“You know, if Gwen could see you now, she’d be rethinking her feelings. Frankly, dude, you look like roadkill, and you smell even worse. I knew when you passed out in the bathroom at Flannigan’s last night that things weren’t gonna be pretty this morning, but I wasn’t expecting it to be quite this ugly. And FYI, you owe me a visit to the chiropractor because I almost threw my back out carrying you to the truck.”

“Where’s my bike?” Dominic asked, picturing it trashed or stolen.

“I had one of the guys pick it up last night. He dropped it off at your place. Told him to bring the keys by the office this morning.”

His head was hammering relentlessly as he tried to focus his sluggish thoughts. “How much did I have to drink last night?” he croaked out. His mouth felt like sawdust.

“I think it’d be easier to ask what you didn’t drink last night,” Gage smirked. “I tried to cut you off, but you listened to your other friends over me.”

Flopping back, Dominic asked in confusion, “What other friends?”

Gage took a loud slurp out of the cup he was holding, making Dominic’s hair stand on end before saying, “Oh, you know, most of the bar. After you buy a few rounds of drinks, you get a lot of new buddies. I’m gonna say, though, I don’t think you should invite them over for Sunday dinner anytime soon because when you were falling in the urinal, I was the only one with your back—and a wad of paper towels. When I call your ass for a favor in the future, you better not hesitate or question me. Trust me, you owe me big.”

“And Gwen?” Dominic asked. He’d probably drunk dialed her all night.

As if knowing what he was getting at, Gage pulled a phone from under the chair cushion in the corner. “Don’t worry; I took this from you early in the evening when you started trying to bring your contact list up. I knew no good was going to come of that. I hid it when we got home because I was afraid of what you’d do if you woke up. That’s one way in which you didn’t make an ass out of yourself last night.” Gage laughed as Dominic weakly flipped him the bird. “Oh, guess what. I saved the best part for last.”

“What?” Dominic asked, not sure he wanted to know if it was worse than what he’d already heard.

“We have to go to Charleston this morning. You know how fun those road trips are when you’re hungover.”

“You can’t be serious! They can’t all still be sick down there. We just got back.” His stomach was threatening to revolt at the thought of being anywhere near an interstate today.

“It’s the Oceanix—Charleston. We’re meeting Asher Jackson there. He wants to show us around the resort and get a feel for what we can do for them. He was impressed when we met yesterday and is ready to make a change. His contract with his present security company is up for renewal next month so time’s an issue. It’s a big operation, and we’ll need to know what we’re looking at staff-wise like yesterday before we put a proposal together. We’re talking big time here, brother, if we pick up that chain.”

“Fuck,” Dominic hissed, feeling like an idiot for getting wasted, especially during the middle of a busy workweek. He never did crap like that. Hell, he was just too old for it, not to mention the pain it caused. “I’ve got to go home to shower and change.”

“We don’t have time. I let you sleep as long as possible. Go hit my shower. I left some clothes out in there. We’re pretty much the same size.”

With no time to argue, Dominic got to his feet and staggered down the hallway toward Gage’s bathroom. He’d been to his friend’s apartment countless times, but he went straight to the door on the left and opened it to find—the laundry room. He couldn’t imagine that this day could get any worse.

Chapter Eighteen

Gwen went from feeling sorry for herself to just being pissed as the red display on her bedside clock showed seven in the morning. She couldn’t believe that Dominic hadn’t showed up or called last night. What happened to all of the support he had promised her a few weeks ago? It seemed that now when it was crunch time, he was nowhere to be found. On the few occasions that she’d allowed herself to think of the “what-ifs,” she certainly hadn’t imagined Dominic taking off. For God’s sake, the man had brought her a bottle of folic acid and obsessively Googled information about early pregnancy. That just didn’t seem like the actions of a man who would panic.

She was still spitting mad when she slammed out of her door an hour later. She debated stopping by Dominic’s apartment but figured he would already be gone to work by now. And truthfully, she refused to chase him down. It wasn’t as if he didn’t know where she lived. When and if he was ready to act like an adult and have a rational discussion, he could come to her. If she had to raise the baby alone, then she would. Heck, she could move back to Columbia where she’d have her family. She had options, but what she didn’t have was the will to chase another man who didn’t want any type of commitment. She wasn’t after a marriage proposal, but being a father was a huge commitment and as of yet, Dominic showed no signs of being ready to make it.

As she was walking to her car, she saw that Dominic’s truck and his bike were still in his parking spaces. So, he was still home, after all. It was unusual for him to be this late going into work, and she felt a moment of worry before she shook it off. He certainly wasn’t concerned about her, that much was painfully obvious.

Of course, as luck would have it, she ran into him outside of the coffee shop in the lobby for the second morning in a row. She had no idea how he had arrived before her. He was still a few feet away, wearing dark sunglasses, but she could tell by the stiffening of his spine that he had spotted her. Beside him, Gage waved, seeming relaxed and thankfully not hostile over their confrontation the previous day. She was debating making a run for it when Dominic said, “Gwen, we need to talk.”