Page 69 of Just One Night Together
“Excuse me?” Kyle said. “Are you getting hostile with me, bro?”
“I’m telling you to mind your own business,” Damon snapped. He stood up and marched out of the room. “Decide whatever you want,” he said from the doorway. “I’m gone.”
“Whoa!” Ty said, lifting his hands.
“What was that?” Kyle and Theo demanded in unison.
“The sound of you pushing your luck a little too far,” Ty said and started to stand up.
“Me?” Kyle protested. “I was just razzing him a bit...”
“Let me,” Cassie said, touching Ty’s shoulder so he stayed put while she went after Damon.
“Good idea,” Ty murmured with a nod. “He wouldn’t talk to me.”
So, she wasn’t alone in thinking that there was something wrong. Cassie wasn’t going to make any conclusions about her and Ty thinking the same way. He was married.
She found Damon at his locker, jamming things into his messenger bag—all of his things, as if he had no intention of coming back.
“See you tomorrow?” she asked, leaning in the doorway to block it.
“No.”
“You want to tell me about it?”
“No.”
“You don’t think that after ten years of partnership, we maybe deserve an explanation?”
Damon bowed his head for a moment. Cassie could almost feel the war within him and she wondered what it was about.
Then he closed his locker with his usual care and turned to face her, his features composed again. His eyes, though, his eyes were haunted. “Natasha is not my girlfriend. She’s my mother and she was diagnosed with cancer. I spent every Friday night with her.”
“Oh, Damon, I’m so sorry. You should have told us...”
He lifted a hand to silence her. “It doesn’t matter anymore. She’s dead.”
Cassie was so shocked that it took her a few moments to find the words. How could he have been going through this without telling them? Without even mentioning it? She didn’t think the others knew either. She cringed inside as she recalled Kyle teasing him. “What can we do to help?”
“Nothing. It’s over.” Damon took a deep breath and she watched him stand a little straighter than he had before. “I can work the nights at the club now, or if you’d all rather, I can leave the partnership. Just let me know what you decide.”
He would have stepped past her but Cassie didn’t move. “You can’t just leave. We’re partners.”
Damon’s gaze flicked to hers. “Fine. Give me a schedule and a list of your expectations. I’ll fulfill them all.” He gave her a dark look and she moved out of the doorway, feeling helpless as she watched him stride away.
“When’s the funeral, Damon?” she called after him, thinking that attending it was one thing they could all do for him.
“There isn’t going to be one,” he said without turning back, and Cassie was shocked to silence again.
She felt Ty come to stand behind her. “So?”
“Natasha was his mom. She just died of cancer.”
“What?” Ty demanded. “He never told us?”
“She’s been in the hospital. He went there Friday nights to visit her. His mom is Natasha.”
Ty swore and shoved a hand through his hair. “Why wouldn’t he tell us?”
