Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 148704 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 744(@200wpm)___ 595(@250wpm)___ 496(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 148704 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 744(@200wpm)___ 595(@250wpm)___ 496(@300wpm)
Crew Taylor is mine, and my brother is back, clean, and staying with us.
Us!
Me, Crew, and Memphis under the same roof again after all these years.
There is a little tension, understandably so, since Memphis fell into a world of addiction, and all it entails, while Crew steered clear of that lifestyle, having lived through what his father had become. But Memphis is clean now, and they were best friends once.
Maybe they can find a soft place in the middle again, in time.
I haven’t gotten to see Crew much since our time together on Monday, if you don’t count Memphis’s arrival Tuesday afternoon. With work and my brother being here, I’ve avoided going to the bar in the evenings, feeling as if home is where I needed to be as much as possible. Plus, I haven’t exactly mentioned where Crew works in front of Memphis, not that he’s asked, but I’m not sure what to say or how to say it. As far as I know, the mere mention of a bar or anything alcohol related could have a painful triggering effect, forcing him to have to check himself back into another program.
Those are concerns for another day, though.
Tonight, I need some time with Crew. I miss him, miss us, and I know if I’m feeling a little out of it, he must be too.
Luckily, Memphis went to bed early, tired from a long day of online applications, so I wrote a note, just in case he wakes, and am on my way to see Crew.
Layla and I had rescheduled our meeting for Friday, but then she called to cancel, saying she wasn’t feeling well, and her cold lasted long after the weekend. I hate that for her, but I can’t pretend I wasn’t happy she was the one who canceled, so I didn’t have to let her down again, and I think that would have happened. Leaving Memphis when I don’t absolutely have to makes me uneasy. But she called me today, finally back to her old self, and Willie, the godsend he is, offered to step in at the bar tonight if I needed him to—with events at the bar both Monday and Tuesday this week, Crew is set to work twelve days straight. Clearly, Willie is worried about his friend and aware my time has been spread thin lately, Crew on the lowest receiving end, so I took him up on his offer.
He’s meeting me at the bar to help finish off the night, on the condition I don’t get out and walk in alone, and like he said he would be, he’s waiting at the edge of the parking lot for me to pull in.
We waste no time heading inside, but I pause, frowning at the bouncer who nods our way, counting back cash to the group of girls waiting to be let in.
“What—”
My voice is drowned out by the loud bass of the band, Willie not pausing his steps with mine, but continuing to drag me along, headed straight for the dark-haired man behind the counter.
The moment he spots us in the cluster of customers, the flat expression on Crew’s face morphs to confusion, to worry, and then glee.
It’s adorably endearing.
He stops mid-pour, passing a bottle of something off to Paula, and all but runs around the side of the bar, his big-ass body nearly colliding with mine and lifting me off my feet.
My arms go around him, and I laugh, burying my face in his neck as he nuzzles mine.
“You come to eat all your snacks and bury yourself in fluffy pillows?”
“I came to steal you away, so I can hold you tonight.”
Crew’s head pops up, and he shakes it. “Baby, I can’t leave, this place is—”
“Swamped? Packed?” I play with the tips of his hair. “Charging for entry?”
Crew tucks my hair behind my ear. “Some little genius told me how to increase revenue. Seems people love the idea of a free drink.”
I smile as he sets me to my feet, a teeny, tiny hint of something sour in the back of my throat. Disappointment with a little longing maybe. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t want you to stress over it if it didn’t work out,” he says.
Guilt mixed with a touch of rejection rolls through me, and I get the feeling it’s a little more than that but shake it off. I came to enjoy time with him, not worry about other things.
Hugging me to him, he leads me toward the bar, but I dig my heels into the ground, and he faces me.
“Sweets…”
“Just look over there.”
Willie is already in Crew’s vacated spot, keeping up like a champ, Drew on his right, Paula his left. Kenli snatches a tray from Drew, and weaves in and out of the seating zones, setting two drinks here, three there, and pausing for orders on her circle back.