“He said he knew. Mom caught the discrepancy.”
“And?”
“And you don’t need to concern yourself with it.”
I crossed my legs. “You’re really going to leave me hanging like that?”
He studied the label on his beer bottle, as though checking the ingredients, studied it so hard a small groove appeared between his eyebrows. Finally, he sighed. “Tom’s been skimming. His nephew-the one who works at the radio station-well, his ex-wife had a shopping addiction. She emptied their bank account and left town, but she’d racked up an insane amount of debt and stuck him with it.”
Debt. I knew a thing or two about that.
He peeled off a corner of his label and stripped it off the green glass. “Tom was just trying to help his nephew out.”
“Why didn’t he just come to you and ask for a loan?”
“I suppose he was afraid he’d be turned down, and then turned out.” August leaned his forearms on the counter, folding the label up and up until it resembled a miniature accordion. “We never discussed your salary, by the way. I imagine this is just a summer job for you.”
“If you need me for longer, I could temp during the fall.”
He rubbed the pleated label between his fingertips, and the sticky paper disintegrated into flecks.
“But only if you find me competent-”
“We find you competent.” He finished reducing the label to a mound of rice-sized pellets. “Too much so.”
I blinked up at him. Was there such a thing as too competent?
“Would twenty bucks an hour be acceptable?”
“Twenty bucks?” I choked out. I’d made eleven and change back in California. “That’s really generous.”
He grabbed my empty beer bottle, scooped up his little mess, then dropped both in the bin underneath his sink. “Do you have money trouble?”
“Huh?” What led him to ask me that? Did I give off some starved vibe? I tried to blank out my expression. “No.”
“Then why did you take that escort job?”
“To confront Heath.”
“I’m not talking about that one. I’m talking about the second one.”
I wrinkled my nose. “How do you know about the second one?”
“Cole was there.”
Ugh. “I was promised three grand to go to dinner with Aidan. I didn’t know who he was. I wouldn’t have gone if I’d known.”
August stared at me so long that I felt the heat seep higher than just my neck.
“Look, I’m really not proud of it, but it was three grand just for dinner.”
“I’m not judging you, Ness.”
“Everyone else did,” I mumbled.
He covered one of my hands with one of his. Even though I was still a little tanned, the contrast between our skin colors was jarring-light brown against golden ivory.
“But I do want an honest answer out of you about your money situation. I know your uncle’s in a bind waiting on the payment from the inn to clear, and I know what medical bills cost.”
I swallowed hard, praying August couldn’t feel the clamminess of my skin. “I was a minor, so after Mom… after she died, I wasn’t responsible for her medical bills. I just needed to pay day-to-day stuff and a couple extras, you know, rent, food, her”-I slid my bottom lip between my teeth-“her funeral.” I kept my gaze on our hands. “So to answer your question, I need a job, not a loan.”
The doorbell rang then. The scent of melted cheese and tangy tomato had my stomach rumbling. Unhurriedly, he removed his hand and walked to the door. He relieved the delivery boy of three cardboard boxes and tipped him generously, before ferrying the food back to the island. He flipped the lids up on two of the boxes but kept the third one shut-probably Cole’s extra-large pie.
“Can you give me your bank details?” he asked, taking out plates and handing me one. “So we can deposit your salary straight into it at the end of the month.”
“I’ll email it to you later.” I eased a perfect triangle out of the box and bit off the pointy tip.
Silence fell between us as we ate. It was interrupted by a sharp knock on the door, followed by beeping.
“Yo,” Cole said, walking in. He stopped when he saw me. Although Cole tried to hide his surprise, it was all over his face.
“Ness got her driver’s license,” August informed him. “We were celebrating with beer and pizza.”
I patted my lips with a paper napkin, grabbed the bag I’d flung on the seat next to me, and hopped off the barstool. “I was just leaving. Don’t want to crash your date.”
As I walked toward the door, Cole squeezed my shoulder.
His fingers smelled like cigarettes. “Matt told me what happened.”
Don’t say it out loud. Don’t say it out loud. I didn’t want to relive it.
“It was a dick move,” he added, lowering his hand, “but it’s his loss.”
I studied the floor beneath his sneakers. “He didn’t do anything wrong. We weren’t together,” I said softly. And then I tried to smile but failed miserably. It had been five days, and yet my heart still shuddered every time someone mentioned Liam. “Good-night, boys,” I mumbled, stepping out into the cobalt darkness.
I watched the stars as I made my way toward the van. And then I watched them some more while I drove myself home, wishing I could feel happier, because today had been a good day.
I thought of my dream house as I drove past the road that led to my old one, and then I rammed my foot on the brake.
Oh My God.
I blinked in the direction of my childhood home, Everest’s last message trickling into my mind, then gunned the car up the drive.
I parked the van and raced around the house toward my old bedroom. The window that I’d busted when I’d sprang through it to rescue Evelyn was still gaping wide. I’d thought about boarding it up, but then, with everything that had happened, it had slipped my mind. Never was I gladder to be forgetful.
Shards of glass remained in the frame. I grabbed a rock from the ground, the largest I could find, and ran it around the frame, knocking out any sharp remnant. Palms and chest tingling with my rapid pulse, I heaved myself up and through the dark hole.
I must not have gotten all the glass, because beads of blood appeared on one of my palms. As I wiped them on my T-shirt, I traced the dusty floor until I located the slab. I dropped into a crouch and coaxed the floorboard up, heart rate sprinting, filling my mouth with the taste of metal. I wasn’t sure what I was more afraid of: finding something or finding nothing?