34
First Charles the bodybuilder, and now Sam the tattooed Marine whose abs showed through his shirt. Maybe he’d been wrong about the small-town thing, because Clara seemed to have no trouble finding men to go out with.
Jesse was in the Wilders’ basement gym, hoping that the unique agony of leg day would distract him from The Clara Show . So far, it wasn’t working. The Colonel had come down to spot him on the leg press and had taken on the role of trainer and drill sergeant. He was keeping it light due to the bruised rib, but it was still plenty difficult.
All in all, not a real good time.
“Might need you to carry me up the stairs after this.”
“You’ll be fine,” his trainer said. “The real pain won’t hit until tomorrow.”
That was probably his idea of humor.
“Thirty minutes to dinner,” Clara called down the stairs.
She must have taken a quick break from flirting with Sam to put the enchiladas in the oven.
Jesse wondered bitterly if any woman had ever said “I’m definitely going to have a good day now” after receiving one text from him. He didn’t even know what kind of emojis he should be using to have that effect. Maybe he should buy the Marine a beer and ask him about his technique.
Then he wondered if Sam would be at the hardware store for the firefighters’ poker night that Jesse had been invited to by Teddy McMann’s little sister at the Valentine’s Day festival. Allie…he tried to remember the last name on her son’s chart. Hayden Bent, ear infection. That made her husband Roy Bent, another vaguely familiar name from the old days. Fridays at eight at the hardware store, she had said.
Hadn’t Clara said Sam worked there? Or was he just the nephew of someone who did? Either way, she and Yoli had definitely assumed that she would run into him there.
Jesse hadn’t been planning to accept the poker night invitation, but now it seemed like a good way to get a read on Clara’s new friend. Even if Sam himself wasn’t there, Jesse could ask his old wrestling buddies what they thought of the guy.
He’d feel a lot better about leaving town if he knew that the Marine wasn’t going to turn into another DeWitt Petty. And where was DeWitt these days, for that matter? Still in jail? The poker guys might be able to shed some light on that, too.
“I’m done,” he finally had to say. “My rib’s hurting.” And my legs have stopped responding.
“Good workout,” the Colonel said, and after removing some of the weights, left Jesse (without a backwards glance) to navigate the stairs on his own.
When at last he emerged from the basement on legs of jelly, Jesse paused to watch Greer hobbling back into her crate. She looked about how he felt.
“She’s getting antsy,” Clara told him, sounding very concerned. “She wants to play, and I don’t want to let her. I shouldn’t, right?”
“I don’t know. What’s your dad say?” he asked, glancing at her father who was now unloading the dishwasher.
“You’re her doctor!” she reminded him. “What do you say?”
“Well, without knowing much about dogs, I’d say it’s too soon for running and jumping. You could roll a ball to her. Just no tug-of-war or anything like that.”
“I’ll try the ball. That’s a good idea. Do you think she’s pretty young?”
“Yeah. A year or two, I guess. Can’t you ask her owner?”
“I’m afraid to contact him. What if he said he wanted her back after all?”
“Great. Then I can tell him how much I charge to repair blunt abdominal trauma,” he said wryly.
“Is it pretty expensive?” she guessed.
“Hepatectomy, hysterectomy, bowel R he was mostly there to collect information.
“In Allie’s defense, I’m pretty sure Clara put her up to it this time,” he said.
“The guy who dates Clara Wilder has to be okay getting pushed around,” Ted McMann put in. “By her, and her dad.”
“It’s worth it, because she’s a fine piece,” Jordan said lazily.
“I’m not dating Clara.”
There was silence around the table for a moment.
“Dude doesn’t even know he’s dating Clara,” Jordan laughed, and then everyone laughed.
Jesse supposed they had seen or heard about the kiss at the Love Fest, and he knew it would be impossible to convince them otherwise. He was surprisingly okay with the misunderstanding. He waited until the laughter had died down enough for him to be heard when he said, “Do me a favor and don’t call her a fine piece.”
