EIGHT
Luke
I couldn’t keep my damn mouth shut. I had to bring up Jason. Whoever he was, he wasn’t some platonic friend. He was her lover. And here I’d been, thinking we could get back together while she was planning her next escapade with her Boston beau. I felt like an idiot.
It had been bad timing on my part to run into her at the hospital. I’d known I should have gotten out of there before she showed up with Rainey. But then she walked in and my brain stopped functioning. I wanted to rub it in her face that I knew about Jason. I might not have known much, but I did know something. So I made sure to bring it up.
It probably would be better if she left town, but not for anyone but myself. As long as she was here, I wouldn’t be able to stay away, no matter what she demanded or how much I thought I should. I was a fiend for her; her very presence brought me happiness and feelings of contentment. Bah, I was such a girl. Baker would never let me live it down if I admitted my addiction to Mallory aloud.
I ripped past the nurse’s station and heard Carrie call out to me.
“Luke!”
She chased me halfway down the hall before I stopped. I wanted to be free of this place and all the emotions Mallory stirred up in me.
“What is it, Carrie?” I asked impatiently. I didn’t mean to be rude, but I was going to explode and I wanted to be away from anyone who might get in the way.
“I just wanted to let you know I have no hard feelings,” she said.
Her eyes told a different story, though, one of sadness and rejection.
“Don’t lie, Carrie. At least be honest with yourself,” I spat.
My inner a*shole was coming out and I needed to get out of there. Fast.
“You don’t need to be a jerk,” she replied.
I stepped forward and she retreated until her back pressed against the wall of the hallway.
“I am a jerk, Carrie,” I whispered.
She looked up at me with her pretty brown eyes and I willed myself to feel something, anything, for her. She wasn’t a bad person; she didn’t deserve to be treated the way I treated her. She deserved someone who wasn’t hung up on someone else.
“You aren’t, Luke. I know you’ve still got feelings for her,” she whispered.
Her eyes were nearing tears and I felt the guilt seep into my bones. I would never be able to atone for doing this to her.
“You don’t know shit,” I growled.
It was bad enough I had admitted to myself I was still half in-love with Mallory, but for Carrie to be able to see it bugged me to no end. I spun around and bolted out of the hospital.
I jumped into my truck, slammed the door closed and peeled out of the parking lot as fast as I could. I didn’t care about drawing attention to myself in this gossip-loving town. I just needed to escape.
With no place in mind, I made my way north and continued on for hours. My cell rang several times but I ignored it. I needed to be alone. Once I was out of Casper, I headed up the coast toward the Rockville Lighthouse. The rocky shoreline would help me clear my head.
I maneuvered my way down the steep dirt road and stopped in the tiny parking lot. I walked to the water’s edge and picked up a few flat rocks to skim across the surface.
It felt like things were about to change. Joe was going to die. Mallory would go back to Boston. And I would be alone. Again. Only this time, I wouldn’t have Joe to guide me and steer me away from disaster. How could I have let this happen again? As if falling in love with Mallory Wells wasn’t bad enough the first time around, I had to go and do it twice, and hurt the people around me in the process.
Carrie was the one I felt worst about. She hadn’t done anything wrong but I had just treated her like nothing. She knew my past, of course, how hung up on Mallory I’d been. It had taken months to get her to go out with me, and I was only so persistent because Joe insisted I needed to move on. I didn’t disagree with him, but Carrie was probably a poor choice. I compared every aspect of our short relationship to the one I had with Mallory. Carrie didn’t measure up.
Carrie and I were doomed before we ever even got started because of my Mallory obsession. I just couldn’t get over the leggy blonde with a flippant attitude and a smart remark for everything. Mallory and I were no good for each other, though. I knew that. She knew it, too. But there was something that pulled me to her, something inexplicably frightening.
I skipped several rocks over the water and watched them sink, much like my heart. I had to toughen up if I was going to survive the summer. Mallory wasn’t going to leave until her dad was gone, which meant I would be forced to see her, at least in passing, at places like the grocery store or the post office. I would have to be stronger than I’d been lately. It wasn’t impossible. Highly unlikely? Oh yeah. But not impossible.
I tossed out the last rock in my hand and before it could sink, I turned away from the ocean with a new resolve. I would ignore Mallory as best I could for the remainder of her time here. I would be polite when the situation called for it, but I wasn’t about to engage her in a conversation. I could do it. I knew I could.
