15. Just my Luck
fifteen
Liz
Where the hell is Jack?
I didn’t see his truck in the parking lot when I got here, but I figured maybe he was running a little later—even though I haven’t seen him late before. He seems far too rigid to be someone who is okay with not being on time.
But I’m thirty minutes into my run, and there’s still no sign of him. Maybe he got sick of seeing me in the mornings and found a different place to get some exercise. That will just suck because I’ve gotten used to being around him.
Sort of.
But if he calls me princess one more time, I just might knee him in the balls.
I’ve been working at the inn now for almost a week, and things are going well. Although I was worried that I would have no idea what I was doing when it came to running an inn, I picked up on it pretty quickly. It helps that it’s an inn in a small town where we don’t get a lot of visitors. Most of the guests that I see are staying long-term. They”ve just gotten into town for work and haven”t found a more permanent place to stay.
It’s nice having my own space again that isn’t under my parents’ roof. Not being around them constantly has even prompted me to go into the bar a couple of times for meals just to see them.
Mom and I still give each other shit, but it’s getting a little better day by day. And Dad is always happy to see me, so I guess I’ll keep going back.
I saw Michelle a few days ago on the street. She pretended she didn’t see me…even when I waved and called her name. She and I are going to have to sit down at some point and hash things out, but quite frankly, I don’t like her attitude. I thought about seeing if Eve wanted to go to dinner one day just to catch up, but I figure that probably wouldn”t be a good idea until her mom and I bury the hatchet. Going behind her back like that would probably piss her off even more.
My feet hit the pavement at a steady pace, but I decide to push it a little bit before I finish up for the day. I was hoping Jack would show up, but it doesn’t look like I’m going to get that lucky.
I make a sharp turn onto the trail that leads back to the parking lot. Apparently, I take it a bit too sharp, though, because my foot steps to the right off the trail into some sort of hole. I feel my ankle twist in a direction that’s not normal. My entire body falls in the most dramatic way imaginable, and I hit the ground like a ton of bricks.
“Motherfucker!” I yell as I go down, hoping no one else is around to hear me.
I lay on the wet ground for a good two minutes, looking up at the sky and thinking how this is just another metaphor for how my life is going these days.
When I finally decide to move, I attempt to put weight on the ankle that fell into the hole, but pain shoots up my leg, and I go right back down.
“Great,” I mumble. “Please God tell me I didn’t break my ankle.”
If it’s broken, that means no running for a while which will make my circumstances even worse once again.
I continue trying to get up, but each time, it hurts like hell. It doesn’t help that I have never had a high pain tolerance.
I reach for my phone to call someone, but I realize that I left it back at the inn. It was almost dead, and I wanted to let it charge.
Fuck.
I start hyping myself up to try to get up and hop on one leg back to the parking lot. Then, I don’t know what I”ll do from there. I always just run out to here and then run back to town. Maybe in the parking lot, I can at least try to find someone to take pity on me.
While I’m struggling, I hear some rustling coming from somewhere near me.
Great. Now, I’m going to be gnawed on by the local wildlife.
I peek around some bushes to see what is coming toward me, but much to my surprise, it isn’t an animal. It’s Jack Barrett.
At first, he runs right past me, not noticing me on the ground. When it finally sinks in, he stops and turns right back around.
“Liz?” He asks, coming toward me. “Why are you on the ground?”
“I fell, and I can’t seem to get up. Someone get me a Life Alert monitor.”
“You can’t stand?”
“When I try, my ankle hurts like hell.”
“That’s not good.”
“Thank you, Captain Obvious.” When I realize just how snarky that sounded, I add, “Sorry. I’m cranky.”
“You’re always cranky,” he mumbles while kneeling next to me. “Wrap your arms around my neck.”
“Excuse me?”
“I need you to hold onto my neck so I can lift you and carry you back to my truck.”
“Oh, you don’t have to do that,” I try telling him.
“Are you just going to stay here all day, or are you going to call someone?”
“I left my phone back at the inn,” I mutter under my breath.
“So, once again, I ask—are you just going to stay here all day?”
Reluctantly, I wrap my arms around his neck so that he can lift me into his arms. One of his large arms is holding me behind my back and the other under my legs. I figure he’d struggle to hold me, but he acts like I weigh nothing. I guess those big arms of his are good for something after all.
I think about what Ronnie is going to say when I tell her about this. She’s going to make some sexual comment about how she knew he could carry me to bed in this position.
A small smile crosses my lips, and Jack takes notice. “What are you smirking at?”
“Nothing. Just thinking about something my sister said.”
“Care to share?”
“Nah. It’s sort of an inside joke.”
The look in his green eyes shows that he already knows what the joke is, but he doesn’t press any further.
