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“Well, look who it is!” Chase’s voice bellowed out from the kitchen as Anjuli stumbled down the hallway. “Buenos dias, mi sol!”
Anjuli crossed her arms over her chest. She hadn’t realized Chase would be up so early when she threw one of Garrett’s t-shirts on with no bra underneath. “Hello, there,” she answered, giving him a shy little wave.
Guess there’s no chance he doesn’t know what we were up to last night, she thought as a smile crept across her face. She didn’t even remotely care. She and Garrett had fucked two more times in the middle of the night, and it was spectacular. She was pretty sure her cheeks were glowing as a result.
“So, I guess when I asked you to come check on Garrett, you did more than just check.” Chase chuckled as his eyes swept up and down her body. “Coffee?”
“Yes, please.” She tried to give him an innocent smirk. “Oh, I have your key!” She traipsed into the living room and retrieved Chase’s key from her purse.
“I appreciate it. And I trust he’s feeling much better now?” His eyes were just as radiant as they’d been when she saw him at the liquor store the night before.
“I believe so, but he’s still pretty wiped out.” She gave Chase a wink and accepted a steaming mug of coffee from him. “So, were you here when Garrett’s long-lost sister showed up the other night?”
“Yes, ma’am, I sure was.” He placed his elbows on the kitchen counter and leaned toward her.
She knew Chase was younger than Garrett, probably in his twenties, but he also had a weathered look about him, the kind she often saw on young men and women returning from deployment. There was a sort of wisdom that shone through the thin veil of youth in their eyes. Chase had that quality too. She wondered if he had served, or if there was some pain in his past that had caused him to age faster than his peers. Or maybe he was simply an old soul. One thing she knew for certain: she was grateful Garrett had such a good guy for a roommate.
“So, what kind of read did you get on that?” Anjuli asked, studying the way the light over the counter twinkled in Chase’s eyes as he considered her question.
“I stayed with his sister when he stormed out. Actually, that’s kind of a pun. It was storming when he left. I don’t know where he went, exactly, but he came back soaking wet and ready to listen to her.”
She flashed back to an image of Garrett standing in the relentless downpour a few nights ago, when she’d driven by him and rolled down her window to call out his name. He’d just met his sister, and apparently it didn’t sit well with him. It all made sense now—why he ignored her call and texts, why he was drinking so much. He got fired from his job, got a new job, met a long-lost sister, and got fired again all within the course of a month. That’s a lot for anyone to handle.
“But, to answer your question,” Chase continued, snapping her out of her thoughts, “she seemed like a nice lady. Sincere. She’d been through a lot, for sure, and just wanted to find her brother.”
“How did Garrett leave things with her?” Anjuli realized she was overstepping some boundaries, but she really wanted to know Chase’s thoughts on the matter.
“He told her he couldn’t help her,” he answered with no hesitation. He shook his head and exhaled, clearly expressing his disagreement with Garrett’s choice. “If there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that you never turn your back on your family.”
“What is his brother’s name?” she inquired. Chase’s words struck her right in the gut. She tried to keep her focus on Garrett and not let her mind drift to the memory of her own family turning their backs on her when Mishti was a baby.
“Jackson Stone,” Chase replied. “Why?”
Anjuli shrugged. “I just wondered.” A smile spread across her lips as she set the key she’d been fiddling with on the counter. “Thanks for watching out for Garrett and for letting me use your key last night. I need to get home, and I don’t want to wake him up. But please tell him I’ll text him later.”
“It was my pleasure,” Chase said, unblinking.
She gathered up her purse and jacket and headed for the elevator.
She called Scott at home, which wasn’t something she normally did. His wife seemed a little taken aback, but she explained she had a legitimate work question. His voice was filled with concern by the time he made it to the phone. “Juli? Everything okay?”
She shared what she had learned about Garrett and his brother. “Any idea who I would talk to at the VA to track this guy down?”
