Page 59 of Guitars and Cages

“I was hoping I hadn’t made a mistake, but this, this proves that I have. Cole can’t stay here until he quits the drinking and comes to terms with the choice you’ve made. Even if you weren’t here, it was a bad idea to have him living over the bar. He needs to get sober, not be someplace with bottles stacked up everywhere.”

“He’s got nowhere to go,” I pointed out. “He just got here, how are you gonna kick him out? Besides, I drink as much as he does; you might as well kick me out, too.”

Morgan huffed and looked at me, shaking his head. He went around the bar and came back with two ice packs wrapped in hand towels, and handed one to me and one to Cole, whose eyes were open and blinking as he looked around. He groaned, frowned, and rubbed the back of his head, wincing. It only took a second for his eyes to settle on the broken bits of the chair in the center of the room.

“You little bastard!” Cole hissed at Alex.

“Shut up; it seems to me like you had it coming,” Morgan told him.

Cole pressed the ice to the back of his head and said nothing.

“This is what’s going to happen,” Morgan began. “Colton, the paper is in my office; go get it, pull out the classified section, and find yourself an apartment, and while you’re at it, you might want to think about looking to see where the nearest AA group meets, because you need it. Asher, it’s up to you: you can stay here, or you can go with your brother, but he’s got to go. Cole, you’ve got a week to be out of here, and while you’re working on leaving, you’d better not touch a drop to drink or so help me I’ll toss you out on your ear. You touch Alexia or anyone else in this bar out of anger, and I’m gonna be the one taking my anger out on you, andthenI’ll toss you out on your ear, got it?”

“Asher’s comin’ with me,” Cole announced. “The only goddamned one of us you ever gave a shit about was Alex anyway, and everyone knows it’s ’cause chances are he’s your son.”

My jaw dropped; so did Alex’s. Morgan just stood there, staring Cole down.

“Are you done?” Morgan asked.

“More than done,” Cole said, pushing himself to his feet. He dropped the ice on the floor before staggering from the room. I sighed, looking anywhere but at Morgan and Alex.

“I’d better go find the boxes and start to repack,” I said, heading for the stairs behind Cole.

“Bullshit,” Morgan said, grabbing my arm. “Just because he says to go, doesn’t mean you have to, Asher.”

“Yeah, I do,” I told Morgan firmly. “I know what it’s like to be alone. At least if I go with him, we won’t be alone, ’cause we’ll be together.”

“But will you be safe?” Alex asked.

I gave him a sad smile and a shrug. Then I hugged my brother. “Yeah, Alexia, I will be.”

Before I left the room I watched his—no,herface light up, overjoyed that I’d used her chosen name. At least I’d made someone happy.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Itook a shower to wash the blood from my hair, and then went to check on Rory. He was lying on his bed, headphones on, kicking his feet while he read a comic. I wondered if he’d put the headphones on in response to the noise, or prior to it. I tapped him on the shoulder, startling him, and he took off the headphones and hugged me tight. I hugged him back, no longer feeling the unease I did when he first arrived.

“Is everyone done being mad now?” he asked.

“Yeah, everyone’s done being mad. You did good to remember what I told you about headphones and music when yelling starts.”

“Uncle Cole was really mad. He sounded like an elephant the way he was yelling.”

I had to chuckle at that. “I’ll bet he did; did he scare you?”

He nodded against my shoulder. “Uh-huh.”

“I’m sorry about that.”

“Why was he so mad at Uncle Alex?”

I sighed. “Sometimes people don’t agree with each other, even if they’re family. They were having a disagreement, is all.”

“They were disagreeing loudly.”

I nodded and set him back down on the bed. “Yeah, they were.”

“Is Uncle Cole ever gonna yell at me like that?”