Open Road by M.J. O'Shea Read Free Book Online Page A

drink, babe. You just need to work on moving on.”
    “I think I want to go home,” Angus croaked.
    Reece had picked Angus up the night before so he wouldn’t have to worry about driving. It was up to him to get Angus back to his apartment. Reece didn’t think that was a very good idea.
    “Babe, you sure you really want to do that?”
    “What? Go home? I don’t want to do anything but drown in the vat of the vomit I’m about to spew. I just need to do it alone.”
    “I don’t want you to be by yourself for this. Do you want me to at least call your mom?”
    They had dinner plans with the moms later that evening. If Reece had to guess, he’d imagine those plans were going to be cancelled.
    “Oh for Christ’s sake, please don’t call my mom. That would be about the worst thing I can imagine.” Angus dragged himself up from the floor. “Just, take me home, please. If you won’t, I’ll walk.”
    “Angus….”
    “Home. Now.”
     
     
    AFTER THAT morning, he’d seemed better. At least over the phone. He hadn’t responded to many of Reece’s texts, but his responses were sweet and funny and exasperated over work. The same when they talked. Reece had barely seen Angus after the first couple of weeks, but again work was blamed. He’d seemed distant and a little… gray, but he was Angus. At least in short bursts. Reece hoped he was slowly starting to get back into the swing of things.
    He should have fucking known better.
    It took a frantic call from Kathy, who’d loved Angus, to make him realize there was something very, very wrong.
    Maybe Reece had known—he just hadn’t wanted to know.
    Maybe he was the worst friend on the surface of the planet.
     
     
    REECE CALLED Cherry.
    “Hey, what’s shaking?” Cherry asked when she picked up her phone.
    “Sweetie, Angus needs our help.”
    Reece explained what had happened, how under their noses Angus had gone from healthy to gaunt, lost his job, his apartment, and basically his will to do anything but lie in bed. Cherry gasped. Then she railed at Reece for a few minutes for being dumb enough to miss it. And at herself for being an equally big moron.
    “Angus is smart, CP. He wanted us not to see it.”
    “Does he want help now?” she asked.
    “Of course not, but we’re going to help anyway. I need to get him out of town for a few days, somewhere every corner doesn’t remind him of dickface. Can you and Pey get his stuff into my house? He’s going to live with me for a while. I’ll pay if you want to hire someone.”
    “Yeah, of course. We can take care of it. Where are you guys going to go?”
    “I don’t know. Not here. You should’ve seen his face. It was like all the—” Reece broke off when he saw a newly showered Angus standing in the doorway. He looked skinny still, of course, startlingly so in regular jeans and a T-shirt that used to be formfitting. He also looked pissed.
    “Who’s on the phone?” he grunted.
    “Let me talk to him,” Cherry said. She wasn’t asking.
    “CP, I….”
    Angus held out his hand. Reece sighed.
    He heard the sound of loud talking coming from the other side of the cell, which was exactly why he hadn’t wanted to give Angus the phone. She and Angus loved each other, of course, but she wasn’t the best for delicate situations, and if the current situation was anything, it was delicate. Angus was delicate. Bruised too. Reece had no idea how deep the bruises went, but he didn’t think Cherry was the best person to figure it out.
    By the look on Angus’s face, Reece was right. He finally reached over and took the phone from Angus.
    “Lemme deal with this one, okay, Cherry? You deal with the move?”
    She took a deep breath, like she was about to fly off on another one of her tirades, and then sighed. “Yeah. Pey and I have it. What do you want me to tell the moms?”
    “I’m thinking, right now, we’re going to have to go with the truth. I mean, how else are we gonna explain me and Angus taking off