Page 12 of Dare to Embrace
Silence filled the club except for Kody mulling around behind the bar.
I sighed as I rested my elbows on my knees. “That sucks. Did she give you a reason?”
“She’s moving. Something about long-distance relationships don’t work. Why does everyone leave me?”
Man, I couldn’t answer that. But I could feel his pain as if I were reliving the day the paramedics had wheeled Karen’s dead body out of our garage. I’d felt angry, sad, empty, and lost, like I’d fallen down a black hole into nothing, and the pain had only intensified.
“Drinking isn’t the way to cope,” I said. “I might have an idea.”
I found Kross’s name in my contacts and tapped on the number.
A muscle jumped along Marcus’s jaw. “Seriously, are you calling the cops?”
Standing, I flicked my head toward the back of the club. “Go get yourself cleaned up. There’s a bathroom in my office.”
Marcus hesitated until I said, “Hey, bro,” into the phone. Then he was on his feet, walking away.
“What’s up?” Kross asked. “Everything okay?”
“Peachy.”
“Oh no. Did Lacey not come home?” he asked.
“She did. But I need your help. Can you head home and spend some time with Marcus in the boxing ring? I think showing him some moves might help him channel his aggression a little.” Kross was still boxing professionally, but he was also teaching at a gym in Boston.
“I can this weekend,” he said. “What did he do now?”
I chuckled. “What doesn’t Marcus do?” I asked the question more to myself.
“Good point. Hey, man, I was going to call you. I heard something last night and wasn’t sure if it was true. Is Lacey moving up into Triple-A?”
I twitched. “What?” My brain suddenly felt like someone had slapped it from one side of my skull to the other. “Where did you hear that?” So that was the reason Tara had called.
“A couple of players from the Pawtucket Sox were in the gym last night. I overheard them dropping Lacey’s name around about Triple-A. They left before I could ask them any questions.”
Fuck me.
“I got to run.” I had a wife to corner.
Chapter 5
Lacey
Iwas sitting at a table in the back corner of the cafeteria at the local hospital, waiting for Becca. I hadn’t seen my best friend in, like, forever. She was a nurse in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, or NICU as it was called.
After Kade texted me that he would be a couple of hours with Marcus, I had some time to catch up with my BFF.
I texted Becca:I’m here.
A young boy about five with brown curls and bright blue eyes ran up to a table near me and climbed onto a chair. As the boy smiled at me, I couldn’t help but think of what my kids would look like. Would they have brown hair and green eyes like me or resemble Kade with his to-die-for copper eyes?
The boy’s dad rushed up behind him with a tray of food. “Wyatt, that table is dirty. Let’s sit at this one.” The man, who appeared tired and had dark circles marring his brown eyes, set the food down on a clean table in front of me.
Wyatt bounced over to his dad. “I want ketchup.”
The dad transferred the food from the tray to the table then proceeded to open a ketchup packet for his son.
I watched him dote on the boy and wondered why the man was in the hospital in the first place.Did something happen to his wife? Was she in an accident? Or maybe she was having a baby.
