Series: Fever Falls Series by Riley Hart
Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 85157 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85157 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
“Oh, come on. Even when we’re getting along, you can’t pretend there isn’t always a little bit of annoyance there.”
“Are you really arguing with me when I said you weren’t annoying?”
“Annoying, right?” I countered, and he laughed. A flicker of pride lit up in my chest. I liked making Beau laugh.
“Okay, so you’re still annoying, but why are you so interested in my morning voice?”
Hmm. He had a point there. “Because it’s ten, which feels too late for a morning voice. You wanna hang out this afternoon?”
“I can’t.” Beau yawned. “I have to pick up an extra shift. I’m going in for a swing.”
“You’re such a grown-up. I try to adult as little as possible…but then, I’m not a hero.”
“I guess you were right; you are still annoying.”
It was fun irritating Beau. It had always been one of my favorite things to do. “That’s because I’m always right.”
“You’re fucking weird.” There was a smile in Beau’s voice. Before I could reply, he added, “I gotta go.”
“Oh yeah. Adulting,” I teased.
“No, I actually have to take a piss. Someone woke me up, and I haven’t gotten to go yet, so unless you’d like to accompany me into the bathroom, we should probably hang up.”
My pulse accelerated before dropping quickly. My mouth felt dry, and as I tried to think of a joke, some kind of wisecrack, my brain went blank.
“What are you doing tomorrow?” Beau asked.
“Please don’t tell me you’re peeing right now, Campbell.”
It didn’t matter that we were on the phone, I knew Beau rolled his eyes.
“I’m not going to try and be nice to you anymore,” he joked.
“I was thinking about doing some work around the house. The old shed out back needs to be torn down, and I’m thinking the patio cover too. A few things like that.”
“You need some help?” Beau asked. I was both surprised and not surprised. It was in Beau’s nature to help people, but it was also typically me who initiated things when we hung out. Apparently, I was suddenly a needy fuck. Oh shit. Not a fuck, fuck. A person, a needy person.
“Yeah, that’d be great, if you don’t mind. I’ll supply the beer and food.”
“I’ll supply the muscle,” Beau countered.
“Oh, fuck you very much. I have some of that too.”
“I hadn’t noticed.”
I grinned. “Go pee, asshole. I’ll see you in the morning.” I heard Beau laughing as I hung up the phone.
Well, shit. Now I didn’t know what to do, which was sad, yeah, but true. Sure, it had only been a couple of weeks, but I’d gotten used to the time I spent with Beau and Kenny.
I decided, though, if Beau was going to be an adult, I was going to be one too. I could keep myself busy without Beau or without calling Wyatt to see what he was up to.
The first thing I did was get up, clean the house, and wash my sheets. If Beau was coming over the following day, the house should be presentable. Not that he’d be seeing my sheets, but I figured those should be washed too.
Once that was done, I tortured myself with a few articles on the Internet about myself. I scanned some of the ones about the orgy, because I was a glutton for punishment. Beau obviously knew about it, and I wondered what he thought…if the details of it would matter. Shoving those thoughts from my head, I called and caught up with Andrea, and got a small amount of joy from the fact that the Avalanche weren’t having a great season. Maybe that made me an asshole, but I was okay with that.
It was such a dichotomy…the way I felt when I thought about football. There was the part of me that missed it, that felt like a piece of my soul was gone without it, while another part of me didn’t miss it at all. That second part maybe even wondered if the first was there because it was true, or because it felt like what I should feel.
But how could that be when it was something I’d lived and breathed? When it had been the thing that brought me the greatest joy? When it had made me feel good.
And…that was enough of that. I definitely wasn’t in the mood to go that deep, so I closed my laptop and decided to go do some grocery shopping.
On my way out the door, I grabbed my baseball cap, which felt like my invisibility cloak or something.
It was a short drive into downtown Fever Falls. There were a hundred grocery stores in town, but for some reason, I chose one at the corner of Fever Street and Onyx Drive.
There was a slight buzzing feeling at the base of my spine as I wondered if anyone would recognize me. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if I wanted them to or not. I liked the anonymity of my life at the moment, but I sure as shit didn’t want to be forgotten either.