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Cage raised a brow. “I’m sorry to tell you, but you’ve already made it fucking clear how you feel.”
“How do you figure that when I just said I don’t even know what this is?”
I didn’t miss the way their gazes moved around the table, and Finn smiled as he looked at me. “You’re putting her needs before your own, buddy. That’s what you do when you love someone.”
“Thank you!” Kingston shouted, as his hand came down hard on the table. “You’re in love with Ruby Rose, you little pussy.”
The table roared with laughter, and I shook my head.
It wasn’t that I didn’t agree with him.
I couldn’t argue that I loved her.
But acting on it was a different story.
thirty
. . .
Ruby
“I don’t need a babysitter.You don’t need to hover so much, Rubes,” my dad said as I cleared his breakfast plate from the table. “I’m ready to head to the bar today and start getting back to normal.”
Back to normal.
What did that even mean anymore?
I’d lost sight of normal a long time ago.
My dad had come home from the hospital four days ago, and I’d spent the night here with him every day since.
Alone.
Almost instinctually, I’d started pulling away from River.
We both knew I was leaving.
Things had gone too far.
He hadn’t put up a fight, almost like he’d thought it was time to put some distance there, as well.
But I hadn’t expected to feel like I’d lost a limb.
Like I couldn’t breathe without him.
I hadn’t expected the dull ache in my chest to make me feel physically ill.
We hadn’t spoken either. We’d just gone radio silent. No texts. No calls.
No sneaking around or booty calls.
“I hired two new people, and you aren’t on the schedule until next week. Plus, you are no longer working night shifts. You’ll be working day shifts. I need you to take better care of yourself, Dad.”
“Rubes,” he said, his voice softening. “I’m in my late fifties. I’m not dying. I took a medication that I shouldn’t have taken. I understand the danger I put myself in, and I’ve worked hard to get myself back. But I will be making my own schedule at the bar, and I will work nights again because I like closing the bar down.”
I groaned as I crossed my arms over my chest. “Old habits die hard, huh?”
“I’m feeling good, and I don’t plan to start drinking again. I’m in the best shape I’ve been in in years, and I want to continue the physical therapy and exercising every day. And as much as I appreciate all that you did for me at the bar, I need to take my life back. Can you understand that?”
