She shrugged her shoulders and said, “I wasn’t thinking. Usually, the guys will finish up whatever I don’t eat.”
She made her plate and walked over to the couch, plopping down in my spot as she reached for the remote. Once she was settled, she said, “Dad’s called a couple of times. He said he tried calling, but he hadn’t been able to reach you.”
“Yeah. I need to call him. I’ve just been busy with work and stuff,” I explained.
“Just give him a quick call to let him know you’re alright. You know how he worries,” Henley fussed. We were both close to our father, and neither of us liked letting him down. He’s never said the words, but I knew he worried about me working at the club.
“I will. First thing tomorrow,” I assured her.
“Good,” she said as she flipped through several channels, searching for our favorite show. “Hey, what happened to that picture of you and me that was beside my bed? You know… the one taken on the day Maverick gave me my property patch.”
“No idea. Are you sure you didn’t take it with you?”
She shook her head as she took a big bite of pizza, and with her mouth full, she said, “Nope. Left it on the table.”
I grabbed a couple of slices of cheese pizza and as I sat down beside her, I said, “I don’t know. It’ll show up.”
“I hope so. I loved that picture of us,” she told me as she reached for the remote. “So, what do you wanna watch?”
We continued to chat and gorge ourselves on pizza while we watched the latest episodes of The Black List. It felt good to have Henley back at home. Her smile and carefree demeanor made me feel like maybe everything would be okay. During the middle of the third episode, Henley fell asleep on the sofa. I covered her up with a blanket and turned off the TV before I went back to my room and went to bed. I woke up way too early in the morning to a loud banging on my front door. Reluctantly, I pulled myself out of bed and answered the door. I found Smokey standing on the other side, holding a box of donuts and smiling like the Cheshire cat. He was wearing a thick, black t-shirt with his Satan’s Fury leather jacket and a pair of old beat-up jeans. Looking more like a rock star than a biker, he wore several leather bracelets on his wrists, and his long, jet black hair only enhanced those beautiful green eyes of his. Handsome or not, it was too damn early in the morning for me to put on a friendly smile.
“Smokey, it’s six fifteen in the morning! What the hell are you doing here?” I groaned.
“Just checkin’ on my girls. Cotton wanted an update,” he smiled. “Brought you some warm donuts.”
Of course, Cotton wanted an update. He wouldn’t need a damn update if he hadn’t been such an asshole. I let out a deep sigh as I opened the door and motioned for him to come inside. Once he sat the box on the counter, I said, “I’ve gotta get ready for work.”
“Go on and do your thing. I’ll make some coffee,” he offered. “Is Henley still in bed?”
I looked over to the sofa, and when I noticed she was gone, I answered, “Yeah. She’s been able to sleep a little later now that she’s doing her last two classes online.”
“Gotcha. No coffee for her.”
“Nope. It’s not good for the baby anyway,” I explained.
He nodded and said, “Oh, yeah. I didn’t think about that.”
“I’ll be back in a minute,” I told him as I walked into my room. After I was showered and dressed, I went back out to check on Smokey and found him sound asleep on the sofa. I decided not to wake him and left for work. When I got down to my car, I reached for my keys so I could open the door, but before I found them, I noticed the door was already unlocked. It wasn’t like me to not lock my door, so I stood there, staring at the unlocked door as I tried to think back through my steps from the night before. I couldn’t even remember parking my car, much less locking the dumb doors. It was just another crazy thing I’d done since I’d come back from Anchorage. I eased the driver’s side door open and peered cautiously inside, but didn’t find anything that looked suspicious. After thinking about it for a second, I convinced myself I’d been distracted and just hadn’t locked it. I’d had a lot on my mind over the past couple of weeks, and I’d just forgotten to do it. Doing my best to shake off my nerves, I got in the car and headed to work. The entire way there, I berated myself for being such a damn mess. I needed to pull it together. I was tired of spending all of my time trudging through the swamps, worrying over Cotton. It was time for me to think about myself and try to find a way to make myself happy, even if that meant finding a way to move on without him.
She was just trying to help, but ended up fucking everything up.