Thirteen
T he door of the bar opened, and Scott eagerly turned his head to see who was coming in. When he saw Judy, the police dispatcher, he turned his attention to the bottle of beer in front of him. He couldn’t sit in the empty hotel room a minute longer and needed to get out and do something. Georgia had been right. He needed a distraction, and he found it at Mac’s. Sure, he had hoped to find Lauren there, but instead he found Trent and Jake.
“She’s at home watching a movie with the girls.” Trent said from across the table.
“Hmm?”
“Lauren. She’s at home.” Jake explained Trent’s comment.
“Who said I was looking for her?”
“You did. Every time you turn your head to check and see who comes in.” Jake leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table and stared at his friend with his eyebrows drawn together. “What are you really doing here, Scott?”
“Settling my father’s estate.” He wasn’t ready to share any of his discoveries just yet. He wanted to make sure he had the full story before he revealed to the men and women he still considered his friends just what a prick his dad was.
“Then why are you sitting here hoping Lauren’s going to show up?”
“Why are you here sitting with me?”
Trent’s gaze ping-ponged between both men. As though he was prepared for the worst and expected them to blow up at any moment.
“Because we’re friends. Or we were. And I’m friends with her. I help her and her dad out when I can.” Jake leaned back in the chair and stretched his legs out in front of him. “All I’m trying to say is don’t lead her on, Scott.”
“How am I leading her on? Yeah, I want to spend time with her, I missed her and didn’t realize how much until I saw her again. It’s a chance to catch up.”
“Yeah, but you aren’t going to be around next weekend to catch up, are you?”
Jake wasn’t wrong.
Scott opened his mouth but closed it before he struggled to find the words that would never explain his intentions. He was being selfish. And what was more, he knew he was being selfish, but that knowledge hadn’t stopped him from wanting to spend time with her.
“Still playing guitar?” He changed the subject.
“At home sometimes. Nothing serious.” Jake shrugged and glanced across the table at Trent, who leaned back in his chair and shook his head, not wanting to get involved. Jake turned his attention back to Scott. “Why are you staying at The Lakes and not at your dad’s?”
“I hadn’t spoken to him in years. Somehow it just felt wrong.”
“Damn it, Scott, this is high school all over again.” Jake gave up any pretense of small-talk and returned to what Scott presumed was the real reason for his anger.
“What are you talking about?”
“She still has feelings for you. One she never got over. And it was fine when you hadn’t come back here because she could daydream. But now that you’re here…” Jake shook his head from side to side. “Now that you’re back, she doesn’t need to daydream.”
“Lauren’s a grown woman, Jake.”
“A grown woman who is still the little girl tailing after you, hoping for even the slightest bit of attention.” He leaned forward and closed his eyes while rubbing his forehead. “And you’re finally giving her that attention, but you won’t keep on giving it.”
“And why the hell is this any of your business?” He glared at Jake and crossed his arms over my chest. His jaw clenched tight enough for his molars to grind together.
“Because you aren’t going to be here on Monday, but I will.” Jake jumped to his feet and stormed off to the bar.
Scott watched him stomp to the counter before looking over at Trent. “Why’s he so mad at me?”
Trent tilted his head to the side and closed one eye.
“What?”
“I’m trying to figure out if your question is sincere or rhetorical.”
“What the…”
“You left, Scott. And not just Iron Creek. You left your friends.”
“You left too when you enlisted.”
“I enlisted because I wanted a way to get a college education without having to take out huge loans and I didn’t get any scholarships.” He scraped the label from the bottle of beer with his thumbnail. “But I came back.”
“I get why he’s angry at me, but why’s he so angry about Lauren? He was the one who had talked me out of spending time with Lauren before I left for college. And back then she was my friend more than his.”
“That was before you left town and never looked back. Think what you want to about Olivia, but she was the one who pointed it out to Colleen once. They were talking about Jake and Lauren spending so much time together and Colleen wondered why they never got together. Olivia was the one who explained they were the ones who you abandoned.”
“And I didn’t abandon Olivia too?” Scott didn’t want to admit that Trent had a point.
“Naw, not the same way. After you left, Olivia moved on. It was like she knew you weren’t coming back. But Jake and Lauren were convinced you’d come back for them, and Jake became her protector, keeping her safe until your return.”
A lot had changed since Scott left town.
He looked over at his friend at the bar. There wasn’t anything he could say that would convince Jake he didn’t abandon them. It was just that their pull wasn’t nearly as strong as his father’s repulsion.
Except, Jake wasn’t entirely wrong to have some of those concerns. Scott didn’t plan on coming back to Iron Creek after he left. This was just a pit stop in his life, and one he wasn’t sure he wanted to revisit. At least that was his intention when he first drove into town.
He stomped his way back to the table with three bottles of beer in hand. Maybe he wasn’t that angry.
Jake set a bottle down in front of Scott with more force than necessary. Enough so that a head pushed up over the lip of the bottle. “You hurt her, and I will hunt you down and beat some sense into you.”
Scott looked up from the overflowing bottle to his friend and refused to back down from Jake’s stare. “Hurting Lauren is the last thing I want to do. And you don’t have to worry, Jake. Relationships and my work don’t mix. Never have. Never will. Trust me. I’ve tried.”
“Never with her.”
Scott ignored Jake’s comment and Trent’s knowing smirk. Instead, he drank his beer.
Besides, it didn’t matter whether he tried with Lauren. If even half of what he thought his dad had done was true, she’d hate him for it. Trying to mix a relationship with Lauren and work wasn’t in the stars. Not if she hated him before they even had a shot at a relationship.