Rock Bay 2 - Letting Go Read Free Page A

he’d get the job done. “I
need backup.”
Sometimes Drew wished their friend Tally
hadn’t left town back in high school. He knew the
    guy couldn’t stay, what with the monstrous shitstorm that had swirled around his family at the time: his father’s affairs, the suicide, all the money disappearing. He somehow thought that Tally wouldn’t have let Brock turn into such a mess. There had always been something decent about Tally—hidden perhaps, but there if anyone chose to look.
    “C’mon, B. I’m going to take you to O’Toole’s, and Rick will meet us there. Is that cool?”
“Rick’s so gay,” Brock murmured. “Yeah, it’s cool.”
    If Drew knew his old buddy, Brock was about a half a beer from passing out. He sure as shit hoped so. He wanted to get the night over with. He had a ton of work to do when he got home.
    Drew was grateful to Rick for coming to his rescue. He helped the grumbling Brock back to Drew’s condo, where he was deposited on the couch. They covered him with blankets that probably saw more of Brock than the ones at his own house and waited until he was snoring and dead to the world before they both breathed a sigh of relief.
“He’s getting worse.” Rick kept his voice low so they didn’t wake the sleeping beast.
    Drew reached up and shut his kitchen window against the late winter chill. They’d had an unseasonably sunny day, but the warmth was long over. “Yeah, he is. He sure doesn’t listen to Lindsay, though, just bitches about her trying to control him.”
    Rick shrugged. “He doesn’t listen to me either.”
“Or me.”
“God, where’s the power of Tally when we need it? Brock used to do whatever he said.”
    Drew chuckled to cover up the way any mention of Tally still made his breath catch in his throat… like he was going to be caught thinking about how hot Tally used to be. “Tally? What made you bring him up? We haven’t seen him since high school.”
    “I know. I wish he had a bat signal or something. Then he'd swoop into town and deal with Brock, and we could have a night off.”
    “Rick, Brock’s your best friend.” Drew felt guilty talking about the guy behind his back, and he’d never really even liked him. It kind of sucked that Rick would do the same.
    “What? Do you like running cleanup every weekend? It’s not even only weekends now. How many nights has he slept on your couch this week?”
Drew shrugged. The guy had a point. “Three, I think.”
    “Listen, I gotta go. Jill’s waiting for me to start Dexter . You cool watching him?”
“Yeah, he’s just going to sleep it off, and I’m going to go to bed. I have a really long day tomorrow.”
Rick punched him lightly on the shoulder. “Night, dude.”
“Night, Rick. Thanks again.”
Chapter Two
     
    M
ASON flopped back onto his couch and stared up at his new ceiling. It was a weird feeling, to be on the same couch but in a new room—both comfortable and unfamiliar. He had the weekend to unpack all the boxes that were stacked around his furniture before he started work at the hospital.
Ugh. Unpacking. Tomorrow is another day.
    He wished he’d hired the guys who’d moved his furniture to do all the unpacking too. Unfortunately, he didn’t think they’d appreciate the contents of some of his boxes of, um, hardware, though. Or was it software? Either way. Mason grinned at idea of the superstraight moving guys he’d hired coming across that one double-headed dildo he’d gotten for a birthday present, or his favorite graduated plug that vibrated and— ooooh .
    Maybe he did need to do some unpacking. It would help him sleep better, after all, if he had some of his personal belongings in their… places. The dishes and towels could wait. The goodie drawer could not.
    M
ASON hadn’t slept very well the night before. It was that whole first night in a new place thing, he imagined, or maybe because it was so damn quiet. Hopefully after a shift or two at the hospital, he’d be exhausted enough