“Nope. And it really sucked being the bearer of bad news.”
“Oh God. That’s where he met Zoey, wasn’t it? At the convenience store where his house used to be?”
Pick nodded. “Yep.”
I hugged Julian close to me. “Poor Knox.”
“That’s basically how I felt. The guy had just done a good deed for our Zoey, all the while he was homeless, broke, and had no family left to go to.” He shrugged. “I brought him back here, and we stuffed him in one of my shirts to work at the bar last night, but it didn’t fit him well, so Tink’s taken it upon herself to make sure he’s properly clothed.”
A little swirl of jealousy curled through me, hating that Eva was taking care of him, and I wasn’t. Then I winced and bit my lip, feeling more terrible than I had last night about the tight T-shirt comment I’d made. Crap, forget worst girlfriend, I had to be the worst person ever. But then something else Pick had said flittered to the surface.
“Wait. You brought him here? As in here?” I pointed to the floor and sat up straighter, glancing around. “He’s staying here, with you guys?”
“Except he didn’t come home last night after work,” he answered me before I could ask. “So... I don’t know where he is at the moment.”
When a soft tap came to the apartment door, I gasped. I don’t know how I knew, but I knew. It was Knox. I lurched to my feet and glanced around wildly, thinking there had to be a way to prepare. I probably looked like shit with my hair uncombed and the first clothes I’d snagged in the dark to change into. I hadn’t even had my first cup of coffee for the day.
But everything was happening regardless.
Pick was leaving the kitchen to answer the knock, so I rushed after him. His body blocked my view as he opened the door, but I could tell from the set of his shoulders and how he let out a relieved breath who he was greeting.
“So you decided to come back.”
“I guess I really don’t have anywhere else to go.” The low, gravelly voice I’d heard the night before filled the apartment and made me shiver.
“Well, come on in.”
Pick stepped back and opened the door wider. Still wearing the same tight black T-shirt from the night before, Knox kept his face lowered and took a step forward, until he looked up and saw me.
He jerked back into the hallway, and seared Pick with an accusing glance. “What—?”
Pick lifted his hands, claiming innocence. “She just showed up. I had no idea she was coming by.”
I gaped at Pick for taking Knox’s side, as if he wouldn’t have let me in if he’d known I was coming over, or if Knox had been here. And why the hell did Knox not want to see me?
Clenching my teeth as hurt anger filled my veins, I narrowed my eyes.
How dare he? How dare he run from me after six years, after I waited for him for most of that time, and missed him, and kept loving him? How dare he not even want to see me?
I marched forward, thrusting Julian at his father as I kept my gaze fixed on Knox. “Excuse us a minute.” Grabbing the door, I pulled it shut behind me and closed it in Pick’s face as he scrambled to catch his kid.
But once I was alone in the hallway with the stranger claiming to be Knox, my anger died.
The uncertainty grew.
He’d changed so much. His hair was shaved close; it made his head appear to be shaped different. The beard scruff he sported hid a lot, but I could still tell he’d grown some harder angles to his jaw and cheekbones.
Though his face had lost some baby fat and grown lean, his body mass had practically doubled. And it was all muscle, pure, steel bulging muscle. They were so freaking big, they seemed to obstruct his mobility until he didn’t move quite as smoothly as he used to.