“No disrespect,” Jordan clarified earnestly. “She’s a beautiful woman. Maybe a little high-maintenance, but—”
“Don’t say it again,” Jesse sighed.
“—worth it, because she’s—well, you know. But it’s going to take all that doctor money to keep her happy. And then some.”
Jesse recalled that Jordan had cat-called Clara while she was kneeling on the shoulder of the highway next to what looked like a dead animal, crying. It stood to reason that the kid probably didn’t have much real-life experience with women—or people in general. Jesse was no Casanova, but he knew not to hit on people while they were looking death in the face. “I’m guessing you’re the kind of guy who watches a lot of TV and tries to act like guys you’ve seen in movies.”
Jordan’s brother Cody confirmed, amid more laughter, that this was the case, and Jordan was forbidden from speaking for twenty minutes. Jordan grinned and shrugged with the air of one who received this punishment with regularity from the group of his older cousin’s friends.
“Hey, Ted and I got called to the motorcycle wreck, couple weeks back,” Helio said next. “Gnarly, man. You see that kind of stuff a lot?”
“Yeah, but I’ve never seen them before they’re brought in,” he admitted. “That was a bad one.”
“He sure got lucky that a doctor was driving by at the time,” Cody remarked.
“Clara did great,” Ted said without prejudice. “You both stayed pretty cool. I definitely threw up later.”
“So did I,” Helio admitted.
Jordan couldn’t talk, so he raised his beer in solidarity.
“Young Jordan’s first accident scene,” Cody interpreted. “He wasn’t right for days.”
“So, there was the motorcycle accident,” Helio said, starting to count on his fingers, “and then there was the fight at the Love Fest when you were making out with Clara Wilder, and then there was the border collie. You been making the news nonstop since you got here, man.”
“You guys heard about the dog?” he asked in surprise.
“From Jordan,” a few of them said in unison.
“When Jordan’s allowed to talk again, remind me to ask him about DeWitt Petty.”
“What about him?” Skip asked. “I can tell you that his parole officer in Houston wasn’t too happy to hear that he got arrested six hundred miles away from where he’s supposed to be.”
“No kidding?”
“He’s been back in Houston since yesterday.”
Jesse frowned at Jordan. “You couldn’t have told Clara that? That guy’s been stalking her for months.”
“I forgot,” Jordan defended himself, and Cody and Ted both smacked the back of his head—the penalty, apparently, for speaking out of turn.
“So what’s the deal with the Marine?” Jesse asked next. “Sam?”
“Don’t know a Marine named Sam,” Helio said.
“Yoli and Clara have been talking about him nonstop all day. Giggling over text messages. Ed What’s-his-name’s nephew. Tattoos, works on cars. Lives on Yoli’s block.”
“ I live on Yoli’s block,“ Cody said. “But I don’t know anyone like that.”
“They made him up,” Helio exclaimed, and the machine gun laughter started up. “They made him up! Messing with you!”
“No,” Jesse said at once, but he had a sinking feeling that said otherwise. “No, they’re obsessed with this guy.”
“There’s no Marine named Sam on Yoli’s block,” Cody said with certainty.
“What else do you know about him?” Roy Bent asked. “I go to the VFW all the time. I could ask around.”
“Let me guess!” Helio gasped, between laughing like a fool. “He’s perfect in every way.” More machine gunning. “And he’s interested in Clara, and he showed up right when you did,” he added before giving in to rapid, high-pitched laughter again.
Everyone else laughed with him.
Jesse rubbed his face as he made peace with the sad truth. He had been duped by a couple of low-level con artists.
“Why?” he wondered finally.
“Dude, wake up, you’re dating Clara! Save yourself!” Jordan blurted, and then ducked his head as everyone reached in to hit him again.
“All right, enough gossip, ladies,” Roy said sternly. “Let’s play some cards.”