He looks so weak in the bed, battered and bruised, listening to me vent. “Yeah. I do. So does Mom. Sort your shit out.”
Dad doesn’t shout after me as I stand and leave. My body works on autopilot, muscle memory kicking in to get me as far away from him as possible. Ethan can say I’m burying my head in the sand, but I’ve been more honest with Dad in one conversation than anyone has been with him in years. Our family is broken right now and papering over the cracks doesn’t help any of us.
I don’t register what’s happening or where I’m going until my truck stops in front of my house on Maple Ave. The familiarity is an immediate comfort and I decide to have a break and process before getting back on the road to camp.
The door isn’t locked when I try it and when it swings open, the last thing I expect to find is Henry’s bare ass while he’s balls deep in someone on the living room couch.
Chapter Sixteen
RUSS
The front door swings open, revealing a now fully-dressed Henry; I push off from my truck, avoiding eye contact as I walk past my friend into our house.
I’ve seen Henry’s ass before, it’s kind of a given when you’re on a hockey team. Locker rooms and sharing hotel rooms; it’s nothing new.
That was new.
“I’m sorry, man,” I say, throwing myself into the recliner and not onto the couch I’ll never be sitting on ever again. “I should have given you the heads up; I didn’t think you’d be here. Is your guest okay? I didn’t see her if that makes her feel better.”
“Why are you apologizing for coming to your own house?” he says, grabbing us both a bottle of water from the refrigerator. “She’s fine, just a little embarrassed. She’s having a shower and I found her a moisturizing face mask thing to relax. I’ll check on her after you tell me why you’re in Maple Hills.”
“Family shit. I’ve only arrived today, that’s why I didn’t text to say I was back. I want to shower before I head back to camp.”
“You can’t drive back today,” Henry says. “That’s too much driving for one day. Stay tonight, head back in the morning. You want to talk about the family thing?”
I shake my head, dragging my hand through my hair, realizing how tired I am now I’ve stopped running on adrenaline. “You’re right. I’ll leave first thing. Don’t feel like you’ve gotta hang around for me though. I’ll go in my room out of the way, just don’t fuck in this chair, alright? This one is my favorite.”
He gives me a strained smile as he stands and moves toward the stairs. “I feel sorry for you if you think any of the surfaces in this house are safe. I’ll spare you the full description of what I walked in on Lola doing to Robbie when he was sitting there.”
“Yeah, I’m sure I can guess.”
“It was a blowjob.”
Maybe I’ll sit on the floor. “Fantastic. Listen, I’m pretty beat, I’m going to shower. Maybe have a nap. Is Robbie still in New York?”
“Yeah, he gets back next week. I’ll try and keep the noise down.”
“You’re a good friend,” I laugh.
He nods and heads up the stairs, looking at me over his shoulder. “So are you.”
Napping has never been my strength, even when I haven’t got a head full of noise. I put my phone on do not disturb after my brother started with the calls and the messages. Being without consistent reception for a month has killed any dependency I had on my cellphone; if I can hear it now, it irritates me.
I don’t know how long I’ve been staring at the ceiling of my bedroom, but I know that it’s long enough for me to be annoyed at the sleep that won’t come. Maybe it’s because I can’t hear Xander snoring or there isn’t a dog trying to starfish in my already limited space.
“Honey, we’re home!”
At first I think I’m hearing things, but then I hear a laugh so loud and ridiculous I know that there’s no way I could imagine that. Henry is a few steps behind me as I make my way down the stairs to the living room. Kris, Mattie and Bobby are dropping pizza boxes and beer bottles onto the kitchen counter by the time I get to the bottom step.
“There he is!” Kris yells excitedly. “The prodigal son returns.”
“I’m too jetlagged to explain to you all the ways you don’t understand what that means,” Mattie says.
“Ignore him,” Bobby says, slapping his palm against mine and pulling me into a hug. “He just likes saying he’s jetlagged so people ask him where he’s been.”
“Can you even get jetlag from three hours?” Henry asks, immediately opening one of the pizza boxes.
“How was Miami?” I ask, accepting the beer Kris hands me.
“Wild, dude.” Mattie hands me his cellphone, showing the three of them outside the Miami branch of The Honeypot. “Next time, you’re both coming.”
“I’m good,” Henry says instantly.
Bobby hands out the pizza boxes as we all congregate around the kitchen island, opening them up. I suppress the urge to groan as I bite into the pepperoni slice, realizing it’s the first thing I’ve eaten today. “What’re you guys doing here anyway?” I ask, washing down the pizza with my beer.
“Hen said you’d turned up and unintentionally edged him,” Kris says instantly.
Henry groans in protest. “I didn’t. It’s in the group chat, did you not see it?”
“No, sorry,” I pull my cellphone out of my pocket, turning my notifications on out of guilt. “I haven’t really been on it since I left.”
“We missed you, buddy,” Mattie adds, “and we’re nosey fuckers. We want to know why you’re back from camp because Turner is too nice to press you for it.”
“But we did miss you,” Bobby adds, “which is more important than whether you got fired or not.”
Henry mutters something under his breath I don’t quite catch. I know I can trust Henry and he’d never share my business. “A drunk driver hit my dad. He’s fine. I was visiting him but I’m going back to camp in the morning.”
I nod through the echo of well wishes, thanking them and saying nothing more about Dad. They might not know exactly what the situation is, but they know there’s something not right with my life outside of college. As much as I love my teammates, I don’t think I’ll ever be in a place to explain how embarrassed and frustrated I feel about the whole situation.
“Does Jenna still work there?” Bobby asks with a weird smirk on his face. “Everyone was obsessed with Jenna.”
“You were obsessed with Jenna,” Kris says through a mouthful of pizza. “He was convinced he’d have a chance as soon as he turned eighteen. We only went for one summer but he talked about her for, like, three years.”
“Yeah, she’s my boss. She’s great, super nice. She kind of hates being in charge of people, so as long as you’re not doing something wrong she stays out of your way.”
“Is she still hot? I don’t know why I’m asking because I know she definitely is,” Bobby says. “Shit, maybe I’ll work there next year.”
“What’s your group like?” Mattie asks, rolling his eyes at Bobby.
“Honestly they’re pretty great. There’s one guy, Clay, he’s a bit of a douche but he isn’t unbearable. Xander, the guy I share a cabin with, is really cool. Maya is great, she’s on one of those Camp America international work things with her friends. She tends to hang out with them when we’re not working, so I don’t know her well yet. Emilia and Aurora are nice.”
“Back up,” Kris says.
“Aurora?” Henry follows. “That girl who left you in the middle of the night?”
I rub the back of my neck to ease the nervous prickling happening as I nod a yes. We need to come up with a new way to identify her because things have changed a lot since she was that Aurora.
Cheering erupts, jumping and hugging, a few high fives as they celebrate . . . I literally don’t know what they’re celebrating. “What’re you guys doing?”