Five Minute Man: A Contemporary Love Story Read online

  He needed answers, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to find them in the porcelain a couple of inches from his nose. When he was relatively sure he could do so without face-planting on the floor, he pushed himself upright and took a deep breath. What he needed was caffeine and acetaminophen – preferably huge quantities of both. Then maybe he could get his shit together enough to figure this out.

  It took one hand against the wall and all of his concentration to put one foot in front of the other, but he finally made it to the kitchen. Brandon was already there, sitting at the table. God bless the kid, he’d made coffee.

  Adam fixed himself a cup, sloshing more on the counter than he managed to get into his mug, and collapsed heavily into a chair. Even that brief foray from his bedroom to the kitchen left him feeling drained and weak. His hand shook so badly he had trouble getting the mug to his mouth, which was probably just as well, because the smell of the coffee had the nausea coming back with a vengeance. He closed his eyes and summoned every bit of self-control he had. He was not going to blow chunks like some teenager after his first bender.

  Brandon looked up slowly and met his eyes. “Why did you do it, Uncle Adam?”

  The look on the kid’s face sent a wave of dread through Adam’s already unsettled stomach. But this is what he needed. Obviously his nephew knew more than he did about what had gone down.

  “Do what, exactly?” Christ, was that his voice? Either he was slurring his words or his brain wasn’t translating the signals properly.

  Brandon’s next words had the bile rising in the back of his throat: “I thought you really liked Holly.”

  Holly! She couldn’t have anything to do with this, could she? He was supposed to go over to her place last night; he’d been looking forward to it all day. Shit! If he felt like this, what the hell kind of shape was she in this morning?

  But wait... that didn’t make any sense. If he had made it over to her place, he wouldn’t be here, and he wouldn’t have woken up alone, though given the way his day had started, that was probably a good thing.

  He clamped his eyes shut and scrubbed his face with his hands. Remember! he commanded himself. It was as though his brain was a blackboard and someone had just wiped it clean. All that remained were a few blurry white patches where the chalk had been. But while he couldn’t recall any specifics, he knew in his gut that wherever he had been, whatever he had done, it hadn’t been with Holly.

  But why hadn’t he been with Holly?

  “I do care about Holly,” Adam said, trying to remember where he left his phone. He had to call her and ... say what exactly? Hi Holly, it’s Adam. Do you have any idea what I did last night? Why I’m here at my place, feeling like roadkill, instead of waking up in bliss beside you?

  He’d finally found someone he wanted to be with, someone who had seemed just as happy to be with him. The last thing he needed was her questioning her choice to spend time with his sorry ass. But maybe his phone held some clue. He could at least look at the text and call log; maybe that would trigger something to help him make some sense of this.

  “You sure as hell have a funny way of showing it.”

  The hair on the back of his neck rose and prickled; a wave of dread and cold sweat washed over him. Adam didn’t know if it was purely physical or a reaction to Brandon’s words and the tone he’d used to say them. Despite their closeness, Brandon had never addressed him with such disrespect. “Excuse me?”

  “Just doesn’t seem right. While Holly’s laying in a hospital, you’re out fucking your ex? Not cool, Uncle Adam.”

  Several things happened in quick succession. Adam’s heart stopped beating for several seconds, then re-started by pounding painfully hard and fast against the walls of his chest. The contents of his stomach decided they didn’t want to remain where they were after all; Adam just barely made it to the bathroom in time. Then, after retching violently, his legs betrayed him and he ended up hanging onto the toilet to keep from face-planting into the tiled floor.

  Next thing he knew, Brandon was leaning over him, pressing a cold, wet towel to a really sore spot on his temple. The derision on the kid’s face was now mixed with genuine concern. “Hang on, Uncle Adam. I’m going to call for an ambulance.”

  Adam grabbed onto Brandon’s arm with surprising strength. “No ambulance,” Adam said through clenched teeth as his body started to shake. “Tell me what happened.”

  Brandon blinked and studied his face. “You mean you really don’t remember?”