She heard a deep sign come from Scott’s mouth, hissing its way through the phone as he contemplated her request. “Can you meet me at work later today? I have some ideas.”
“I don’t want to take any time away from your family.” Really, his wife already seemed irritated that I called their house.
“Oh, it’s no trouble. She’s taking the kids to some birthday party later today—you know, one of those hell-on-earth type pizza places with the video games and the ball pits and all that. You’d be saving my life, probably.”
She chuckled. “If you’re sure it won’t cause you any trouble.”
“No trouble at all,” came the response.
She hung up and sent a good morning text to Garrett, as well as one to Mishti. Neither replied immediately, so she finished her coffee and jumped in the shower. As the steaming hot water soaked her body, she asked herself again why she was getting involved with Garrett.
Enough! she finally chastised her brain. He’s hot, and he’s hurting. I may be able to help him, and if not, at least we’ll both be having fun. Why did everything she did have to be completely selfless, anyway? She thought she’d turned over a new leaf to finally take care of herself.
But her brain tried to shake some sense into her. Falling for this guy would only bring you pain. That’s not taking care of yourself.
Her answer back?
Fine, I won’t fall for him. Problem solved.
Scott seemed ecstatic to see her when she arrived at their office. She wasn’t used to being at the hospital on weekends, though every once in a while, she got called in for an emergency. The group of psychologists took turns being on call, but there were enough of them that she only had to do it every six weeks. She flashed back to years earlier, when Mishti was young, and she would get called in on the weekends or at night. She’d have to scramble around to find childcare. Thank goodness for the kindness of neighbors.
Speaking of which, Mishti never texted me back...nor did Garrett. She was starting to wonder if her phone even worked these days.
“So, I did some research of my own,” Scott said. “I have access to some databases you might not be able to use.”
“Oh, rub it in now, will ya,” Anjuli teased him. “Did you find anything?”
“I didn’t find anything current on a Jackson Stone from Washington state, but I think I found a couple of the guys he may have served with, and there’s one right here who was discharged a few months ago and got a civvy job at DoD.”
“Huh, really?” She hadn’t thought anything about this endeavor would be easy. Garrett’s family hired a private investigator, and he hadn’t been successful in locating Jackson in over a year.
“Since he’s local, he’s worth talking to,” Scott said. “I have some other ideas too. I can access the records where he was treated in Washington, so there are doctors there you could speak with.”
“Okay, don’t go too overboard yet—”
He scrunched up his brows as he studied her. “Oh...let me guess...Maintenance Guy doesn’t know you’re trying to help him?”
She rolled her eyes. How could he see through her so easily? “Well, not exactly. But I hope to convince him. I have a theory—”
“Oh, boy, this should be good,” Scott fired back, rubbing his hands together with glee the way he always did before she launched into some tasty morsel of gossip.
“Keep your pants on, geez,” she teased him. She cleared her throat as she decided how she wanted to verbalize the crazy ideas that had been bombarding her all day.
“So, Garrett, that’s his name, by the way, not ‘maintenance guy,’ has had a rough go of it the past few weeks. He’s depressed. I think he may even have PTSD, but I’m not sure. In any case, I think reuniting with his sister and brother could give him some hope and help get him back on the right track.”
Scott wore a skeptical look on his face. “So you think if he fixes his family, it might fix him?”
She shrugged, but she could tell Scott had taken issue with her theory. “What?”
“Projecting much?” He laughed at her. “Look, I know you have your own issues where family is concerned. Just make sure you’re trying to help Garrett for the right reasons, okay?”
She blew out a long, hot breath as she considered his warning. “I’m trying, okay? I don’t know what it is about him, but I want to get to the bottom of whatever it is.”
He handed her a business card turned to the side where he’d written the name of Jackson Stone’s buddy at the Department of Defense. “Just be careful, Juli. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
“You and me both,” she agreed, taking the card.
