“Sure.”
As he phoned up the delivery place, I went back to thinking about the girl in Liam’s room. Went through my entire beer dwelling onher.
I really needed to get my mind off it. “So what did your dad say?” I asked once August was done placing theorder.
“He said he knew. Mom caught thediscrepancy.”
“And?”
“And you don’t need to concern yourself withit.”
I crossed my legs. “You’re really going to leave me hanging likethat?”
He studied the label on his beer bottle, as though checking the ingredients, studied it so hard a small groove appeared between his eyebrows. Finally, he sighed. “Tom’s been skimming. His nephew—the one who works at the radio station—well, his ex-wife had a shopping addiction. She emptied their bank account and left town, but she’d racked up an insane amount of debt and stuck him withit.”
Debt.I knew a thing or two aboutthat.
He peeled off a corner of his label and stripped it off the green glass. “Tom was just trying to help his nephewout.”
“Why didn’t he just come to you and ask for aloan?”
“I suppose he was afraid he’d be turned down, and then turned out.” August leaned his forearms on the counter, folding the label up and up until it resembled a miniature accordion. “We never discussed your salary, by the way. I imagine this is just a summer job foryou.”
“If you need me for longer, I could temp during thefall.”
He rubbed the pleated label between his fingertips, and the sticky paper disintegrated intoflecks.
“But only if you find mecompetent—”
“We find you competent.” He finished reducing the label to a mound of rice-sized pellets. “Too muchso.”
I blinked up at him. Was there such a thing as toocompetent?
“Would twenty bucks an hour beacceptable?”
“Twenty bucks?” I choked out. I’d made eleven and change back in California. “That’s reallygenerous.”
He grabbed my empty beer bottle, scooped up his little mess, then dropped both in the bin underneath his sink. “Do you have moneytrouble?”
“Huh?” What led him to ask me that? Did I give off some starved vibe? I tried to blank out my expression. “No.”
“Then why did you take that escortjob?”
“To confrontHeath.”
“I’m not talking about that one. I’m talking about the secondone.”
I wrinkled my nose. “How do you know about the secondone?”
“Cole wasthere.”
Ugh.“I was promised three grand to go to dinner with Aidan. I didn’t know who he was. I wouldn’t have gone if I’dknown.”
August stared at me so long that I felt the heat seep higher than just myneck.
“Look, I’m really not proud of it, but it was three grandjustfordinner.”
“I’m not judging you,Ness.”