I hopped in my truck with a better outlook on Mallory and the situation as a whole. I drove back to Casper and went to my apartment. I wasn’t surprised to see Baker’s truck in my driveway.
He leaned against the door, his arms folded across his chest. I parked and nodded to him.
“What the hell happened at the hospital?” he asked.
“Good news travels fast, huh?” I remarked. Small towns were gossip hell.
“Well, when you took off out of the parking like a bat out of hell, it’s hard for people not to talk. Want to talk about it?” He looked sincere, but I wasn’t buying it.
“Who called you?” I knew someone would have put him up to chasing me down.
He smirked. “Carrie. Joe. Rainey. Gabby. Take your pick. My phone has been ringing off the hook. Although I have absolutely no idea how Gabby got involved, since she wasn’t there.”
Mallory hadn’t called him. I sighed. Stay strong, I told myself.
“Well, here I am, fine and unharmed.” I tried to keep the anger out of my voice. It didn’t work as well as I hoped.
“Yeah, you’re as fine as a mad bull. So what’s with the a*shole routine? Everyone knows I’m the resident a*shole of Casper.” He joked.
“It wasn’t on purpose. I just got pissed at something Mallory said the other night—”
“Oh! Mallory. Now it all makes sense. So what did she say?”
His inquisition pissed me off.
“What’s with the twenty questions? I don’t want to talk about it, Baker. Leave it alone,” I said, hoping he would take the hint.
“Not a chance. Spill it,” he said as I went into my apartment building.
He followed me in and took a seat on my couch. He wasn’t going anywhere until his curiosity was satisfied.
I sighed. “When I brought her home last night, she was drunk and half-asleep in her bed and she invited me into her bed.”
“Hot damn! Why didn’t you tell me this last night? Did you get some?” he asked.
Typical Baker, I thought.
“No! I thought she was talking to me, but then she said the name of some other guy, who was definitely not me. Probably some douche from Boston,” I explained.
“Ahh.” Baker finally understood. “So she’s seeing someone in Boston, then?”
“I guess,” I mumbled. “I don’t really know. It’s not like Mal and I have been overly friendly since she got back.”
“That’s true. Want me to have Rainey do some fishing?”
“I thought you were on Rainey’s shit list?”
He grinned. “Well, she must have forgiven me, since she called me to check in on you.”
“You know, she’s a big time LA screenwriter, Baker. She’s not interested in some small town hillbilly.” I laughed at his hurt look.
“I could say the same to you about Mallory except she’s working at the bank.” He raised his brow at me and I knew he was right.
“We’re hopeless, you know that?”
He laughed. “Yeah, the only way we could be any worse was if we were hanging out with Gabby’s ex, and he was complaining, too.”
“Have you ever met Wolfe?” I asked.
“No, I don’t think so. He’s not from here, is he?”
“He’s from Florida, I think. He spent summers here as a kid, but he’s a few years older than us, so that’s probably why you don’t remember him. He moved here permanently when he started dating Gabby. I met him a few times and didn’t think he was a bad guy. I wonder what happened with those two?”
“Gabby is nuts. That’s what happened to them,” he said.
“Don’t be an ass. Every woman is crazy and that’s a fact.”
“Ain’t that the truth? We should call him up and have him join our ‘Love struck without a chance’ support group.”
“We should. I heard he’s still living here until after the divorce is final to make it easier on Gabby,” I said.
We both laughed, at him and ourselves. We’d all fallen in love with a woman who wanted nothing to do with each of us.
“Call him up and have him meet us at the bar tonight. Rainey is helping Mallory out with her dad, so we know they won’t be at The Landing tonight. I’ll ask Gabby to go over and give them a hand,” he said.
“That’s a great idea. And tomorrow, when Joe kills us for sticking him with three angry women, we’ll at least have had a good night of drinking to think on and decide it was worth it! I’ll call Wolfe a bit later. I have to get to the site and do some work today. You working at the site with me?”
“Yeah, I guess. I don’t have anything else to do until the bar opens at four.” Baker sighed.
He loved the bar, but it had drained him financially, so he helped out at whatever jobsite I was on whenever he could and J.P. paid him under the table. That’s the way it was done in a small town.
“Want to drive me in?” I asked. “I just need to change.”
He nodded and waited for me. On the way to the jobsite, I called Wolfe and he agree to come to The Landing, but only if we could guarantee Gabby wouldn’t be there. Baker called Gabby and she fell for his plan perfectly, so we promised Wolfe she wouldn’t be there.
We made plans to meet at The Landing at seven.