  “Can’t remember shit,” Adam said, forcing himself to take deep breaths, knowing whatever it was, it was bad. “Just fucking tell me what happened to Holly. Why is she in the hospital? Is she alright?”

  For the first time, Brandon seemed uncertain. “Okay, but let’s get you to the couch first, okay?”

  Moving in any fashion was not in the least bit appealing, but Adam used every last ounce of willpower he had. With Brandon’s help and a steel will not to vomit all over his favorite nephew, Adam managed to make it to the couch. By the time he got there, he was covered in sweat and feeling as weak as a pup. He sank down into the cushions and wiped his face with the cool cloth.

  “Okay. Start talking.”

  “There was a fire at Holly’s yesterday,” Brandon began, taking the chair adjacent to the couch to remain close. “I was doing my volunteer shift down at the fire company when the call came in around three or so. Someone reported hearing an explosion and seeing smoke.”

  “Christ,” Adam swore. “An explosion? You mean like a gas leak or something?”

  “Or something,” Brandon said grimly. “It happened in one of the smaller outbuildings, looked like a tool shed or something. The fire chief is working with the police. Nothing official yet, but the chief said it looked like a clear case of arson. He found evidence of an accelerant at the scene.”

  Adam knew just the building he was talking about; Holly had shown it to him when she’d given him a tour of her place. It was situated to the left of the cottage, an old wooden structure in remarkably good condition where Holly kept her gardening tools.

  “The building is destroyed, but we got there in time to keep it from spreading to anything else.”

  “What about Holly? You said she was hurt. How bad? Did you see her?”

  “Yeah, I saw her,” Brandon said, his tone grave. “I’ve definitely seen her look better, but all in all, she’s okay. Got banged up pretty good, couple of broken bones, cracked ribs, possible concussion. There was a fire extinguisher found not too far away from where she landed. She must have smelled the smoke and gone out to investigate. The chief thinks she was near the door when the place blew. Knocked her across the yard, but that was probably a good thing. Kept her away from the fire till we could get there.”

  “Jesus.” Adam closed his eyes and tried not to picture it in his mind as his stomach twisted. “But she’s okay?” He needed to hear it one more time. If anything happened to Holly...

  “She’ll live. The hospital wanted to keep her overnight, but she signed herself out. Liz tried to talk her out of it, but Holly threated to call a cab if Liz didn’t give her a ride home.”

  Yeah, that sounded like Holly, Adam thought. “Liz is staying with her, I hope?”

  Brandon nodded. “She was, up until Holly’s family started arriving this morning.”

  Adam frowned, remembering the little bit Holly had revealed about her family. She’d probably appreciate Liz’s company more. “What about Max?” The dog was Holly’s shadow, and if she was affected, then he probably was, too.

  “Some singed fur, but none the worse for wear. Holly was really worried about him, though, so I told her I’d look out for him till she got back home. It was the only way she’d get in the ambulance.”

  “Max is here?”

  “Was. I took him back first thing this morning. He was lost without Holly, and Liz said she needed him, too.”

  Adam sipped at the cold water Brandon handed him. “And where was I during all th
is?” Adam finally asked, his voice quiet.

  Brandon inhaled and exhaled deeply before replying. There was such pain on the kid’s face that Adam knew he wasn’t going to like the answer.

  “I tried calling you, to tell you about what happened, but it went right to voicemail. When I got back from the firehouse, there was a message on the house machine from Paul up at the Lakeside Pub. He said he’d had to take your keys and that your truck was in the lot.”

  “Something about that didn’t seem right,” Brandon said, looking at his hands, “so I drove up there myself. Paul said you were in bad shape and that some chick gave you a ride home. After he described what she looked like, I knew who it was. What were you thinking, Uncle Adam, meeting up with Eve like that?”

  Adam sighed and took a drink, his hand shaking enough that he had a hard time keeping it from sloshing over the sides. Some of the fog seemed to be receding and things were coming back to him little by little. “I wasn’t. Eve said she needed to talk to me. I said no, but she was persistent. She said if I met her for one drink and heard her out, she’d leave me alone for good.”

