"I know that fucker's there," the man—the older Locke—grunted. "Put him on the phone."
Oh. Hell. No. "He's not available right now. Would you like to leave a message?" I ground out in my best imitation of Dex when he was angry.
"He's there. Put him on the goddamn phone."
I pulled the phone away from my face and looked at it.Don't disrespect your elders,Ris. "I'm not putting him on the phone. If you want to leave a message, leave it. If you don't, then feel free to call his cell phone." Like he'd answer it. Ha!
I might not be able to talk shit to the younger Locke, but the older man was in jail so he was harmless. At the moment at least.
"What did you say your name was?" His voice had started picking up in pitch theangrierhe got.
I might do stupid things every once in a while but I wasn't dumb enough to tell him my name. "Would you like to leave a message, sir?"
"What I'd like to do is talk to my goddamn—"
I hung up with a little flourish, smilingindulgentlyto myself. Not even three minutes later, the shop phone started ringing again. I picked it up, only to hear the prerecorded message start playing, and I hung up again.
The phone rang twice more but I didn't even bother picking it up those times. The shop was empty with the exception of The Dick in his office and Blue at her station. She wouldn't give a crap about me ignoring the phones.
"Phone!" Dex yelled from his office.
Like he couldn't answer the friggin' phone himself. Which in this case, was a good thing.
"Don't answer it!" I screamed back.
There was a brief pause before he yelled again. "Ritz! Phone!"
Crap. I sighed and saved the work I'd been doing on Pins' website so that I could go talk to The Dick.
I tried to mentally prepare myself tospeakwithDex on the short walk into his office. He was sitting at his desk, messing around on the computer when I came up to the door.
Then I thought better of it,took a step back, and peeked my head intothe doorway instead. "Your dad was calling."
He didn't jerk, flinch, or even blink at his computer screen. Instead, those intense blue eyes I'd grown so fond of drifted over in my direction almost incredulously. "What?" The question reminded meofverbal stalactite.
"That was your dad calling. Or at least I'm ninety-nine percent positive it was him calling from Byrd Unit." I blinked, inching my feet further away from the door. "He was being rude, and I hung up on him."
When he didn't say anything or give me a high-five for standing up for him, I started to think maybe I'd done something wrong. It was one of the biggest things we had in common: our mutual hate for what our fathers represented. The past and the dread of a similar future.
"I'm sorry, Dex. I figured you probably didn't want totalkto him," I rushed out.
Still, he said nothing and guilt pricked my tummy.
"I'm sorry for doing it. If he calls again I'll—"
"No," he breathed. "No. You did the right thing. I don't wanna talk to him."
I nodded while we looked at each other. God, I really hated the awkwardness between us. Hated it. Dex had been my friend—wasmy friend. One of the only people I truly valued and trusted, and my idiocy had messed that up. Then his temper had stomped it down afterward. Why the hell did I hold onto these friggin' grudges with Dex?
Life was too unpredictable to stay pissed off. I'd hate to wake up and not havehimanymore and stress that I'd never get to tell him I was sorry. That was something I would never want to live with.
If he didn’t like me, then he wouldn’t give a shit what happened to me, right? And the fact that he’d gotten so mad...well, it was a compliment I’d just been too stubborn to accept. I’d lived in the shadow of a man who really didn’t give a flying crap about me. What the hell was there for me to complain about? What was there for me to be so scared of? Caring and being attracted to a big shit of an asshole that had a barely controlled temper?
I could do so much worse.
So,shit. I needed to be an adult and bust out the big girl panties even if it killed my pride a little.
"Look, I'm sorry that I went to Busty's. It was stupid but I wasupset.I've been an inconvenience to people most of my life. My grandma went bankrupt paying for—," I hissed. That wasn't where I wanted to go with the conversation. "Things for me and I hated it. I don't ever want to feel that way again and ever since I lost my job in Florida,I feel like I’m reliving that.
