Worth More Than Money

by Lexy Timms

  “She never needed me! I gave her everything, and she threw it back in my face when she left with that Andy character without so much as a damn goodbye!”

  “You wanted me to say goodbye to a mother who constantly threw how worthless she thought I was in my face!?” I exclaimed. “You wanted me to come home and wrap my arms around a woman who constantly told me I’d amount to nothing! That I wasn’t allowed to have college ambitions with C+ grades? Are you serious?”

  “You will not come into my home and talk to me that way. I’m your mother!”

  “And you’re a shitty excuse for one,” I said.

  I ripped away from my brother’s grasp and started for the stairs.

  “Get back here! We’re not done talking!” my mother exclaimed.

  “You might not be done, but I sure as hell am,” I said.

  Then I stalked into my room and locked the door behind me.

  Dropping the plastic bag onto the floor, I collapsed onto my bed in a fit of tears. I heard Nick and my mother arguing downstairs. Like they always did after my mother dug into me. How in the world was I going to do this if I didn’t even have my own mother on my side? If there was anyone who understood my predicament, it was her, but instead of stepping up and helping me in an area where she knew a thing or two, the only concern of hers was how to make me feel like shit.

  Again.

  My only hope was that Nick’s job offer was serious. That he would come up the stairs and tell me the job I had supposedly accepted was real. True. Bonafide. Because the only thing I could keep doing was pushing forward.

  My eyes poked out from the crook of my arm as tears wet my skin.

  Documents.

  Help.

  Single mothers.

  All the things my doctor told me came rushing back to my mind as I scurried off the bed. That was the first thing on my agenda. Getting those documents filled out and turned in to their rightful places. If I could get approved for some local housing and some money every month for food, that was a good step in the right direction.

  I sat down at my small desk and pulled out a pen, then began to fill out the applications the doctor had stuffed into the bag.

  And all the while, Nick and my mother’s voices continued to swell with anger.

  Chapter 11

  Grayson

  I spent all damn weekend driving around town trying to find Michelle. I checked the other rental properties to see if she had accepted one of their requests to live there. I checked all of the restaurants to see if anyone had employed her after her time at the diner. I drove by the gas station and checked out some of the other rental properties that would’ve been within her price range. Hell, I even checked with Dr. Luke Simmons at his practice to see if she had scheduled an appointment to come in and see him.

  But she was nowhere to be found.

  Where the hell could she have gone? She didn’t have a car. Not much money to her name. She couldn’t have gone many places. Even with four hundred bucks, a cab only would’ve gotten her a few towns over in either direction. So, I checked those areas as well. Asked around using her name and prior occupation. Told people I was a concerned friend that hadn’t seen her in a few days. I was even tempted to file a missing person’s report on her.

  The only other place I knew to check was the diner.

  “Well hello there, Grayson,” Cecily said as I entered. “I didn’t realize you were still in town. Can’t get enough of us?”

  “Cut the shit,” I said. “Where’s Michelle?”

  Her face fell at the mention of her name and all she did was shrug.

  “Figured she was with you. What’d you do? Lose your best racehorse?”

  “I need to know where she went and someone in this town knows,” I said.

  “She run off like I told you she would?” she asked with a grin.

  I’d never even considered hitting a woman in my life, but I was two ticks away from smacking that sly grin off her face.

  “Come on, Gray. Why are you wasting your time with a little girl like her? She doesn’t know what she wants in life. She’s weak-willed. Pathetic. Remember how hot we used to be together?”

  “You mean before you stood me up at prom?” I asked.

  “You know damn good and well I wasn’t a woman to be tied down. And you’re not a man to be tied down, Grayson. What are you doing, running after a girl like Michelle when you could be with a woman like me? A woman who knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to go after it.”

  “I don’t want you, Cecily.”

  “But you want Michelle? Things could be so good between us. And I’d never run from you. Unless, of course, you enjoyed that sort of thing.”