  Brandon’s eyes opened wide in disbelief. “And you believed her?”

  “Not really. But she knew about Holly. I was afraid she’d start stalking Holly like she did the last woman I took out to dinner, and I didn’t want to take the chance that it would have the same consequences.”

  “Holly wouldn’t have given up so easily, Uncle Adam.”

  “I know. At least I hoped I did. But I still didn’t want Eve anywhere near her.” He scrubbed his face with his hands. “I thought maybe I could prevent that from happening. I should have known better.”

  Brandon appeared to think about that then nodded. “Okay. So what happened then? After you got there, I mean.”

  “I don’t know,” Adam said, frustration heavy in the words. “I agreed to one drink, and that’s all I had. Eve was spouting all kinds of crazy shit. I got up to leave, didn’t feel so good. Next thing I know, I’m waking up in my own bed feeling like shit. How did that happen, by the way?”

  “After I talked to Paul, I called your phone again, hoping it wasn’t too late to stop you from making a big mistake. Eve answered. She said you and she were back together. I demanded to talk to you, but she said you were in the shower and couldn’t come to the phone.”

  Adam closed his eyes, coming to the sickening realization that those images he thought were nightmares probably weren’t.

  “Then what?”

  Brandon looked down at his hands, unable to meet his uncle’s gaze. “I didn’t believe it, Uncle Adam. You seemed so happy lately, all because of Holly. After hearing you talk about Eve and how obsessive she was, I just couldn’t see you leaving Holly and going back to her like that.”

  “I wouldn’t,” Adam agreed, glad that despite how things looked, the kid still had some faith in him.

  “And with Holly in the hospital... well, I thought you should know about that, regardless. So I drove over to Eve’s place and pounded on the door until she finally opened it. She was in this skimpy robe thing, and you were as far gone as I’d ever seen you, practically passed out on her couch. You didn’t even know who I was at first...”

  Brandon closed his eyes and shook his head as if to dispel the image. “Anyway, I finally convinced you to come back with me. I got you to bed, and you went out like a light.”

  “Fuck,” Adam breathed. How did things go from great to fucking shit so quickly?

  “Uncle Adam,” Brandon said quietly after several long minutes. “Did you really only have one drink?”

  “Yes!” Adam said, rubbing his face. “A depth charge. One shot in a glass of beer. That’s it.”

  “Did you order it yourself?”

  “No. Eve had it waiting for me...” His voice trailed off as the implication became clear. “She must have put something in it before I drank it.”

  Brandon nodded. “That’s the only thing that makes sense at this point. Come on, we’ve got to get you down to the clinic.”

  “What the hell for?”

  “To have them draw your blood and do a tox screen.”

  “Later. I need to call Holly.”

  Brandon’s face took on that pained expression again. “Yeah, about that. Probably not a good idea right now.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Because I’m pretty sure she hates you right now.”

  Chapter 25

  Holly closed her eyes and silently counted to ten as her mother and sisters prattled on. Relegated to the couch, she was bullied into remaining quiet and immobile while her immediate family swarmed around her in a frenzy of activity. The women of the McTierney clan cleaned, tidied, shopped and cooked; the men inspected, repaired, mowed and trimmed.

  That’s what they did when faced with adversity. They came together and took over, assuming complete and absolute control under the basic assumption that whichever family member was facing said adversity was incapable of doing so on his or her own. Holly supposed that some people might have taken comfort in that, but she was not one of them.

  Her family meant well, but they were suffocating. It was one of the primary reasons Holly had moved away.

  Of course there were the standard mumblings, spoken in quiet, hushed tones but overheard nonetheless: commentaries on the evils of single women living alone, away from their families, out in the middle of nowhere; a particularly long-winded discussion on the joys and inherent rightness of settling down with a man and having a family while one was still young enough to do so; and, of course, the benefits of having a real job, making real money and real benefits, while awaiting one’s fated Prince Charming.

