Page 45 of Stetson
Suddenly, that big, empty house felt… claustrophobic. I needed to get out.
I needed my men.
They had to realize that I needed them to get through this just as much as they needed to process in their own way.
My screen lit up again when I shifted in bed. It was creeping past one in the morning. My options on leaving were limited, but I knew at least one place I could go.
I grabbed my phone and crept out of bed, thankful that the extra plush mattress didn’t disturb Levi. Before I called anyone else, I tried Barrett one more time. I would give him one last chance to answer the phone.
Straight to voicemail.
My worst fear was confirmed: he never really wanted me to begin with.
Snatching my keys from the hook, I drove across town. As I’d hoped, Maverick was still wide awake. I could hear the TV from outside the door. I knocked, and gentle footsteps approached. The chain rattled and the door flew open. “What are you?—”
“I don’t want to talk.” I shoved past him and into the apartment, beelining toward my goal: the liquor cabinet.
23
LEVI
Soft lipson my cheek stirred me from sleep. I hummed, turning into what I thought was Stetson’s touch. “Hm, someone’s feeling better.”
“I am now.”
My eyes shot open. I rolled, spearing my fingers through Barrett’s hair and tugging him into a deeper kiss. “What are you doing here?” I asked. “I wasn’t expecting to see you until morning. You could’ve called!”
“I’m sorry.” Another kiss. “My phone died on the way to the airport and I lost my charger. I just wanted to get home.”
Barrett’s voice cracked, and I wrapped him tight in my arms. He wasn’t much of a crier, so I didn’t comment. I held him while his body trembled softly. Muffled sniffles were the only indicator of his feelings. Tears or not, I didn’t need to ask. I knewexactlyhow he felt. This situation did nothing more than dredge up feelings from the past that we preferred to keep buried.
Our relationship almost ended Barrett’s career—bothour careers. I put on a decent front, but it was all for him. Since I had to be the strong one for Barrett, Mikey had been the one to hold me together. He was the one to introduce me to the lawyer, and it was his idea to end my contract with Barrett and have him sign elsewhere. We got lucky, solving the situation rather quickly. By the time the hammer would have come down on us, the storm blew over.
Slowly, Barrett’s sniffling faded away to soft breathing. My eyes shut, but I didn’t go back to sleep. I wasn’t sure how long we lied there wrapped up in each other, but I started to wonder if Barrett had fallen asleep. When he stirred some time later, I let my eyes flutter open. “Where’s Stetson?” he asked groggily. “I thought you’d bring him home after what happened.”
“What do you mean?” I sat up, finding the other side of the bed empty. The bathroom door was open, the space beyond it dark. “Was he in the kitchen? Or the living room?”
Barrett shook his head. “No, the house is empty.”
Then it hit me. “Your phone died.”
“Yeah…”
“Stetson’s been trying to call you all night.”
Barrett attempted to shake off the haze of sleep. “You don’t think he went to Minnesota, do you?”
I grabbed my phone, found Stetson’s contact, and called him. Voicemail. “I don’t think he’d go that far to get your attention.”
Barrett scrubbed a hand over his face. He tossed the blanket aside and got out of bed. “I thought that incident on the field would be the worst of it.”
“So did I.” I tapped my phone against the palm of my hand, trying to figure out where he could be. It was two in the morning. All the bars were closed, even the ones in the city.
Barrett re-entered into the room with his phone in his hand. I hadn’t even realized he’d left. “He didn’t answer for me either.”
“I thought you said your phone was dead.”
“It was.” The device in his hand was buzzing practically nonstop, and he threw it down on the bed in frustration. “I didn’t want to deal with all ofthat,so I charged it in the living room. “Where do you think he is?”
