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“I don’t know if I can handle the bus today, Jazz. All that stopping and going. It makes me feel sick just thinking about it.” Winter held one hand to her mouth as if that were going to keep the demons at bay.
“Butler?” Only one word was needed for her friend to understand what she was proposing.
Winter nodded, a tight smile on her lips as Jazz pulled out her phone.
“Butler, I need you. No, scratch that.Weneed you.”
“Wheatfields?” the gruff-voiced man asked, still sounding sleepy.
“And a ride,” she answered as she surveyed her living room, now overflowing with trash. “Please.”
“Give me a chance to put on some pants and I’ll be there.”
Tossing her phone down on the couch, Jazz propped her hands on her hips. “He’s on his way so I say we have about fifteen minutes to get some of this trash cleared out.”
Winter looked around, her hand still covering her mouth but also part of her nose. “The pizza box needs to go first. The smell of peperoni is making me want to hurl.”
She nodded. “Ditto.”
* * * *
Ten minutes later, Butler was escorting them to breakfast—after helping them haul out a shameful number of garbage bags.
“You ladies went all out, huh?” he teased.
“Shut the fuck up,” Winter groaned from the backseat, making Jazz snort out a laugh.
“I’m just saying…I saw two huge pizza boxes—”
“One of those was bones,” Jazz interrupted, feeling the need to clarify.
“So, one pizza, bones, Oreos, chips, Twinkies, a bag of marshmallows, a box of Triscuits with a can of spray cheese, and cake?” Butler said, ticking items off on his fingers as he went.
“Not an entire cake, just the frosting,” Winter corrected with a sniff.
He raised his eyebrows and looked at her in the rearview mirror. “Why would you eat just the frosting?”
“Because we didn’t have the cake?” she answered with a giggle, prompting her friend to join in.
“Butler, we didn’t interrupt anything this morning, did we?” Winter probed.
He shook his head. “Nah, I had an early night. Went down to The Tinderbox and played pool for a bit before calling it good and heading home. I saw Will when he stopped by with the guys, but they didn’t hang around long.”
Jazz bit her lip to stop herself from asking if Leo was there too.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on, or are we going to pretend you just wanted a breakfast buddy this morning and keep it at that?” Butler kept his voice light despite his obvious curiosity.
“It’s not my story to tell,” Winter told him with a pointed look in Jazz’s direction.
“Jazz?”
She let out a heavy sigh.
“I need coffee first,” she said, buying herself a little bit more time before she had to spill her guts again. “Once I have caffeine in me, I’ll tell you the whole sad story.”
“Is it that bad?”
“Maybe?” she answered, the situation not any clearer than it was the evening before. “I’m not sure.”