  Prince. Fucking. Charming. Holly laughed out loud at that one, an incongruous cackle amongst the quiet mutterings of her much-loved but uninvited guests, drawing worried looks her way.

  Holly caught her mother looking at the clock, no doubt wondering if it was time for her next dose of sleep-inducing narcotics.

  Holly could have told her not to bother. She was counting the minutes, longing for the brief hour or two where she could slip back into a dreamless sleep and not think about... him.

  For the hundredth time that day, Holly wished for the impossible. She wished her cell phone had been destroyed in the blast, or at the very least, run over and crushed by one of the fire trucks. She wished she hadn’t been so eager to check her messages when she first awoke this morning. She wished she’d stopped after the first one.

  Most of all, she wished she’d never met Adam Grayson.

  Voice Message #1: “Holly, this is Adam. Listen, there’s something I need to talk to you about. I’ll explain everything tonight, but for today, just... be careful, okay? Stay close to home and call me right away if anything weird happens. And Holly? Call me back as soon as you get this...”

  It was a bit mysterious, that message, but nothing worrisome. So she’d continued to Voice Message #2: “Hi Holly, Adam again. I planned on coming over right after work, but something’s come up. I might be a little later than expected.”

  Also mysterious, but no big deal. Adam had a highly successful construction business. Sometimes things came up – delayed deliveries, messed up shipments, scheduling conflicts, zoning delays. It was just the nature of the beast. Whatever it was, it must have been important.

  At least that’s what she thought before she heard Voice Message #3. Though it was left from Adam’s mobile number, it was not his voice this time. No, this one was left by Eve Sanderson. “Fun’s over, Holly. Adam’s back where he belongs. With me.”

  And then there was Voice Message #4, also Eve: “Adam knows where you are, and he doesn’t care. He doesn’t want to talk to you. Tell your bitch friend to stop calling already. You lost. Get over it and leave us the hell alone.”

  If it had ended there, Holly might have been able to believe that there was some perfectly logical, rational explanation of how Eve managed to get hold of Adam’s phone and leave those awful messages, especially
since Liz had dropped some vague hints about how cunning and obsessive Eve could be when she set her sights on someone. Until she had a chance to talk to Adam and hear what he had to say, she was not going to fall prey to Eve’s obvious attempts to incite trouble between them.

  Which just went to show how love could turn a normally intelligent woman into a complete, fucking idiot. Because while she might be able to rationalize the voice messages, there was absolutely nothing that could explain the pictures.

  At least half a dozen of them, all sent via text from Adam’s phone. Selfies of Adam and Eve engaged in various sexual acts. Adam between Eve’s thighs. Eve sucking Adam’s dick. Eve riding Adam.

  It didn’t appear as if Adam was aware that the pictures were being taken. In those where his face was visible, his eyes were closed, his head thrown back as if in bliss. In contrast, Eve was smiling like the proverbial cat who’d just eaten the canary in each and every one.

  Maybe she was being naïve, but Holly didn’t want to believe that Adam knew that the pictures were being taken. She really didn’t want to believe that he knew and approved of Eve sexting them to her. But in the end, it didn’t matter. For whatever reason, Adam had hooked up with Eve. That was a bad enough scenario on the best of days, but knowing that it happened while she was lying in a hospital bed after being nearly roasted to extra-crispy was especially painful.

  If there was anything good about the situation, it was that she had heard and seen those things before her family started showing up. Thank God Liz was there. She went ballistic. Holly actually felt sorry for Brandon when he brought Max back. Liz set on him like a junkyard dog. To his credit, Brandon seemed pretty sick about the whole thing, too.

  “Hey Holls,” her younger brother David called, breaking her away from those morbid mental images as he walked through the front door like he owned the place. It sure as hell didn’t take long for him to make himself at home. Of all of her siblings, he was probably the one she got along the best with, but she was in such a crappy mood it didn’t matter. Good thing he was also the most tolerant.