Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Harrison
“Ithink I screwed the pooch,” I say. I slide into the booth at Smiley’s, my favorite mom-and-pop restaurant here in Aron Falls.
Lester doesn’t look up from his menu.
“Let me guess, you were pissy with a client.” His tone is casual, almost dismissive. “Or maybe you were short with Susie at the building department, and now they’re moving slow on your permits… again.”
I lean against the back of the booth, tilt my head back, and stare at the ceiling.
“Worse, I think.”
“Hmm,” Lester replies. “Maybe I should get the potato skillet today.”
I sit upright again and pull the menu away from him.
“Why do you even bother looking at the menu?” I growl. “You have the thing memorized by now, and you never order anything other than special number six: two eggs over easy, turkey bacon, hash browns, an order of white toast with butter and grape jelly.”
“I might want something different one of these days.” Lester frowns at me.
Delilah, one of the waitresses here, approaches our table.
“Fancy seeing you guys here,” she teases. Lester and I started meeting here last summer when we ran into each other here and ended up having breakfast together. It turns out we both come here every Thursday morning, when we can. Now it’s just understood that we sit together.
I smile at Delilah.
“Good morning. I’ll have the usual and a cup of black coffee. Keep it coming today, if you would.”
See, I’m pleasant.
“How’s the potato skillet here, Delilah?” Lester asks.
“Great. It’s one of my favorite things we make, especially if you like hot sauce and put a little on there.”
“Maybe I should try it today.” He picks up the menu and glances at it again. “Ah, never mind, I think I’ll stick with my usual.”
“Tomato juice to drink today?” Delilah asks. Lester nods. “All right, boys, coming right up.”
When Delilah walks away, I turn my attention to Lester. He’s sitting relaxed in the booth with his folded hands resting on the table and watching me with a smirk.
“So, what did you do this time, Oscar?”
He sometimes calls me Oscar to get under my skin. He says I remind him of the grouchy character that lives in the garbage can on that kids’ show. I ignore his use of the nickname this time.
“Henry hired a new assistant while I was away.” I stare at him, waiting for his response, but he gives none.
The man can sit silently longer than anyone else I know. It’s annoying, and I huff at him.
“I may have offended her, and now I’m worried things might be awkward in the office.”
“That sweetheart, Delaney? You were rude to her? You know you’re much too young to be so… edgy. You’ve gotta earn that over time.”
I laugh. “Oh yeah, is that what you did?”
“I’m not at your level of crabby. I’m just quiet, and when something irritates me, I speak up about it.” He shrugs his shoulders.
Then it strikes me that his initial response indicates he’s met Delaney.
“How do you know Delaney? She could be a monster. You don’t know.”
Now it's Lester’s turn to laugh. Like a full-on belly laugh, and I’m not sure why.
“I ran into her when I was out getting pizza with Henry, Tillie, and the girls. She stopped in and bought a single slice. She was on her way out the door when Henry saw her and called her over. She’s an absolute doll. What did you say to her?”
“Hey, you’re my friend. Maybe she was rude to me first, and I was just defending myself.”
Lester fixes his gaze on mine, not saying anything. I hate that he can hold out longer than I can without speaking.
“This stays here, but I’ve met her before.” Lester's bushy old man eyebrows rise in curiosity. I sigh. “I asked her if she had a background check before starting here.”
“You know everybody gets a background check there. Hell, the stuff you require from new employees is probably more thorough than the FBI. Why did you ask her when you knew she would’ve had it?”
“You can’t be too careful. Not everyone has pure motives. Anyway, that might not be all that happened.”
“Cripes.”
“I may have implied that she took the job because she knew I worked there. Like maybe in a stalkerish way.”
“Oh, that’s really nice. You’ll be lucky if she ever talks to you again.”
“If you’re my friend, you’re supposed to tell me I’m not in the wrong. Say that it’s all right.”
He shrugs at me. “Hey, if you don’t like my answers, go find some friends from your own generation. Doesn’t change that you’re a dumbass. To be clear, I do think you are wrong.”
“Well, you’re one to talk. You make high school kids who have grown up here their whole lives go through two interviews to work at the hardware store for you.”
“Hey, my store, my right. I’d ask you what you’re going to do to fix it with the girl, but I’m guessing you’re still at that stage where you don’t think you need to make anything right. You gotta get to where you realize you were an asshole.”
“Well, thanks. That’s a ton of help.”
