RECKLESS - Part 4 (The RECKLESS Series) Read Online Free PDF Page A

there.
    When my pizza arrived, about twenty minutes into the movie, I opened the door to find the last person I ever expected to see on my doorstep, holding a pizza in his hands. “S-Sean? What are you doing here? With my pizza?”
    “I—uh—I work at Amante,” he said, looking behind me into the house, as if he were trying to see who else might have been there with me.
    I moved my head back into his line of sight to grab his attention. “Since when?”
    “Since I lost my job,” he said, shrugging like we were talking about the weather.
    “What?!” Thinking I might have heard him wrong, I squinted and turned my head so that one ear was closer to him.
    He released a heavy sigh. “After my last trip to see you, they let me go. I didn’t have permission to leave. I fucked up, royally, in more ways than one. So, here I am.” He shrugged again and then held the pizza out to me like some sort of burnt offering. “Anyway, I saw your address come up and I figured I’d take the chance to come and see you. I have to work a lot of hours just to make ends meet and even picked up a few days at the market tossing fish. I—I’m sorry I haven’t been around with everything going on.”
    I didn’t know what to say. Here I’d thought that he just didn’t care, but he’d been working his ass off, tossing fish and delivering pizza... because of me.
    I glanced over my shoulder, although I couldn’t say why; Jace and I were the only ones there, and it wasn’t like he was going to come downstairs when he was passed out cold, but I did it anyway before turning back and asking Sean if he wanted to come in. A part of me hoped he’d accept, that maybe we could talk everything out and at least be friends, but another piece of me felt like it was wrong to have him inside right then.
    Thankfully, he declined.
    “I have to get back,” he said, shoving his hands in his pockets after I took the pizza. “But it was nice seeing you, Andy. I—the offer is always there. I don’t have much to give you, and it wouldn’t look the same as we’d planned... but I am still here.”
    With that, he turned and walked down the steps toward his car. He was climbing in and driving away when I realized that I’d never paid him for the food. I waved my arms, chased him down the driveway, but he didn’t stop. I was left standing out in the driveway, feet wet, cash in my hands, and heart in my throat. I knew it could be the last time I ever saw him, my last chance to say goodbye.

CHAPTER THREE
    Somewhere between the New York scene of my movie and the fourth glass of wine, I passed out. I only knew because Jace was standing over me, sweeping the hair out of my face as he whispered my name. When I looked up at him through sleepy, half-opened eyes, he smiled.
    “Hey,” he said, sitting down on the floor in front of me. “Is there any pizza left?”
    I cleared the sleep from my throat and nodded. “In the fridge,” I said, pointing. I wondered for a second how he knew I’d even had pizza since I’d left half of it in the box and stashed it away for him for later, but when I sat up, I noticed the plate on the floor. Half a slice was still there, just like I’d left it when I’d gotten too wrapped up in the movie to clean up.
    Even though I’d spent pretty much every waking moment with this man for the past week, things felt a little awkward as he headed to the kitchen to warm up his pizza in the microwave. I reasoned that it was just me trying to merge the images of my past and my present—seeing Sean outside my door and not being sure whether or not he should come in while Jace stood there in my parent’s kitchen. But there was something else there... something I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
    That sense of dread only grew as he sat down next to me on the couch. He refused to even look at me; instead, he studied his plate, as if the pizza were more interesting than me.
    Oh, God. This is it. He’s tired of me.
    I wanted to scream or