Where’s this going? Cameron
Chapter twenty
Where’s this going? Cameron
After Everett stormed off, I went back into the store where Jackie was eyeing me with entirely too much sympathy in his eyes.
“What?”
“You know, Alfred and I didn’t start off all that great either.”
“I remember.” In fact, Alfred was the reason Jackie had put his pool in, impressing the guy and providing me, Jay, and my cousins with some side work. “Are you trying to tell me to put in a pool?”
“Eh. Wouldn’t work unless you filled it with beer.”
“There’s an idea.”
“Seriously, though. Same thing. He’s mad at you for trying to help him? I don’t get that, but it means you can’t give him any assistance with anything.”
“Like that’s going to happen. Huh, more likely to fill a pool with beer, dude, than stop helping.”
“Right. But if you’re not careful, you’ll push him away.”
“He’s already pushing himself away.”
“Go get some coffee and relax a bit. I may have a lead for you on a new job.” Since that sounded promising, I allowed the subject change. I didn’t want to keep talking about Everette anyway.
I went to the back and poured myself a cup since no one else was around to help with that.
Many of the locals had that privilege here.
Brock was generous with his coffee, but I normally tossed in a few bucks to make up for it whenever I got paid.
I took my drink back to the front and leaned against the counter again. “You said you got a job for me?”
“Right, so Reuben was in here yesterday and mentioned that Noel Perkins was starting a new job down Ninety-Nine, past Dawson’s.
” Well, that was interesting. Reuben was the local busybody and mail carrier for Main Street, so most of the time his information was on target, but not always.
Noel was one of Foggy Basin’s main contractors, usually doing private jobs, but he was skilled and could do more, and I’d worked for him before.
I’d always left on good terms, so I was sure he’d hire me again.
“It sounded like it was maybe a little longer term.”
That would also help. “I’ll give him a call. Thanks.”
Jackie’s phone buzzed, and he held up a finger. “Wait.” He scrolled and looked at whatever message had come in. “Alfred just said he’s going to help Everett with the security system at the brewery. What does that mean?”
“Uh, I don’t know.” It had my brain spinning on what was going on. “He had his tires slashed the other day. Remember when I borrowed the jack?” I was sure that was what it was about, but did it have anything to do with him being mad at me, too? And if so, what?