walk into the room, busily texting on his phone. “You doing a food shop today, Sandwich?”
“Is Sandwich doing the shop?” I heard Mac call out from behind him.
As I turned around on the bed, Henry looked up from his phone and caught Jared lying there. His eyes went wide as he stopped dead.
“Ouch, fucktard,” Mac mumbled as she smacked into his back.
She came out from behind Henry and took in the scene before her. I knew it didn’t look good. I was in my silk nightwear, and Jared was shirtless. She rubbed at her eyes as though she’d woken up in an alternate universe.
Henry pointed at me threateningly. “You’re not taking him with you.”
Mac didn’t even respond, clearly having forgotten what food even was. Her eyes had glazed over and she looked almost giddy.
“Yes, I’m doing the food shop, and no, Jared isn’t coming with me. You are. Besides, Jared’s injured so you can just stop thinking whatever it is you’re thinking.”
Mac’s eyes whipped to Jared. “You are?”
“Just a couple of scratches, Mac,” he replied, his voice low and husky.
I folded my arms, hiding a shiver at the sexy sound. “Yeah, with a knife.”
While Mac and Henry were effectively distracted, I made a hasty exit for the bathroom and slammed the door with glee. Showered and dressed, I missed Travis by five minutes, so I set Jared up with his laptop, a coffee, and breakfast, and Henry and I hit the shops.
J: Can you get me some Gatorade while you’re there?
I handed over the shopping list to Henry as he pulled out a trolley. “Here. You make a start. I have to go to the chemist to get the prescription filled for Jared.”
He took the list.
“Wait.” I snatched the list back, got out a pen, and scribbled Gatorade on there and handed it back over.
“Make sure you only get the lime flavour,” I ordered as Henry looked over the list. “He doesn’t like any of the other flavours.”
Henry laughed.
“What?”
“You two. Like an old married couple already.”
I stopped searching the bottomless pit that was my handbag for the prescription so he could see my look of exasperation. “We are not! We’re just friends. I’d be doing the same for you, Henry.”
He rolled his eyes as he started moving off. “Whatever helps you sleep at night, Sandwich.”
The next three days found me running around between band rehearsals in the basement and looking after the big baby formerly known as Jared. I could only blame myself for telling him to message me if he needed me. I was worried I wouldn’t hear him over the noise of our music otherwise.
J: Can you bring me up a juice?
Or
J: I can’t find my USB. Have you seen it?
Sure he may have been milking it a little, but I was happy to oblige. Sometimes it was nice to be taken care of, and the man had just saved the lives of two young kids. Someone should have been giving him a medal for God’s sake, not just a glass of juice.
When he wasn’t in bed and had moved to the couch, he could simply shout down the stairs to the basement rather than message me.
“Evie, what’s for lunch?”
Or
“Have you seen my painkillers?”
By the time Saturday rolled around, I was walking on air. Not because I had another date with Tate later that afternoon, but because I was getting to escape the house.
“Babe?”
“Yeah,” I shouted back from the confines of my wardrobe.
“Can you get me some pills?”
I tossed another crappy outfit selection on the floor and walked out of the wardrobe. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Just wanna make sure I’m up for seeing you guys play at the White Demon tonight.”
I arranged his pills and headed off for a shower, spending so long under the hot water I could have filled an Olympic pool five times over. Mac was obviously thinking the same thing. By the time I was pulling on my underwear, she barged through the bathroom door, her face like the black thunderclouds of a tropical storm. She didn’t even bother to check the wall this time when the door bounced off because the dent was already there anyway.
“Would you hurry up, asshead? You spend more time in this bathroom than I do sleeping.”
“I do not, Mactard. I have to get ready for my date. Tate is gonna drop me at the White Demon straight after. Is that okay?”
She sat the glass of wine in her hand down on the vanity with an angry clank at my mention of Tate. “Whatever. Out you get. I need a long hot bath.”
