Page 80 of Love Off Course

“I’m tired,” I mutter. “So fucking tired.”

“I know,” she says, her voice growing soft. “Let’s finish up, feed you, and then we’ll go home.”

Home.

The word sounds good on her tongue.

Marsha comes back and Sheridan signs a bunch of papers. Marsha collects paperwork and puts it all in a green folder before handing it to Sheridan. We leave the funeral home and head toward my Tahoe that we retrieved earlier from the bar. Like last time, Sheridan ushers me to the passenger side and climbs her tiny self into the big vehicle. If I wasn’t so fucking despondent, I’d find amusement in the way she drives the Tahoe so easily. Surely it’s a far cry from her Jaguar.

As the vehicle moves, I close my eyes, trying desperately not to puke. We eventually end up at a restaurant near my condo. A hole-in-the-wall burger joint. I can’t help but smile at Sheridan, knowing this place is a far cry from what she’s used to.

When she catches me smiling, the hardness in her features melts away and she grins back. “Who knew burgers would cheer you up so much?”

I lean across the console, slide my hand into her silky hair, and pull her to me for a kiss. She tastes like peppermint from the candy Marsha offered us earlier. I kiss her deeply, wishing Icould get lost in her, forgetting all the pain I’m drowning in at the moment.

“You cheer me up,” I whisper against her plump lips. “I couldn’t do this without you.”

“You don’t have to.”

I can’t do this.

Fuck.

Pain threatens to rip me in half. I thought I was doing okay. Things with Sher and I were calm the past few days. I stayed away from the booze and let her take care of me. But as each day drew nearer to the funeral, I could feel myself unraveling.

I’m frayed beyond repair at this point.

I could use a fucking drink.

While we wait to head over to the funeral home, I watchMamáfrom my spot on the couch. She’s in the kitchen speaking lowly with Sheridan. Since when did they get so fucking chummy?

“You have a nice home,Cuervo,” Eduardo says for the twentieth time.

I cut my gaze his way and glower at him. He scrounged up a suit that’s seen better days and isn’t big enough to button around his stomach. I crave to lash out at him like old times, because he married my mom and tried to take my dad’s place, but I refrain. Barely. It’s not his fault Dad died. Eduardo has always been good to me.

“Thanks,” I mutter, my eyes once again locked on the two women in my kitchen.

“You and the girl seem to be in love,” he says. “She’s a good one. I can tell she makes you happy.”

His words should soothe me, but they only irritate me. In fact, everything is pissing me off. I can only imagine what kind of mood I’ll be in when I have to watch them lower my dad into the ground.

“It was nice of her to pay for our flights. And I know that casket was expensive. Rosita squawked when Sheridan told her how much it cost.”

I snap my head back to Eduardo. “What?”

“Top of the line.”

“Sheridan paid for it?”

His mouth parts and worry clouds his features. “She said you were too upset to deal with it, so she just took care of it.”

I rise to my feet. “Why?”

“Because she’s your woman?”

“You’d know all about a woman pulling you out of a rut,” I snarl, spittle flying everywhere. “You pounced on my mother the moment Dad was gone and have been fucking mooching off her ever since.”

He recoils at my nasty words. “Cuervo?—”

---