Milo jumped up, growling at JR, who seemed surprised and a little offended that the dog had chosen me over him. Thankfully, he didn’t need a dog bite as further evidence that he needed to leave.
Sighing, he snatched his shoes off the ground and stormed out, not bothering to get his shirt first. Which was fine by me because I didn’t want him in here any longer than necessary.
I slammed the door, shouting in anger as I watched him walk past the house. Just when I thought I was going to get away with only a broken heart, I realized sometimes people could cut you much deeper.
37
JR
“What the fuckdid you do, man?” Archer asked, sliding into the booth across from me.
Taking a sip of my beer, I pretended to not know what he was talking about. “What?”
He pinned me with a look that told me I was being an idiot. “It’s all around town. The big fight that broke up Josie and JR. Except, you don’t come out looking so hot. So, I reiterate, what the fuck did you do?”
I took the final swig of my beer, carefully setting down the mug so I didn’t slam it into the wooden top and break the damn thing. I was strung up and on edge, but that wasn’t the worst of it.
I had a fucking milkshake thrown at me. Again.
And the kicker of it was that I was leaving the hardware store. Again.
Hell, I even stopped and talked to the old couple. I had a cup of coffee, not wanting to relive the last time I was there and pissed off everyone in town. And I still got a milkshake to the face for my trouble.
“Doesn’t matter what happened.”
“Dude, you have something sticky in your hair. That’s not normal.”
“Milkshake,” I muttered. “What are you doing here, anyway? Don’t you have somewhere else to be?”
Sighing, he pulled out an envelope and slid it across the table to me. “We’ve got a job.”
Any good humor I may have had left fled my body. I wanted the job desperately, but staring at that envelope, I knew if I took the job—if I went through with what was most likely inside—I would never be able to get back in the good graces of my neighbor.
I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.
I had started over here unintentionally, and I found someplace I could actually call home for the first time in my life, though I hadn’t admitted it to myself until this very moment.
But I hadn’t even realized it was something I wanted until this job was placed in front of me. The truth was, a town like this was bad for a guy like me. I did bad things, I hurt people and enjoyed it. The people here were all good, wholesome, and generally decent people. And I…
I was everything that didn’t belong around any of them.
I didn’t belong around Josie.
But still…if I took that job, there would be no hope of me ever starting over. I would just go back to the life I’d been living so carelessly since I got out of foster care.
And what about Alyssa? She might actually be in a good place now. Could I really risk letting my profession get in the way of putting her on the right path? She deserved this place a hell of a lot more than I did. Hell, she needed it to thrive. Doing this would only endanger the little progress she had made in the short time she’d been here.
I couldn’t do it. I slid the envelope back across the tabletop to him.
“Sorry, man. Not interested.”
Huffing out a laugh, he shoved it back at me. “I don’t think you understand. That last job…he’s fucking pissed. If you don’t want that lunatic on your ass, you’ll take the damn job. I’ll be with you this time.”
“Right,” I sighed.
His eyes narrowed at me. “I said I will.”
“You said that last time, too, and then you bailed on me, putting me in the position that landed me here in the first place,” I hissed.
