6. Jackson
Jackson
Somehow, we made it to the bed for round two. In the aftermath, I lay with Iris cuddled up to me, dark hair spilling across my chest while she blissfully drifted in and out of sleep.
My stomach twisted with guilt. I should never have touched her. Didn’t stop me from doing it a second time, and probably wouldn’t stop me from doing it again if she woke up and looked at me with sleepy, half-lidded eyes. I wanted her too badly.
But none of that changed the fact that she was going to hate me when she found out what really happened with Sue after her daddy’s funeral. And Sue had gotten too close to telling her the truth already.
Which meant I had to tell her. Coming clean wouldn’t save whatever was growing between us, the delicate shoots too new and too easy to stomp all over. But at least she would hear it from me and not whatever twisted version Sue fed her.
It’d be better if she heard it from Travis—this whole thing was his idea, and he was her brother, after all—but he wasn’t around to untangle this mess, now was he? He’d left me in charge of Iris, and I’d gone and betrayed her trust.
When she shifted and lifted her head, looking up at me with a heated question in her eyes, I rolled her over onto her back, just like I’d known I would. I hadn’t gotten nearly enough of the taste of sweet pussy, and I meant to savor every second of tonight.
I could rip the bandage off tomorrow.
The next morning was somehow worse. I drove her to work since her car was still there and no way in hell was I letting her wander around willy-nilly after yesterday.
But first, we had to make a pit stop by her house so she could set out food for the damn cat. I’d tried telling her the beast could feed itself, but Iris insisted, claiming it had tried to protect her. She even gave the ornery tomcat wet food. Next, she’d name it and try to make it an indoor cat.
“Be careful. Call me if your mom shows up,” I said as she unbuckled her seat belt. I should have told her to call the cops, but between Sue and Hunter’s various run-ins, I knew that ours were useless, and Sue would lose it if they showed up. I still hoped to take care of this quietly.
“Sure.” She smiled up at me. Didn’t even give me any lip about being overprotective, which only made me feel worse.
We parted with a kiss that I was certain would be my last, her looking up at me with stars in her eyes before she disappeared inside her building like she was walking on air.
I brooded all the way to work, and the whole morning.
Around noon, Sammy Williams wandered in to pick up his car.
He was a classic good ole boy, graying, overweight, and skin tanned to leather by years in the sun, who used to maintain his own car.
But between his age and the increased use of chips and other “complicated bullshit designed to keep a man from fixing his own belongings”—as he called it—he’d started bringing me his cars a few years ago.
Which meant that he’d spend the entire time he was in my shop complaining about having to set foot inside, and then go over his car with a fine-tooth comb afterward, in case one of my guys mistreated his baby.
I started handling him personally after his second visit, which was why I found myself listening to him complain about “manufacturers these days who don’t give a shit about anything but squeezing the last dollar out of a man,” a lecture I’d heard enough times I could recite it from memory.
I’d just handed him his credit card receipt when I remembered something. “Kenny Hunt is your nephew, right? Didn’t I hear something about…?” I trailed off, not sure how to approach the delicate subject.
Sammy straightened, face going hard. “Kenny is doing very well, thank you. Whatever you’ve heard is old.”
Shit. Now I've offended the old man. “No, no, I didn’t mean…I haven’t heard anything bad, just the opposite.
But, you know, Hunter just got out, and I wasn’t sure what to expect.
How to keep him on a good path,” I said, shifting my weight.
I should have been more concerned with this kind of stuff before.
Sammy’s shoulders relaxed. “Oh, that makes sense. How’s that boy doing?”
“Good. He’s doing real good.” It was true, I realized as I spoke. Truer than I’d given him credit for. “He’s staying with Cole and doing everything he’s supposed to.”
Sammy nodded approvingly. “The best thing we did for Kenny was to give him a clean slate, put everything in the past. He’s committed to the straight and narrow, and holding everything he did before over his head wouldn’t help him with that.”
Sammy’s words hit me in the gut. I’d been doing just that, hadn’t I?
Holding on to old grievances, expecting Hunter to make amends at the same time I was waiting for him to fuck up.
Treating him like I’d always treated Sue, because I’d watched her throw every opportunity to change out the nearest window.