  “I... do not want... you,” I said.

  “You know, you’re a real piece of work, MacDonald. And an asshole, by the way. You think this entire town doesn’t remember the shit you and Andy got up to back in the day? People in this town hate you. Despise you. But not me, Grayson. I never have. Sure, I screwed up in high school by standing you up. Once. One mistake, and you’re lording it over me for the rest of my damn life. I could love you like no woman could, and you’re stuck running after some bitch who’s fucking around with—”

  “She’s not a bitch!” I exclaimed.

  The entire diner fell silent as Cecily’s eyebrows rose up onto her forehead.

  “She’s kind, and considerate, and beautiful. Soft-natured and intelligent and driven, despite everything this bullshit town has done to her. I let this pathetic excuse for a home crawl under my skin and rid me of the one good thing to ever come from this place, and now she’s gone and I’m trying to find her. So, are you going to help me or not!?”

  “Excuse me, sir. Is there a problem?”

  I looked straight into the eyes of the man that had walked up.

  “Are you Brad?” I asked.

  “I am.”

  “Are you the man that fired Michelle for screwing around with some guy?”

  I watched him steel his eyes as Cecily took a step behind him.

  “We let Miss Danforth go because of the distraction she caused. The reason for that distraction doesn’t matter. What mattered was that my business was suffering because of it.”

  I stepped up to him, going toe to toe with the man that had thrown Michelle out on her ass. And I realized how much I resembled him. I’d tossed her out on her ass as well. Maybe not literally, like Andy. But metaphorically, I had. I wanted to slug him. I wanted to break his jaw and leave him writhing on the floor.

  But that action would only serve to make me a hypocrite.

  “I think you need to leave and stop harassing my employees,” he said.

  My eyes dropped to Cecily as a mischievous grin crossed her cheeks.

  “Your business doesn’t suffer because of women like Michelle,” I said, as I took a step back. “Your business suffers because it’s in Stillsville.”

  “Get out, and don’t bother coming back,” he said.

  I shook my head as a grin crossed my cheeks. Holy hell, it felt good to finally tell this bullshit town how I felt about it. I walked out of the diner with yet another Stillsville establishment I couldn’t walk back into and it felt great. Laughable, even. I was constantly invited to the most exclusive and luxurious parties that took place around the globe, but I couldn’t eat at a two-star diner in Hicksville.

  I chuckled as I got into my convertible and peeled away from the parking lot.

  Next, I headed to Andy’s place. My last-ditch effort to figure out where the hell Michelle had gotten off to. But I also had a few words for him as well. If Michelle had been dicking around behind my back, then he would most certainly know where she ran off to. I pulled up to his place and didn’t bother knocking on his front door. I pushed right on inside and started stepping on cardboard boxes and stray empty cans of beer. Andy was slouched on the couch, drunk. With vomit hanging from his mouth. I grimaced and walked over to the couch, turning him over on the side so he didn’t choke himse
lf to death.

  “Michy?” Andy slurred. “That you?”

  I snickered and shook my head as I tapped Andy’s cheeks.

  “Wake up,” I said. “Gotta ask you something.”

  “Michy?”

  “No, asshole. It’s Gray.”

  “Come back, Michy.”

  His eyes didn’t even open. The man was practically incoherent. Snores fell heavily from his lips, but I didn’t like what he’d said before that. Come back? Did that mean Michelle had left him as well? Shit.

  Was she really not in Stillsville any longer?

  I walked around the pathetic excuse for a duplex, trying to eye any evidence of Michelle’s existence. I found dirty ass boxers and vomit pooled in corners that hadn’t been cleaned up. A disheveled bed that looked as if it had been urinated on and a bathroom that sure as hell hadn’t been cleaned in weeks.

  But there was no sign of any woman around.

  I opened every cabinet and pulled back every curtain, and there was no evidence of Michelle anywhere. Which was unexpected, to say the least. I crossed back through the house, ready to rid myself of the place forever, then stopped in the front doorway and looked back.

