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“We know,” Elliot replied. “Hugo just called Amber.”
As we all looked at each other in shock, Joey pushed up from his chair and stormed out, slamming the door behind him.
“I’ll go,” Beau said, starting to stand.
I was quicker. “I’ll go, you get some brandies poured out.”
No one argued with me, all too shell shocked to do anything but stare at each other. As Elliot and Beau whispered to Ali, I followed the path that Joey had taken. I didn’t know my way around Ronnie and Amber’s place that well, but I soon found him in a room full of guitars and a piano with sheet music laidout on top of it. Joey was standing at the floor to ceiling window, his forehead pressed against it as he looked out over the garden.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” I asked, closing the door behind me. “Why did you storm out?”
He turned to look at me and frowned. “What?”
“You stormed out of there like your dick was on fire and you needed a bucket of water.”
“I just needed to get out.”
Taking slow steps, I moved up next to him and looked him fully in the eye. Eyes that were full of despondency and regret for his past.
“It’s gone, Joey. You’re not that man any longer.”
He inhaled and then let it out raggedly, like it had been a fight to tear it from his lungs. “It could have been me, Dais’,” he whispered, glancing at the door. “They could have been getting that call about me.”
“But they didn’t because you decided to sort your shit out, Jimmy didn’t.”
“Yeah, and what about Jimmy? I could have helped him. I could have told him how to stop. What to do to get that crap out of his system.”
I gave an empty laugh. “And you think he’d have listened to you?” He shrugged. “Exactly, you know he wouldn’t. He was an egotistical prick who only thought about himself.”
“Maybe that was the drugs. Maybe if I’d got him off them he’d have been a different person.”
I shook my head because he was so wrong. “You have never been an egotistical prick, Joseppi.”
His nostrils flared. “Don’t call me that, and egotistical prick is one of your favourite descriptions of me.”
I waved him away. “No, it isn’t. I have much better names for you than that.” I cupped his cheek, trying not to think about how my fingers loved feeling his stubble beneath them. “The point is,Jimmy wouldn’t have listened to you. He thought he knew it all. He thought he could handle it but clearly couldn’t.”
Finally, he nodded but it was obvious that he didn’t believe it.
“Joey,” I said, my voice hard. “This is not another stick you need to beat yourself with. This isn’t your fight or responsibility.”
His shoulders sagged and he scrubbed a hand down his face. “Amber will be blaming herself. I know she will, and it isn’t her fault. Addicts are the only ones to blame.”
“Exactly. So go and help her,” I urged. “Show her that there was nothing she could have done, just like there was nothing you could have done. Be there for her and Ronnie.”
Just as I was about to pull away, Joey leaned into my hand, nuzzling against it and I almost drew him closer. The moment was over too quickly as he moved away, leaving me stretching out my hand like the muscles had tightened.
“How come it was you who came looking for me?” he asked, sighing.
“Don’t get any ideas that I care,” I said with a scoff. “I didn’t know where the brandy or the glasses were.”
His smile was brief, but it was soft and gentle and as he left the room, shaking his head and muttering about me, I knew he would be okay. This time.
CHAPTER 15
JOEY
When I got back to the kitchen, there was no sign of Elliot or Beau, but Ronnie and Ali were sitting at the table, both with an arm around a crying Amber. Destiny hadn’t followed me back in, so I wondered if she’d gone looking for the other two.