But Hunter wasn’t like that. Not anymore, anyway. He’d already found a job at a restaurant, barely left Cole’s apartment, and hadn’t even had a drink. He was more measured too, more thoughtful, instead of running on instinct. Gone was the unreliable party boy of four years ago.
Something of my feelings must have shown on my face, because Sammy said, “Lord knows it’s not easy.
Kenny sold my sister’s engagement ring—the one from her first husband, the one that died?
—for drug money, and forgiving him for that was tough.
But I decided it would be a lot easier to figure out how to forgive him than to watch him get high again when he’d done all the hard work to get clean.
“A job wouldn’t hurt, neither. Something to keep him out of trouble,” Sammy added, looking around. “Didn’t he used to work here?”
“Yeah. Yeah, he did.”
All day, between dealing with customers and working on cars, I tried to keep my ear to the ground for any hint of Sue, but no luck.
I took off work a little later than I’d meant to, knowing I was just delaying the inevitable. I did another drive around some neighborhoods I hadn’t hit up yet, and a few that I had, looking for that beat-up red Chevy.
No luck there, either.
I should have turned my car back home and had that long-overdue conversation with Iris, but imagining the look on her face when I told her the truth had sour dread coating the back of my throat and my chest constricting.
So, I drove to Cole’s apartment instead. He was closing up tonight, but Hunter and I needed to discuss something.
He greeted me at the door with his head cocked to one side, his dark eyes assessing, like he was waiting for me to say something ugly.
Shame hit me all over again.
“I haven’t found anything concrete about Iris’s mom. I told you I’d text if I did,” Hunter said.
Well, that didn’t help the twisting in my gut one bit. “That’s not what this is about. I, uh…” I licked my lips. “I have an opening at the shop if you want it.”
He blinked. “You don’t have to do that. I’ll figure something out on my own.”
“You don’t want the job?”
He sucked in a breath. “I haven’t earned the job. I know I fucked up. I’m sorry. More sorry than I can say. For stealing from you, lying to you, everything.”
I clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Thank you for saying that, really. But I’m not here looking for apologies. Just offering you the job if you want it.”
“For real?”
“Yeah. I can pay you better than any restaurant, help you get on your feet. And I can let the past live in the past. Or at least try to.”
He chewed his lip, thinking it over. “When can I start?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Okay, yeah.” He stepped back. “You might as well come in.”
I should turn right around and head home. This conversation had gone okay, so maybe my luck would hold and Iris wouldn’t throw anything at my head when I told her the truth.
I stepped forward. “Sure.”
“So, you want to tell me what you plan to do with Sue when you find her? Or would that make me an accessory?”
I shook my head. “Nothing like that. I’m going to do what Travis or I always do when she rolls into town: give her a chunk of cash and tell her to go away.”
Hunter snorted. “Probably why she keeps showing up. I’m surprised she didn’t land on your doorstep first, if she knows you’re an easy source of cash.”
“Yeah. I know.” She usually did almost exactly that, hanging out somewhere she knew I’d be but Iris wouldn’t. But this time she wanted ten times what I usually gave her, so maybe she knew she needed another strategy.
Hunter tapped his lip. “I wasn’t going to say anything until I had something concrete, but I might have narrowed down where she is.”
“For real? I’ve been driving around all over the place looking for her car, with no luck.”
“I’m thinking she’s either somewhere off Dixon, Timber Drive, or Walnut Creek.” He settled onto a chair at the kitchen table and motioned me to sit across from him. “She’s got friends in all three places and hasn’t burned those bridges yet.”
“I’ve been up and down Dixon and Walnut Creek a half dozen times over the last few days and seen no sign of her or her vehicle.”
He frowned. “The car could be in a garage…”
“But most of those houses don’t have one.” I finished his thought. Those were older, working-class neighborhoods, and most of them had carports if they had anything at all.
“Or they could have been out,” he said.
“Every time?” I shook my head. “I’m thinking she’s somewhere on Timber Drive.”
“Yeah, that sounds like the best bet.”
As Iris chatted away about her day, I told myself, Just give it one more look before you come clean.
Once I got her settled in at home, I went out driving again. Yet another delay in the inevitable that I couldn’t stop myself from making.
Timber Drive was about halfway between my house and Iris’s so I told myself it wasn’t much of a delay. No red cars in any driveways, though.