Delilah approaches the table with our drinks, and we thank her. She brings two glasses of tomato juice for Lester because she knows he downs it so fast. In true form, he drinks half of one glass before she’s even back in the kitchen area.
When he sets the glass down, he glances at me.
“I think there’s a difference between you and me. I’ve always been this way, just quiet with a small circle of friends and people that I love. But I suspect you haven’t always been like this. Frankly, you’re too young to be so uptight. Do you wanna talk about how you got there?”
My first instinct is to shake my head no and turn the conversation to something casual. But something in me tells me maybe that’s not the right thing to do now.
“I don’t know. I’ve always been on the more reserved side, but I guess I got more serious after my dad died.
We were young—Henry was twenty-two, and I was only twenty.
We had our younger brothers, who needed guidance and care.
Our mom was in a terrible place from her grief.
Henry and I basically split the workload.
I had to be serious. I didn’t have the time or energy to indulge in anything except what we had to do to keep things running in our family. ”
“That’s really young to lose your dad, and I’m sorry that happened to you all.” I nod, unable to think of a response that won’t seem insincere. “I still think that’s not all, though,” Lester says. “That doesn’t really explain why you’re so wary of new people.”
I swear we sit, again, without speaking, for a solid two minutes.
What the hell, I might as well. He is my only friend outside of my family.
“When I was in law school, there was a girl. We started dating, and I liked her a lot. Hell, there was a point I thought maybe I loved her. I don’t know. Anyway, we broke up, and I was pretty torn up about it for a while, though I kept it on the down low.”
“So, one heartbreak made you like this?” He gestures at me with a flick of his hand.
“No. I eventually got over it, but then a couple of years later, she showed back up in my life. I was careful because she had been the one to end things, and I really didn’t want to go through something like that again.
Regardless, I got sucked in, and things got to a point where I would’ve given her the world.
We got back together, and I thought everything was good.
Though in retrospect, there were signs of her true character that I should have seen. ”
Our food arrives, and we dive into our meals and continue to talk between bites.
“So, what happened then?”
“Well, it turns out she was smarter than I was. Or at least savvier. She siphoned off a significant amount of money from the company over several months. I didn’t pay enough attention.
Anyway, long story short, it turns out she was a gold digger.
The wealth my brothers and I had accumulated and the opportunity she saw is the only reason she came back to me. ”
Lester frowns, and it stresses all the wrinkles of life that he wears. Seventy-plus years old, and the man has seen some stuff.
He has a mouthful of his eggs, but when he swallows them, he sets his utensils on the table and peers up at me.
“That doesn’t mean you can’t ever trust anyone again. Delaney isn’t her. Plus, wasn’t that years ago?”
“Yeah, it was. But with Delaney, it’s weird. I met her, assumed she lived far away, and then she shows up a few months later and gets hired to work at my company—all while I’m off work? Oh, and don’t forget she showed up at the wedding.”
“Is she doing a good job?”
“Don’t know,” I look away and stare down at the table. “I don’t have her doing any of my stuff. I don’t need help.”
Lester busts out laughing. When he finally settles down, he says, “I’m sorry, but you know Layla gave me a tour of your office when you were away last time.
It’s in disarray with all those files. You have them everywhere, among other things.
There are definitely things you can use some help with tidying—”
“It’s fine, anyway. She’s doing some work for Henry, and then Holden has her doing some things. She’ll keep busy.”
Lester is holding his tomato juice just a few inches from his mouth. Something made him pause. He looks upward, and his brow furrows. Oh no, what’s he thinking about now?
“Holden, huh? Yeah, I think maybe Delaney could be the one to turn Holden around. I could see him breaking his three-date rule for her.”
My cheeks heat. My brother has a strict rule that he never dates a woman for more than three dates, even if they hook up.
“Did you just growl?” Lester howls with laughter, amused that he pissed me off.
“Holden won’t mess with her. Plus, she’s too smart to become one of his conquests. I can guarantee you that neither of them would be interested in each other.”
She is too smart for that, isn’t she?
“Hmm. I guess we’ll see.” Lester returns his focus to his food.
“What’s that mean?” I ask. My confidence that there couldn’t be anything between them is waning.
Lester shrugs his shoulders and doesn’t look up from his task of clearing his plate.
“He better not try to pull anything with her. I’ll kick his ass.”
Lester smirks, and now I can’t get the possibility of my Bets becoming Holden’s anything out of my head.
Over my dead body.