While he walks back to the parking lot, I can’t help but notice how good he smells. It’s a mix of clean laundry and whatever soap he uses. I have no idea how to describe it. Cedar mixed with citrus? I don’t know. Men”s smells are weird.
I figure Jack is never going to let me hear the end of this. I am never the damsel in distress that needs help from a man—let alone the guy I’ve butted heads with since I got back into town. I hate that he has to carry me anywhere right now.
It doesn’t take us long to reach his truck, and he walks over to set me in the passenger’s seat. I’m sideways, so my feet are hanging out of the door.
“Let me see,” he prompts, gently grabbing my leg. “Can you move it at all?”
Slowly, I start to twirl my ankle around in small circles. It still hurts but not nearly as much as when I first tried to stand on it. One of Jack’s large hands holds the bottom of my foot while he uses the other to stretch my ankle a little.
“Are you okay?” He asks. “Tell me if you want me to stop.”
“It’s okay,” I say, trying to work through the pain.
He works it a little bit more, and surprisingly, it feels some better.
“I don’t think it’s broken,” he tells me. “You probably just twisted it. But it’s probably going to be pretty sore the next few days. I’d try to stay off of it as much as you can.”
“I don’t know if that will happen. I’m working at the inn now and shit still has to get done.”
“Fair enough. But if you’re going to be moving around, let me wrap it.”
He walks around to the back end of his pickup truck and opens up a big metal box he has strapped in. He rummages around for a minute before returning with a long linen bandage.
“How do you just happen to have this stuff?” I ask. “Were you a Boy Scout when you were younger or something.”
He smiles. “Not at all. I’ve just had plenty of injuries—most of them worse than a twisted ankle. I always like to have supplies on hand just in case.”
“Is being a mechanic really that dangerous?”
He chuckles. “Something like that.”
He slips my shoe off so that he can get a better angle to wrap my ankle. As he’s working, he says, “I’m sorry I wasn’t here.”
“What?”
“I was late. And you fell and got hurt.”
“Yes, Jack. It’s your fault that I’m clumsy,” I joke. “You don’t need to feel bad. I’m a big girl.”
As he looks up at me, I swear I think I finally see something behind that gruff exterior of his. Maybe he’s not all asshole.
That fact should be obvious by the way he carried me to his truck and wrapped my ankle. With the way he and I have been going at it, I wouldn’t have blamed him if he had just left me on the trail. I might have done it to him.
Being nosey, I ask, “So, where were you? Tow truck emergency?”
“Uh, no. Actually, I was having breakfast with a five-year-old.”
“Come again?”
“Do you know Jana, the bakery owner?”
I nod.
“She has a granddaughter who has taken a liking to me. She had a breakfast thing at school this morning, and Jana couldn’t go, so she asked if I could fill in.”
That may be the cutest thing I’ve ever heard.
But I don’t dare say that. As cute as it may be, there’s no way I’m going to let myself feel any type of way about this man. He and I are exact opposites, and as far as I’m concerned, that whole opposites attract line is bullshit. All we would do would be annoy the crap out of each other.
When he finishes wrapping my ankle, he says, “Scoot in. I’ll give you a ride to the inn.”
“You don’t have to do that,” I tell him.
“Are you going to walk?”
“Point taken,” I say, turning around to face forward in the seat.
He shuts the door and gets in the driver’s seat. On the way, he says, “Okay, I have to ask you something.”
“Alright. I guess you’ve earned it,” I joke.
“Ever since you got back to town, I’ve heard a lot of wild stories about why you came back. Just wondering if any of them were true.”
I should have known that the questions would start eventually.
“What are some of the theories you’ve heard?” I ask, genuinely curious.
“That you are running from the mob. That you went crazy and set your house on fire. Oh, and that you needed psychiatric help, so you have been in rehab all this time.”
I let out a deep sigh. “Any of those would be more fascinating than the real story.”
He looks at me, waiting for me to continue. “Let’s just say that I made some bad business decisions. I put my trust in the wrong people, and it backfired.”
Running his hand over his scruff, he says, “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Yeah, you and me both. What about you? What were you doing before you came to Lilly Leaf Falls?”
That question seems to flip a switch inside of him. The glimpse of a sweet guy underneath the rough exterior disappears, and he puts the stoic mask right back on.
“I don’t want to get into it.”
So, I can answer his question, but he doesn’t want to do the same? Alright. Fine.
Guess I’m not the only one around here keeping secrets.
“That’s it?” I scoff. “You’re not going to tell me anything?”
“There’s nothing to tell.”
“Nothing? Nothing at all?”
He clenches his jaw. “Nope.”
Crossing my arms over my chest, I huff a curt, “Fine.”