Page 39 of Baked

“Look, I tried to stay away from Rachel. I really did. But after what happened with her dad ... I knew I couldn’t do it anymore. I’m not saying that all of a sudden, I’m just magically cured of my fuckedupness—far from it. But I’ve realized that I was dumb to think I could run from her. From what I feel. The truth is, I fell for her months ago.”

He was well aware he was already gone for Rachel. Now that he was off work, they were spending more time than ever together, and that time had only reinforced his feelings for her. It should scare the hell out of him, but for some reason it didn’t.

He was telling the truth; he knew that Rachel wasn’t Madison. She was so different from his ex-wife, it wasn’t even funny.

Luke went quiet, his features softening as his gaze went to the label on the beer bottle. When he finally looked up again, Hunter could see his shield had come down just a little.

“I’m sorry. I knew she cheated, but I didn’t know how bad it was or how much it fucked you up. Why didn’t you say something?”

“Probably the same reason you don’t talk about shit either.”

Luke nodded, a thoughtful expression on his face. “I’m glad you found Rachel. She’s good for you.”

She was. And Hunter was glad his friend saw that too. It was his turn to nod. But he hadn’t forgotten why he was there.

“Talk to me, man. What’s going on?”

The remainder of Luke’s beer was drained before he spoke again. Hunter let him have that.

“Look. I don’t want you to get your hopes up; this is not a ‘come to Jesus’ moment. We’re not gonna bond over our fucked past and hug it out or anything.” That earned him a snort. “That being said, I’m man enough to admit that I may have been more of an asshole than usual recently.”

Tell me something I don’t know.

“I’m not gonna go into details, but in the name of putting everything out there ... last week was the anniversary of my mom’s death. It sucks. And yeah, around this time of year, I sometimes get into a funk. But it’ll pass. It always does. And no, I don’t wanna talk about it.”

Ignoring the last part of his statement, Hunter didn’t hesitate to ask him more questions. “I thought you didn’t know your mom?”

He watched Luke swallow before he answered. “I didn’t. Not really. I was only five when she died ... that’s how I ended up in the system. Doesn’t stop it from sucking though, brother.”

How did I not know that?

“No, I bet it doesn’t.” He had his answer but had no idea how to help. “I’m sorry. What can I do?”

Luke’s head shook immediately. “Nothing to do, man. I’m just feeling sorry for myself, but I’ll get over it.”

Feeling sorry for himself, my ass.

“Bullshit. Don’t minimize what you’re feeling. Grieving doesn’t make you weak, it just makes you human. What do you normally do this time of year? What helps?”

“Uh, get drunk and eat a fuckload of pizza.”

Hunter was going to let him hide behind that disingenuous smile. For now. “Okay, man, you grab us some more beers and I’ll order us some pizza.”

“What?”

“You heard me. You really need to work on your hosting skills, dude.”

Luke pushed off the couch and grumbled all the way out of the door while Hunter pulled out his phone. If the only thing he could do for his friend was sit and eat pizza with him, then that’s what he was going to do.

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