“I did, yeah. But I’m an asshole, so who cares what I think?” I reply and shrug.
After a belly laugh, Hank takes another sip of coffee and cocks a thick eyebrow. “You know they offered me a job.”
“Who? The Todds?”
Hank nods. “Billy, Ben and Bobby came in here about a week after I started, after you let me go, before Billy’s stroke, and they said that they were going to be expanding their businesses in the next eighteen months and that they’d have work for me, full-time, if I wanted it.”
Huh. Maggie hasn’t mentioned anything about that. Expanding their businesses, or that they tried to hire my dear friend and former employee. What the hell else are they planning to do? They have so many goats and then the bee hives at the back of the property that I don’t know what else they would have room for over there. Their land isn’t as large as ours or as diverse.
“I don’t know exactly what they were talking about expansion-wise, but they said my job would involve farm work and some light construction,” Hank replies because he sees the look of confusion on my face. “And then Billy had one too many pints, and later that night asked me if I thought you guys would be foreclosed on this year or next.”
I blink. Hank’s face loses its usual passive, gregarious expression and he seems unnaturally serious. “I think that they might be looking to buy your place if you lose it.”
“What?”
“Yeah, I mean Daisy comes in here a lot lately and she always makes a point of chatting me up,” Hank says and a tiny smile hits his mouth, but it’s wistful. “I ain’t dumb enough to think she suddenly realizes what a perfect ten I am. Especially because she always swings the conversation around to your family farm too.”
I shake my head. “No. I mean… I would know that.”
“Why because you share a booth with them at the market every weekend?” Hank says and shakes his head when I look shocked he knows that. “It’s Burlington, buddy. That’s premium local gossip.”
“Nah. Not just that. Because…” I glance over my shoulder. No one but Carly the waitress is here and she’s still off somewhere in the back. I lower my voice anyway. “Because Maggie and I are…involved.”
Hank doesn’t react at first. He just keeps chewing that last bite of muffin he had popped into his mouth. But then, as his eyes level with mine, his chewing gets slower. And slower. And then he swallows whatever is left of that muffin, and it must be too big because he starts to choke.
I lean over the bar top and attempt to slap him on the back. He turns away, coughs into his hand, and when he regains his composure he turns back to me, a look of pure disbelief across his face. “You’re what? Like involved…in a cult? A class project? A Wiccan ritual? Because all of that would be more believable than the other form of involvement that springs to mind.”
A gust of air shoots from my lungs in a sheepish laugh and I nod. “Yeah. I know. But if what sprung to your mind was romantic involvement—nakedinvolvement—then your first instinct was right.”
Hank swiftly leaves the bar area and marches over to the plate glass window at the front of the restaurant. He turns to Carly as she walks out of the back with a tray of full salt shakers. “Carly, can you make sure we have enough canned goods in the back to get us through the apocalypse? It just started.”
“What?” Carly says blinking.
“Ignore him, Carly. He’s a better barback than he is a comedian,” I call out, and Carly shrugs and heads to the other side of the room. I turn back to Hank. “So, dickhead, can you be serious about this for a minute?”
“I can but it isn’t easy because it’s so surreal I almost think it’s got to be some kind of practical joke,” Hank admits as he walks over and drops down on the stool beside me. “Jesus, Tate, the last time we talked you thought the whole Todd family was scum.”
“I think a few of them still are. Especially Clyde,” I reply and then stare at my coffee mug for a minute. “But things with Maggie… I don’t know… Somehow I started seeing a different side of her. She’s a good person.”
“Is this just your fucking dick talking?” Hank counters frankly, which isn’t at all like him because he’s not someone who throws around words like dick or fuck, like ever. So I know this news has him rattled. “Like, do you mean the different side of her you’ve seen is the naked side and are you confusing good person with good in bed?”
“She’s great in bed, but no I’m not confusing anything,” I reply and find myself holding a breath. “I mean I don’t think so. She hasn’t really mentioned a new business to me though. And she definitely hasn’t mentioned wanting my family to lose our farm so she can buy it. But we have talked about the farm stuff, and how hard it is for me and… Fuck.”
I wrestle internally with the idea that maybe Maggie wasn’t actually making small talk or getting to know me. Was she pumping me for information? My heart is furious that my brain would even entertain that thought. But even more furious that it might be true. Hank watches the war of emotions vying for control of my expression, and then he clamps a hand on my shoulder and squeezes it for just a brief second. I look up at him. “Are you here for my trusted, blunt advice?”
“I don’t know,” I reply honestly and run a hand through my hair before cradling my head in my hands, elbows on the bar. “All I know is that this thing with Maggie is new and crazy stupid but also exactly what I need. She makes me feel good.Inside.Where it counts. She’s the one who convinced me to come here and face you. To tell you that I feel bad we had to let you go and it’s my own humiliation that has kept me away, not anything you’ve done, and I’m a dick for putting that before our friendship because you’re the one who lost a job and needed support. And instead I end up blurting out this secret and so now asking you for advice seems even more like a selfish dickhead thing to do.”
I don’t have to look up to know how he is reacting to that big chunk of emotional vomit because he squeezes my shoulder again. “Jesus, Tate. I knew you might break from all the pressure of trying to keep the farm from sinking while keeping your school and hockey going strong, but I didn’t know it would be like this. Sleeping with the enemy and melting down over muffins.”
I lift my head and shoot him a sarcastic smile. “Why, exactly, does she have to be the enemy again?”
Hank shrugs. “You know I’ve never understood that myself. I don’t think there’s a lot of people that know the true origin of the feud, but it’s very real. I don’t think anyone on either side of it will ever approve of you and Maggie. Like ever, dude. And honestly, I appreciate her sending you here, and everything you just said. But I have to wonder if she has ulterior motives when it comes to getting close to you. Like Daisy does with me.”
I shake my head. “She isn’t just chatting me up and batting her eyelashes, Hank. She’ssleepingwith me. She also saved my ass when someone from my part-time job recognized me at the market. She made sure I wasn’t outed.”
Hank nods. “Hey, look, I’ve never personally hated the Todd sisters. I don’t think they’re bad people at all, which is why I have a not-so-subtle crush on Daisy. And I’m not against you and Maggie having some fun. But honestly? I don’t think any Todd can ever be with an Adler, like long-term or even seriously entertain the thought. And Maggie is smart enough to realize that too, even if the Adler is as handsome and charismatic as you.”
I roll my eyes and then Hank seems to realize something and his face grows serious in a blink. “Wait. Does she know about your job? You told her about Manly Maids?”