  My eyes took in Andy as he drooled down the side of the couch. I felt bad for my friend. Andy was heading down the same road my father took, and every time I saw him he looked more and more like the cranky man. Andy used to be my best friend, despite the fact that we had been assholes. But that didn’t mean he needed to kill himself with booze like my father was doing.

  So, I drew in a deep breath of fresh air before I rolled Andy off the couch

  “Get up,” I said.

  “Michy?”

  “No, idiot. It’s Gray. Now get up.”

  “The hell?”

  “Get up, Andy.”

  I watched as he stumbled to his feet, his shirtless form rising up to meet my stare. His eyes were bloodshot and glassy, like my father’s. His breath reeked, like my father’s. His teeth were beginning to turn brown, like my father’s.

  I sighed and shook my head as I reached my arms out to steady Andy on his feet.

  “You need to get your shit together,” I said.

  He tried to shrug off my grasp, but I only held him tighter.

  “The hell do you want? Michelle isn’t here,” he said.

  “That’s obvious. But you’re here, and you’re half dead.”

  “What the hell do you care?”

  “You used to be my best friend, Andy. I’m always going to care.”

  “Fuck off.”

  “Let me help you get clean. Sober. I’ll pay for rehab and anything else you need. But you’re going down a path that’s going to kill you, and I don’t want to see you do that to yourself.”

  He finally found the strength to shrug me off and stumbled towards the hallway.

  “Get the hell out of my damn house, homewrecker.”

  I sighed and shook my head before I let myself out.

  Since it didn’t look like Andy wanted my help, or that Michelle was even in town, things were about to get more complicated. The only other option I had at my disposal was hiring a private investigator to track her down. Thankfully—and unfortunately—I had one on speed dial. One that had helped me through the last three pregnancy scares when women had popped up out of the blue and accused me of being the father of their child.

  So, I got him on the phone and fed him all the information I had.

  I filled him in on my history with her and what I knew about her. I told him how urgent it was that I found this woman because there was a chance she carried my child with her when she left. I hung up the phone and headed back to Anton’s, trying to bide my time dicking around the house until I heard back from him.

  I didn’t expect him to call back that afternoon, though.

  “This is Grayson.”

  “Grayson. It’s Detective Dryver.”

  “That was quick,” I said. “It’s never good when it’s quick.”

  “Just simple,” he said. “The first thing I did was I contact the bus station in Stillsville, and the man I talked to was very helpful. A woman by the name of Michelle Danforth matching the description you gave me bought a one-way bus ticket last Thursday to a small town in North Dakota called Williston.”

  “So that’s where she is?” I asked.

  Holy shit, the woman went all the way back home?

  “I did some digging, and I’m sure that’s where she is. Some medical records of hers popped up. A clinic in the middle of the town. I don’t have any sensitive information on what the clinic appointment was about, but I do know a Michelle Danforth has another appointment scheduled with them in three months. That’s where she is. I’m sure of it.”

  “Thanks for your help. Expect your normal feel plus a bonus to drop into your account by tomorrow morning,” I said.

  “Let me know if I can be of any further assistance.”

  “Trust me, I will.”

  I hung up the phone and called my pilot immediately. I told him to gas up and set his sights for Williston, North Dakota. I packed up my shit and hopped into my car, figuring I’d shower on the way there. I raced as fast as I could towards O’Hare, then turned my rental car in. After scheduling another one to be picked up once I got to my destination, I boarded my private jet and sat down in my regular seat.

  As we ascended and settled into our flight altitude, I wondered what it would be like to see her again. She’d probably be angry at me. I could expect to be slapped, at least. The bitterness my soul refused to let go of warred with the fact that I just missed her. I missed her voice and her presence. I missed her warmth and her innocence. I missed the woman I had come to know her as, and the idea that it all still might be a ruse killed me inside.

