Page 16 of Brendan (The Doherty Mafia)
“Don’t make me go over there, asshole. Just give me her address and I’ll walk out of here. With any luck, you’ll never have to see me again.”
“Okay. Okay! Jesus. Just let go of me and I’ll go look up her address!” he shouted over the music.
I gave him a long threatening glare before releasing his collar. He looked genuinely afraid and scurried off to the back to look for Rosalie’s details.
Honestly, I didn’t expect it to be this easy.
I made a note to let her know when I found her how unreliable her employer was.
Nine
Rosalie
Because I didn’t have the night-shift at the bar, it meant that I was able to put Davey to bed. He had spent the afternoon and evening with my mom who collected him from kindergarten.
So after my shift at the diner, I had approximately forty-five minutes of awake-time to spend with him before I had to get him ready for bed. I was probably way more exhausted than he was. I’d been up since early in the morning and I barely slept the previous night.
I’d already wasted too much time thinking about Brendan when I should have focused that time on my son.
I wished I had more hours in the day for him. Time was slipping past us—Davey was growing up quickly. I knew it wouldn’t be long before he was all grown up and wouldn’t have time for me.
Was I going to regret not being able to spend as much time with him as I wanted? Would I regret juggling two jobs?
But how else was I supposed to keep us afloat?
Davey picked out a story for us to read and I settled in bed with him and we read the book together. He was pretty smart for a three-year old and I couldn’t have been more proud of him.
After we were done with the book, I stroked his hair gently while he told me about his day.
“I missed you, Mommy,” he said, just before he slipped into sleep.
I kissed his forehead and held back the tears.
“I missed you too, honey, and I promise we’ll do something fun on Sunday, okay?”
He nodded with a smile and closed his eyes. I waited a few more minutes until he was fast asleep and then I crept out of the room.
I cleaned up the apartment, then changed into an old pair of shorts and t-shirt. Even though I was about ready to go to sleep myself, I couldn’t because I had things to do.
All the bills I needed to look at and pay were collected in a plastic bag I kept under the sink in the kitchen. I hated looking at that bag and tried not to think about it the rest of the month. However, now the time had come when I had to sort it out for the month.
Bills needed to be paid and I wasn’t certain I had enough to pay them with.
I took the bag to the couch and sat down with a sigh. I took one bill out and then the next, spreading them all out on the coffee table. I could feel my stomach sinking as I stared at all the papers around me.
It felt like a disaster. My life felt like a disaster.
“How am I going to do this,” I murmured to myself. This happened every month. I was always brought close to tears by those damned bills.
The knock on the door saved me from ugly-crying.
Even though I wasn’t expecting anyone and didn’t know who it could have been, I was excited to go to the door just to get away from my responsibilities for a moment.
When I opened the door and saw Brendan standing there, I nearly slammed the door back on his face again. I couldn’t believe it was him. I thought I had officially gone crazy and was now imagining things.
How could he have found me? What did he want from me?
Wasn’t it enough that he had already been haunting me?
He saw the look of utter shock and disbelief on my face and pushed his hands into the pockets of his jeans.
He stood there looking tall and handsome…almost menacing. While once again, I was dumbstruck by him and couldn’t find my words.
“Your manager at the bar... he gave me this address. It didn’t take much convincing on my part. He seemed happy to part with your details.”
Rocky. He truly was a pain in my ass.
I forced myself to do something to demonstrate control. So I crossed my arms over my chest.
“What are you doing here? Why did you go to my place of work and harass my manager?” I tried to keep my voice clipped and detached.
He wouldn’t have forced his way into my apartment. I was sure of that. From the little that I knew of Brendan Doherty, I knew I didn’t have to be afraid of him. Or maybe I was wrong.
