Chapter 14
Lauren
Tuesday morning, Kevin knocked on my door at around eight.
“You up?”
“Yeah.”
“Come upstairs. I got you something.”
I went up. Kevin waited in the living room with a box from the medical supply store.
“Sit.”
I sat. He pulled out the ankle brace. Black and heavy, with Velcro straps and metal supports on both sides.
“This’ll help with standing all day,” he said.
He knelt between my knees and started unwrapping the bandage. I looked over his shoulder and tried real hard not to think about where his head was. His hands were warm and steady. My body, obviously, had to notice.
He worked the brace over my foot and tightened each strap, slow and exact. I kept my face blank and looked past him at the couch.
“Too tight?”
“No.”
My voice somehow came out even, which was impressive with him that close.
He pressed his thumb right over the sore spot through the brace. “Hurt?”
“A little.”
His thumb stayed there a beat too long. My ankle barely reacted. The rest of me was less cooperative.
“One to ten?”
“Two.”
He finished the last strap. My ankle was locked down and taken care of. I didn’t need my brain being weird about that.
“Try standing.”
I stood and put weight on it. It didn’t hurt.
“Holy shit. That’s way better.”
“Good,” he said. “It’ll hold. Do not push it because you get five decent minutes and decide you’re cured.”
He stood, stepped back, and kept his face neutral. That should’ve helped. Somehow it didn’t.
“If it starts pulling, you sit down,” he said. “I mean it.”
“Got it.”
“I’m driving you.”
Of course he was. He said it like this was already decided.
We left at nine forty-five. His car was spotless. No cups, no papers, just clean leather and that clean car smell. I was way too aware it was just me and him in there.
“Nervous?” he asked as we drove.
“A little.”
“About the work?”
“About walking in there while everybody acts normal.”
“You’ve done this before.”
“Yeah. In LA. Here, they’ve already got the short version. Drunk girl, busted ankle, Kevin Thorpe took her home, now Jackson hired her anyway. People will be repeating it by noon.”
“You’re Lauren. You need a job. You’re getting one. That’s it.”
I looked out the window before I could give myself away.
“I was supposed to visit my grandmother for a week and go home. Instead I’m the mess everybody already knows about. I should call Abuela before somebody else does.”
“Morningside’s not far. Forty-five minutes maybe.”
“Yeah. I’d be closer to her.”
We pulled into the bar parking lot at nine fifty-five. Jackson’s truck sat there along with another car. Even with the doors shut, the lot smelled faintly of fryer oil. A cooler kicked on inside. My stomach tightened before my foot even hit the sidewalk.
Kevin parked and turned the engine off.
“You okay?”
“Yeah.”
“You look like you’re gonna puke.”
“I’m fine. First-day nerves.”
He got out and came around to my side. He opened the door and held out his hand right there in the lot where anybody could see.
I put my hand in his and let him pull me to my feet. His hand closed around mine, and for one stupid second I didn’t want to let go first.
“Thanks.”
“You’ll be fine,” he said.
I took three steps before I spotted her.
Haley stood in the doorway with her arms folded and that calm work face on, already put together, already in charge. She saw Kevin open my door, take my hand, and help me out, careful. She saw more than enough.
I was already the girl living in Kevin’s basement and getting hired by Jackson. In Fairview, that was plenty to keep people busy. None of this looked clean enough to call harmless flirting.
“Hey,” I said.
“Morning,” she said. Then she moved aside. “Jackson’s inside.”
I walked past her into the bar. Behind me, Kevin’s engine started and the car pulled away.