I adjusted the twisted strap of my bra as she started running the taps using short, angry movements. “Why are you being such a cow this afternoon?”
She finished adjusting the water temperature and turned to face me as she pinned her hair into a giant knot on the top of head. “Because I’m in a shitty mood. I haven’t been shopping in days, Travis is being an overbearing asswad brother, and my best friend has turned into the village idiot by dating Tetris Tate rather than my other brother.” She finished her rant in a shout and I flinched.
“I am not the freaking village idiot. Stop being an interfering bitch.”
She waved her hand. “What the f**k ever, Sandwich.”
Huffing, I grabbed my makeup bag, slammed the bathroom door on my way out, and stormed angrily into the bedroom.
I slammed my own bedroom door behind me, moved to the dresser, and yanking open a drawer, tossed clothes about in a mess while muttering angrily to myself.
“Jesus Christ.”
“What?” I growled, whirling around from the dresser that now looked like a casualty of war with clothes hanging out the sides.
“Babe, fuck. Is all that for Tate?” He waved his hand at me.
I glanced down realising I was still in my gold satin and ivory lace creation and swore, stomping over to the wardrobe to get a robe.
“You’ve got to stop calling me babe, Jared. We’re friends. You don’t call Coby that, do you?”
As I reached for the hanger, I felt Jared’s arms slide around my waist and I stopped, the feel of his rough hands on my skin sending shivers down my spine. I closed my eyes as he pressed his warm chest up against my back and leaned down to press a kiss against my neck.
“You don’t like it when I call you that?” he asked me softly.
I did. I loved it. I didn’t want him to stop, but if we were going to make a go of this friendship, he couldn’t keep doing it. Lines needed to be drawn somewhere.
“No, Jared. I don’t like it,” I muttered weakly.
I turned around in his embrace and pushed against his chest. Ignoring my struggles, he leaned down to kiss me, and I sucked in a breath and turned my head. The effort cost me. My chest felt tight and tears pricked my eyes.
I renewed my efforts and shoved him, hard. “Let me go.”
He sighed, letting go and holding his hands up in surrender. “Friends. I know. Sorry.” Backing up, he sat on the edge of the bed, watching me as I shrugged quickly into my pretty silk robe.
Recovered, I replied to his question. “No.”
“No what?”
“The underwear isn’t for him. I always wear stuff like this.”
His eyes widened. “You mean all this time I’ve known you, you’ve been prancing about with that on underneath your clothes?”
I picked up a random item of clothing off the floor and flung it at his head. “Prancing? I don’t prance!”
“Prance, flounce, strut.” He shrugged his shoulders, grinning. “You do it all, baby.”
Completely amazed at how he managed to evoke such a range of emotions in just a few short moments, I shook my head in laughter and flopped to the floor to sit cross legged in front of the mirror on the back of the wardrobe door.
“What are you doing?”
I rubbed some pore minimiser into my face. “Putting my makeup on. Mac is operating under Diva mode and hogging the bathroom, so I have to do it in here.”
I looked at him through the mirror as he sat there watching me go through my makeup routine. It was slightly unnerving to have him study my every moment.
As I pulled the mascara out of my makeup bag, he snatched it out of my hand.
“Let me do that.” He grinned cheekily.
I looked at him in disbelief. “You want to put my mascara on?”
He shrugged. “What is it about women and mascara that they always have to put it on with their mouths open?”
I laughed. “It helps us concentrate.”
He grinned wickedly and grab bed his crotch. “I could find you something to concentrate on, baby.”
“Jared!”
“I’m kidding.” He laughed. “Come sit on the bed,” he ordered and pulled me over, sitting me down, kneeling between my legs.
“You better not muck this up, Jared,” I warned, “because you can’t come back from a bad mascara jab. I’ll have to wash my whole face and start again.” I was not looking forward to another caterpillar eyebrow.
“Relax, Evie. I do a mean panda face,” he joked.