Hold It Close (MacAteer Brothers #3) - ML Nystrom Page 0,2

he saw them as wasted money.

He sighed as the machine gurgled its goodness into a steel carafe. He’d nearly choked when he saw the bill for that one. Over a thousand dollars! This one at least got used on a daily basis, but he wasn’t convinced this machine made a better cup of coffee than a thirty dollar one from Walmart.

As he sipped the dark, bitter brew, his phone dinged an alert. He swiped it open to see a text from his bank to tell him his checking account was overdrawn. Again. Pain bloomed in his right temple, and his gut churned with dread.

He leaned on his elbows and opened the chain of texts from last night.

Garrett: On the way home. The leak wasn’t serious. Just a minor break in the icemaker hose to the refrigerator. All fixed in a half hour. Want me to pick up some food?

Garrett: Joy?

Joy: Sorry, baby. I’m still mad at you. I’m out with some friends. Be home later.

Garrett: I’m sorry you’re mad at me, but I had to take this job. Three hundred bucks for thirty minutes’ work is something I can’t turn down right now.

Joy: I guess so, but I’m still mad about it.

Garrett: Where are you?

Garrett: Joy?

Joy: Im out.

Garrett: Where? I’ll come join you.

Garrett: Joy, where are you?

Joy: Your so cute!!!

Joy: O love you so much, babey!!!

She sent a series of heart emojis and GIFs, one right after another. Her deteriorating grammar told him she was drinking heavily. She worked as a high school English teacher and did proofreading on the side. When she was drunk, all the rules flew out the window, and her words and sentences got creative.

Joy: Id like to eat you right up. You meen so much too me!

Garrett: I love you too, sweetheart. Where are you? I’ll come get you.

Joy: why did you leav me a lone? I in that house all buy myself.

Three sad faces appeared on the next line. Then three angry ones.

Joy: Your so mean to me. HOw could you leave m alon on chrismas EVE.?

Joy: You a pice of shit!

Joy: I hate you!

Garrett: Are you at Tommy’s bar? I’m on my way.

Joy: Fuck you!!!

Garrett hadn’t found her at her favorite watering hole. Tommy had handed him her car keys and told him she had been there.

“That girl has some serious volume after a few drinks.” The rotund man had pulled him a beer and wiped the already clean bar top. “I took her keys when she wasn’t looking and planned to call you when I got a chance, but I didn’t see her leave.” His eyes had dropped and his round face with them. “I didn’t see who she left with either.”

Garrett had taken a few sips from the frothy gift, but he had no desire for the stuff. “Thanks, Tommy. I appreciate you looking out for her.”

He’d palmed the set of keys with the flashing butterfly and pocketed them on his way out, pausing long enough on the sidewalk to send one more text.

Garrett: Joy, please tell me where you are. I’m worried.

Nothing until she came home this morning, reeking of alcohol, sweat, and another man.

Again.

Garrett’s face dropped to his palms, and he asked himself for the 433rd time: Why did he stay with this woman? Her constant seesawing between love and derision made his head spin. She promised not to drink anymore or at least not to get drunk, and that promise flew out the window when she set foot in her favorite bar. He wasn’t the type of man who expected his wife, or future wife as it were, to cook every night and keep the house clean every day, however, he’d yet to see her start the vacuum, mop the floor, or light a burner. He did his best around the house, but he had to take every stinking job that paid anything to keep up with expenses. That meant doing odd handyman jobs for people after his regular and overtime hours at the building site. When she did laundry, she only washed her own clothes and got mad when he asked her to put a few things of his in with hers. He put her name on his bank accounts, and she freely spent his money, but he had no idea what she did with her own.

He knew he’d been bleeding a lot of green but had not taken the time to stop the flow. The numbers on the screen stared at him until they blurred. An