  The seatbelt sign went off and I unbuckled myself, shoving all of my longing for her to the back of my mind. I needed to clean myself up. I needed to shower and shave. I needed to put my best foot forward in order to stand a chance at getting her to talk to me. I had to focus on the fact that there was still the smallest chance that she wanted to screw me over. The smallest chance that she was still after my money, despite the wild goose chase I was on to find her.

  After all, if that child was Andy’s, the idea of raising that child alone was better than doing it in that duplex with a suicidal drunkard.

  But at the back of my mind, a truth whispered into the darkness. A truth I refused to acknowledge.

  And I wouldn’t acknowledge it until I had undeniable proof that my child was growing inside Michelle.

  Chapter 12

  Michelle

  “Thanks for the beer, sweet cheeks!”

  I jumped at the slap on my ass before I cringed. It was the third one that night, and I was ready to hang up my apron and go home. Nick’s job offer had been real. Trey—a friend of his from high school—did have a bar called Devil’s Delight. And he was in dire need of waitresses. It seemed like a classy joint, but it was filled with a bunch of sex-hungry, oiled-up field workers who enjoyed getting handsy with his staff.

  I quickly saw why he had such a high turnover rate when it came to waitresses.

  No amount of classiness could make the customers behave themselves. Only the owners could do that. But with Williston being a small town, turning away any sort of business meant there was a chance of going under. So, I dealt with the ass slaps and the cat calls and the crude comments from the regulars.

  They also tipped well, so I didn’t open my mouth.

  It didn’t help that women outnumbered men in my hometown. Which meant I got way more attention than I wanted. Though sometimes, the tips weren’t always worth it. On my first night, I walked away with four hundred dollars in my pocket. But I also walked away with a sore ass, slight bruise on my upper arm from where a man had grabbed me after I refused to sit on his lap, and the disgusting taste of smoke when a man tried to stick his nasty tongue down my throat.

  Four hundred dollars was a lot of money to save back for my
child, but it came at a high cost. Which meant I’d have to become friendly with the annoyance of being utterly manhandled in front of an owner that didn’t give a shit about his staff.

  “Another drink over here, sweet lips! There’s a tip in it for you if you let me pluck it from that bosom of yours.”

  “Titty shot! Titty shot! Titty shot!”

  I drew in a deep breath and forced a smile on my cheeks, then picked up a tray full of empty beer mugs so I could go wash them in the back. I brushed past everyone and set them down in the sink, holding back my tears as Trey followed me. He tried to give me a pep talk and reassure me that stunts like that wouldn’t be allowed in his bar. I wanted to snap at him and ask him where the hell he was when a man accosted me so badly he left a damn bruise on my arm.

  But I simply let it be while he settled the chanting men down.

  Washing the mugs with the soapy water got me covered in it as well. The damn faucet never worked right, and every once in a while the angle would turn and soak me in scalding hot water. I yelped and reached for a rag, trying to towel myself off a bit before I got back to my job. After I ran the mugs through the sanitizer, I walked back out.

  As I came around the bar, I looked up to check my tables, bit they stopped at the shadowed one in the corner. It was a table I was responsible for, but no one ever sat at it. It was far away from the crowd and underneath a light that hadn’t been working since I’d started there. But the pair of eyes that locked with mine sent chills running throughout my body.

  What in the world was Grayson MacDonald doing in Williston?

  I turned on my heels without a second thought and made my way to the back room. The door swung shut and I reached for a towel, trying to dab at the tears running down my cheeks. He was there. Out there. Sitting at one of my tables. My entire body shook and my stomach rolled with nausea. And soon, the door behind me opened up.

  “I’m sorry, Trey. Just give me a few seconds and I’ll—”

  “Who’s Trey?”

  My eyes widened at the sound of his voice as a heat approached my back.

  “My boss,” I said, as I turned around. “The guy that owns the place.”