“Yes.”
“I’m going to go bake a cake.” I stand and all but run inside, leaving him staring after me in confusion. He knows I’m scared, he just doesn’t know why.
To talk about it right now…I can’t. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to.
But what I can do is bake a cake. It’ll calm me down and he and Collin deserve a celebration cake at the very least. And it’s his cheat day.
I put Joseph’s voicemail out of my mind as best I can and start gathering ingredients.
Just breathe, I tell myself.Breathe and don’t think about him.
CHAPTER 21
Hutch
Collin finds me sitting outside,staring off into space.
“You cool, bro?”
I shake my head. I’m so far from cool, it’s not even funny.
“She got a call that scared the shit out of her.”
“Who did?”
“Daisy.”
“Who do we need to fuck up?” He sits down in the chair beside of mine, looking as pissed off as I’m feeling. “That girl is the sweetest thing alive and anyone who scares her damn sure will be scared of us.”
“It was her ex. I know they had a bad breakup, but when he called…she started shaking.”
“Shaking?” He frowns, leaning forward so his elbows rest on his knees. “What did he do to her?”
“Fuck if I know. I can barely get her to say two words about him, but that call rattled her so much she asked me to stay the night. Said she’d find me a blow up mattress or something.”
He lets out a low whistle. “Fuck.”
“She ran off to bake a cake after she asked me. I think her asking me to stay freaked her out as much as the phone call did.”
“Bro, she asked you to stay. That means she trusts you. Yeah, she might be freaked, but she asked. That’s a win.”
“What’s not a win is the look of sheer terror on her face when asswipe called.”
“Red is a firecracker. I can’t see anyone scaring her.”
“Me either and I guess that’s why it threw me.”
“I’m staying too.”
“You are?”
He nods. “She’s my bestie. I can’t let her go around scared. She needs to know we got her back.”
“She might have something to say about you staying over. And I’m not sharing the air mattress either.”
“They even got one here?”
I shrug. Who the hell knows?
