Read Harder (Stark Ink Book 1) for Free Online Page B

heart-felt declaration, his shoulders sagged. “But…” He sighed. “It is what it is.”
    Time had been lost and he couldn’t get it back. It was easy to dismiss it as he went about his own life, but sitting here with someone else and being forced to confront it was making him uncomfortable. Calla probably couldn’t relate to any of this. She probably had a nice, normal family, surrounded by people who actually gave a shit.
    To his surprise, though, Calla nodded. She wasn’t eyeing him like a complete degenerate brother, which of course he was. She must have been too nice a person to say it to his face. “I understand,” she told him. “How is Ava dealing with your mother’s death? Is she talking about it? Processing it? To lose a parent so young, so suddenly, I can’t imagine anything harder.”
    Adam sat up straighter in his chair, intensely grateful that he had some small chance here to redeem himself a little in this woman’s eyes. “We all need to be together on this. Get through this as a family. I’m trying. I really, really am. We all need to sit down and talk about what happened. But so far it’s been hard just to get them in the same room.”
    Calla twirled her pen in her hand for a moment. “Would you consider family counseling?”
    Adam paused as he mulled over her suggestion. “Jonah…” He drummed his fingers on the chair, considering how much to say about Jonah’s personal business. “Jonah’s not much on counseling. He went once or twice as a kid. I don’t know exactly why he stopped going. He’s still…kind of distant.” Adam frowned again as he realized he’d never pursued Jonah for a real relationship. Jonah had kept Adam, and everyone else, at arm’s length, so Adam mostly left him alone. He wondered now if he had really accepted the estrangement because it was what Jonah wanted, or had Adam just chosen the easiest, and most self-serving, path? He had a feeling that he knew the answer to that one, and it made him look even worse.
    “Jesus,” he muttered. “I’m a dick.” He looked up at Calla, suddenly realizing where he was and that his language was far from appropriate for the setting.
    He was about to apologize when she said, “No, you’re not, Adam.”
    “Yes, I am. I have a brother and a sister who I don’t even know, never bothered to know. They know I love them, but that’s not enough, is it?” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “How have I never realized that it isn’t enough?”
    “We don’t always see what’s right in front of us,” Calla said. “That doesn’t make us bad people. Or I hope it doesn’t. The important thing is that it’s not too late. You can still repair your relationship with them.” She looked at him from across her desk and folded her hands. “Don’t you fix people’s mistakes every day?”
    He sighed. “Not usually. And that’s just covering it up. I don’t think it works with people.” In fact, Adam was fairly certain it didn’t.

Chapter Seven
     
    Adam drove across town toward his parent’s house. He slowed, though, as his route took him past Dalton’s place. His brother’s huge diesel pickup was still parked outside his apartment. Adam impulsively turned off the road and pulled his Charger in beside it. He frowned as he checked his watch. When Dalton had first been hired on to Midway Construction, he’d worked the swing shift as the low man on the totem pole. That had been years ago, though. Surely he wasn’t going back to it now. Why, then, was he home at noon when he should be at work?
    Adam got out and headed to Dalton’s front door. He knocked, then turned the knob. Inside the darkened apartment, he had to wait for his eyes to adjust a bit. When they did, he saw his brother sprawled out on his couch, eyes closed.
    “What are you doing home?” Adam asked as he surveyed stacks of empty pizza boxes, empty beer cans, and an empty bottle of whiskey on the coffee table. It was impossible to tell