Page 20 of Winter's End

The faint outline of Georgio’s face came into view in the rearview mirror.

“Three weeks, Logan. Don’t let me see you until then.”

The doors slammed and two figures disappeared into the night while I sat there dumbly, wishing to fuck for a hit and a fuck to take off this gut-wrenching edge.

Thank fuck, I had a plan to get him that money. I wanted nothing more to do with Georgio until then.

Too bad Lady Luck would not be on my side for that wish. Time to turn my Karma around.

CHAPTER 6

TRAVIS

“So, you love her, huh?”

Cam and I were lugging barrels out of Georgio’s cellar again, and I was already coated in a layer of sweat from the task. Cam didn’t have a bead of moisture on him as he did most of the heavy lifting on the other end of the barrel as we hauled it up the incline of the ramp into the storage bunker.

He slowly raised his head and eyed me warily.

“Is there any hope of avoiding this conversation?”

“Nope.” I cocked an eyebrow and stared at him pointedly. “Tell me your troubles, my friend, and together we’ll save the world.”

“So, you’re a poet now,” he grumbled as we moved the barrel into its final resting place.

He waited patiently as I caught my breath before we moved on to the next one in the lineup. I waited patiently for him to open up to me. When my strong and stoic friend remained silent, I tried again.

“Is it still the sharing thing? I’ve seen the way she is with you man, she’sintoyou, she?—”

“Do you not see anything weird about this conversation?” Cam interrupted, dropping his end of the barrel we had been about to move and folding his arms across his chest. “That Winter’s boyfriend is trying to convince me to become her other boyfriend? Sorry, her other-otherboyfriend. It’s a little messy.”

I let out a snort, because he was, in essence, right, but he was missing the point. We were building a family now. Families had people in them.

“Love is messy,” I said succinctly, determined not to feed into all the reasons he was using to convince himself not to give this thing with Winter a shot. I pushed up my end of the barrel, now noticeably heavier without Cam’s help. “Life is messy. Love and life are messy, Cam.”

“Thanks, Aristotle.” Cam muttered dryly as he moved to grab his end again. The early-onset arthritis I was surely developing eased a bit with his hold.

“Okay, tell you what.” I acquiesced, knowing if I got him in a surly mood now, my bones and joints were going to suffer from his half-assed help for the rest of the afternoon. “I’m not going to spend any more time trying to convince you. I want you to marinate on this: you said,out loud”—I obnoxiously enunciated that part for effect, because I needed to get through to my stubborn friend somehow—“that Winter was the woman you loved. How many women have you let yourself love in your life, Cam? Are you willing to walk away from that, even if it involves some sharing?”

I refused to stop staring at the top of his shiny, shaved head until he finally looked up and back at me.

“I promise you, man, she’s still all in with me, just like I am her. That part doesn’t change.”

He swallowed hard and managed a small head nod before shifting his weight and clearing his throat, signaling the conversation was over.

Well, okay then.

We shuffled down the concrete pad for another minute before I opened my mouth again, consequences be damned. He wasn’t going to like me very much after this next conversation, but we only had four barrels left, anyway. I’d take the risk.

“I know you can’t stand Logan, man, but it looks like he might be here to stay, too.”

A ‘harumpf’ was all I got as Cam eased the barrel into the next opening.

Since it wasn’t an outright curse, I continued.

“I’m not thrilled to have him permanently around, either. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but our girl likes to collect wounded men and nurse them back to health.”

I pointed to myself.