“What the fuck does that have to do with anything?” Three hundred sixty-two days of the year, I’m the easiest-going son of a bitch you’ll ever meet. I can handle teenage attitude. I can handle annoying school administrators. I can handle uptight parents.
But today’s apparently one of the three days a year when I’m a bigger bear than Earl.
“You miss Tony,” Kory says. “His niece is here and sad and single. Plus, she has something you want.”
“I donotwant—”
“You don’t have to want the ranch for yourself to want what she has for a different purpose. And you don’t have to like her to recognize that she’s hot. This hasFlint Jackson Fucked-Up Relationship Specialwritten all over it.”
I roll my eyes. “I amnotinterested in Maisey Spencer. And she isnotinterested in me. And I don’t date students’ parents.”
“That’s why we’re warning you,” Kory says.
Regina nods. “You always go for the unavailable ones that clearly won’t work so you look like less of an ass when you bail after three sleepovers. And Kory’s right—your head’s in a bad place. Deciding to hate the woman who got Tony’s ranch and finding out you either have to move or live down the driveway from her?” She tsks. “You’re up shit creek, my friend. You want me to wrap your burger to go, too, or you gonna sit and eat here and let their dinner get cold?”
“You just said you’d keep it warm.”
“Only so much a little ole server can do before that perfect crust on the bison pie starts to dry out.”
One of them ordered the bison pie?Dammit.She’s right.
That shouldn’t go to waste.
Even if Maisey Spencer will have no idea how much she should appreciate it. June, either, but she’s a teenager. She gets a pass.
“Fine,” I mutter, fully aware that I’m once again doing Maisey Spencer a favor that she won’t appreciate and shouldn’t be my favor to do. “Mine to go too.”
Kory points to the next table. The onewithouta spectacular view. “I’ll move over there.”
Worst part of all this?
They’re right.
Unavailable women are my favorite kind, and one that knew and loved Tony?
Fuck.
Tony’s gone.
Can’t get him back.
But his great-niece is exactly the type of teenager I usually go above and beyond to help. She’ll definitely be in one of my classes. Most likely on my soccer team in the spring.
Which means I probably need to make nice with Maisey.
Chapter 5
Maisey
I knew when I decided to move here that I’d be facing some uncomfortable situations.
I didn’t expect them to all come at once, as an emotional-minefield sandwich with a side of angry-teenager coleslaw.
“Was this a terrible idea?” I ask my mom quietly over the phone as I sway on a swing at a small empty playground a couple of blocks from the tavern.
As if I had a choice.
We wouldn’t be here at all if we had a single friend or family member back in Cedar Rapids that I could count on, but with the divorce, Mom’s arrest, and her family imploding as a result, it was game over for Junie and me there.
