“Okay,” I said, trying to find an angle in our conversation. “But how did they find that out?”
“Look, I don’t know. This was a few years ago anyway. It hasn’t come up since.”
“So you still talk to them?” I asked, brows raised to the ceiling.
He nodded. “Maybe twice a year. We ain’t close, if you catch my drift. Which is why you can’t stay here.”
“You still won’t let me stay here?”
“I especially won’t let you stay here. Scamming men on the internet? Didn’t your parents teach you anything?”
“Yeah! To con people.”
“No, Ellie,” he said and then licked his lips. He looked so much older than he should have. I wished I could just wipe the wrinkles from his face. “Didn’t what they did to you teach you anything? Eventually you’re going to get hurt.”
I raised my chin, my walls rising up around me like metal siding. “I’ve already been hurt, as you love to point out. And I told you, I’m done. I’m trying to go legit and you won’t even give me a chance. You haven’t seen me since I was a teenager. You don’t know me. You don’t know when I’m being honest.”
“Exactly.”
“But I am being honest. I need a job, Uncle Jim. I need a place to stay.”
He let out a deep sigh and threw the rest of his drink in the sink. “You can stay here for a couple of days, that’s it. If you want to hang about in Palm Valley, that’s fine. But you don’t hang out here. You need to find your own place. Your own money. I can’t give you any money and I can’t even give you a job. I owe those men out there money already and there’s not enough harvest to break even this year. Sad but true.”
“I can help out around the house, clean it up a bit,” I offered.
“And I expect you to,” he said sternly. “But only for a few days. I suggest you hightail it to town and start looking for employment now.”
“Why are you so afraid of me?” I asked him softly.
I thought he’d look perplexed at the question but he only looked chagrined. “I’ve always been afraid of you, little Hellie. You’ve got something dark inside you, you always have. I don’t want to be around when it comes out. And more than that, I’m trying to make good in this community. I’m trying to make good and get help when I need it most. Do you think people will be so generous to me when they find out I’ve got my sister’s daughter staying here? Do you think a town ever really forgets its criminals? It doesn’t. Palm Valley may look prettier, but it’ still a stubborn old lady who won’t think twice about running you out of town. And me too.”
“Now,” he said, making his way to the sliding door that led into the date palm grove, “I’ve got to make sure my livelihood is alive. I’ll see you later.”
I watched him go, vowing to myself that I’d never be in financial stress at his age, no matter what the cost. Then I turned and left the house. I had some jobs to apply for.
CHAPTER TWO
I drove back to town in pure frustration, my ever-present anger swarming up my throat. I gobbled more Kava pills with one hand and switched off my music with the other. My mood didn’t suit my favorite playlist anymore. This wasn’t about desert life and hope and optimism. This was about shit I had no control over. My fucking parents. What the hell did they know about me and Javier, anyway? That was a very long time ago and it wasn’t as simple as a man and woman breaking up, she taking his car and money. This wasn’t a Carrie Underwood song. This shit went fucking Anthrax for a while. It still kind of was.
Not many people had an ex that would probably shoot them in the head if they ever found them. And I meant that in the most literal sense.
As I was wondering if Javier would still bother looking for me after all these years, I pulled the car (okay, his car) up along one of the many trendy looking cafes that peppered the street. I couldn’t use any of my past references but I knew my way around an espresso machine. I had a new plan, since my uncle speared my original one through the heart. I’d stick around here for a while, make enough money, and then head out on the road. No, I didn’t know where I was going to stay after he kicked me off the date plantation, but I knew I’d figure something out. I always did.