Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 117752 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 589(@200wpm)___ 471(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117752 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 589(@200wpm)___ 471(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
“You’re not going to eat your lunch? Bro, you’re looking like a bag of bones.” Calder had been trying to coax Gavin out of his silence since he arrived this morning.
Peyton had left when he arrived, warning him that Gavin hadn’t said a word during the week she spent with him, and he refused to take any visitors, other than him and Peyton.
“Viper called when you were taking a shower. He wanted me to call when you got out. He’s not going to be happy I didn’t.”
Calder looked over at Gavin then returned his eyes to the trees.
“I don’t blame you for staying out here all the time. When I was released from prison, I couldn’t stand to be cooped up. I still sleep with my bedroom door open at night. You have a sweet deal here. If I had this area attached to my bedroom, I’d sleep out here, too.”
Calder raised up from his position on a chair he had carried out from Gavin’s room. Taking half the sandwich that remained untouched, he settled back down on his chair. “Did I tell you that I saw Viper and Winter last night? Shade, Train, Cash, Razer, and Knox were there, too. They all asked about you.” He took a bite of the sandwich.
Gavin rarely talked to him, just listened in silence until Calder would leave Sunday night. Calder didn’t let it bother him, filling in the silence by talking about anything and everything, trying to pull Gavin back to The Last Riders, who wanted him so desperately to rejoin the land of the living.
“They all had their wives there, too. Those women are fine. Not as fine as the woman I have my eye on, but they’re smokin’ hot.”
“Did anyone else call when I was in the shower?” Gavin distracted him from his lone conservation.
“No, Taylor didn’t call. You want me to call her?” Viper had explained that Gavin had been engaged to Taylor when he was kidnapped. After he was rescued, he found out she was now married and expecting. It was a raw wound for him.
“So she can ask if she can come and see me again? No thanks.”
“Then why you asking if she called?”
“No reason.”
“Bullshit. Why won’t you see her?”
“I don’t want her to see me until I’m back to normal.”
“You want to get back to normal, start eating again and hit the gym.”
Gavin went back to the silence he hid behind whenever anyone told him what he didn’t want to hear.
“You don’t want to see her because Viper told you she is married. Call a spade a spade, but don’t lie to yourself or me. It’s a big step in your recovery.”
“What do you want me to say? That if I see her, I’ll beg her to get a divorce? I know the man she married. Taylor’s better off with him.”
“Is that why you’re slowly killing yourself?”
Gavin’s harsh features would make anyone proceed with caution, but Calder had been in prison with men who were just as menacing and who had nothing better to do with their days than work out. Gavin was so gaunt and weak that he wouldn’t be able to fight himself out of a paper bag.
“I’m not trying to kill myself. I just don’t care if I do or don’t die anymore.”
“When you were held captive by the Road Demons, did you just give in, or did you fight the bastards?”
“I fought.”
“Then why give up now?”
“Have you ever loved a woman?”
“Can’t say I have. I came close once.”
“The one who won’t give you the time of day?”
“I never even dated her, and she hates my guts. Can you see how much she would hate me if I had?”
“What’s her name?”
“I don’t even know her real name. Her nickname is Crazy Bitch.”
“If you’re hung up on a woman called Crazy Bitch, you’re the last one I’d take advice from.”
“I’m not giving you advice. You have counselors here who get paid to dish out advice. I’m just saying that, if you want to get Taylor back by making her feel sorry for you, go right ahead. I don’t blame you for preferring her to me. The only problem with that is you’re going to be the same pitiable mess until your body gives up and you get your wish, and you’ll be as dead as a doornail. Or you regain your strength, she will see you no longer need her, and she goes back to her husband.”
Gavin struggled to his feet. “I’m going down for a nap.”
“Or we can go work out for a while. Then you eat an early dinner and have a good night’s sleep.”
Gavin went inside his room, shutting the sliding glass door behind him.
Calder remained where he was, giving Gavin time alone. He knew the man had more going on in his mind than a woman. He was fighting off the depression of coming off the drugs. Until Gavin was ready to admit what he was really missing was the high coursing through his veins, he wouldn’t get better.