by B. B. Hamel
“What did they want? Is everything okay?” I step into the office, concerned. I’ve never seen her looking like this before.
She looks up slowly, a frown deepening across her face. “They want to buy the preserve,” she says.
I narrow my eyes. “Doesn’t someone want to buy it every year and the council always blocks it?”
“They say the council isn’t blocking it this year.”
I stare at her for a second, at a total loss. “How is that possible?”
She sighs, shaking her head. “I really don’t know, sweetie. They came in here with some pretty aggressive claims and I don’t know what to think about it.”
“Who do they represent?” I lean up against the frame of her door. I feel like I’m getting sick, like my knees are going weak and my stomach is churning.
“You know who,” she says softly, shaking her head.
It hits me all at once. The Carter family is the only family in the town with the power and money to buy the preserve.
“They can’t do this,” I say. “Don’t they have enough?”
“Apparently Mr. Carter doesn’t think so.” Laura sighs again and stands. “Come on, we have some work to do.”
“How can you be so calm? We have to call our lawyers. Or the mayor. Or the paper.”
“Honey.” She walks over to me and takes my shoulders. “Calm down. Nothing is happening today. I need some time to figure this out. We’ll fight it.”
I look at her for a second, but it’s not good enough. I turn away without another word and walk as fast as I can out of the office and into the woods.
Truthfully, I’m not mad at Laura, not at all. I know she’ll fight to protect this place if at all possible. I’m angry with the Carters and I don’t want her to see me crying.
I can’t help myself. I love this preserve more than anything else in the world. I genuinely don’t know what I’d do if it gets taken away from me. I walk far out, toward the meadow, crying softly. It takes me about ten minutes of hiking before I finally get control of myself and calm down enough to think.
Do the Carter brothers know about this? I have no clue if they even realize that I work here. They definitely don’t know how important this place is to me. I can’t imagine them wanting to hang out with Jordan and me last night has anything to do with their father wanting to buy this land. Still, it makes me angry, fucking sick, that they’d do this. I keep thinking about the looks Caleb kept giving me all night. I thought they were innocent, but now I realize that he was flirting with me, and it makes me want to throw up.
People like the Carters, they think they deserve more. They think they’re special and good and smart just because they have money. But the Carter brothers did nothing for their money, and their father was given a million dollar loan from his father to get started. Everyone knows the Carters come from money and aren’t self-made at all, but that doesn’t matter.
They still have money and power, and that’s what makes the world keep moving. They’re going to use their power to take the things that are important away from me, and it makes me despise them with everything I have.
I sit down in the middle of the meadow and lean back on my hands, trying to calm myself down, but I can barely think. Laura seemed genuinely worried and that freaks me out. She’s never seemed so much as slightly annoyed by anything since I’ve met her, but this morning she seemed downright shaken.
There’s a noise to my left that draws my attention. I cock my head and stand up, looking into the tree line. I hear it again suddenly, and for some reason I feel paranoid, though I don’t know why. I watch as a person steps out from the trees and into the grass.
“Thought I’d find you here,” he says. It’s Lucas Baker, looking just as handsome as I remember.
I pause for a second. “What are you doing out here?”
“Laura told me I’d find you here. She’s pretty great, isn’t she?” He smiles at me.
“Yeah,” I say. “She is.”
He stops midway toward me. “You okay? You look like you’re upset about something.”
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “I’m fine. You here about the flowers?”
He nods. “The life of a florist is very exciting.”
I can’t help but smile a little bit. “Almost as exciting as things are around here, I bet.”
“Could be. You sure you’re okay?”
“It’s nothing, really. Don’t worry about it.”
He walks toward me again. “You can talk to me about it, if you want. I’ve been through some shit myself and I can be a good listener.”
I look at his handsome face and for a second I’m tempted to spill my guts out. I don’t know why but being around him makes me feel so much more comfortable, way more comfortable than I should feel. I don’t even know him, and yet he makes me want to talk about absolutely everything.
“It’s just some drama with this place,” I tell him finally.
“Someone stealing your trees?”
I sigh and glance down. “Something like that.”
He crosses his arms. “Point me in the direction of this tree thief. I’ll take care of him.”
I can’t help but smile. “I don’t know,” I say. “He’s got an army of lawyers.”
“Lawyers are my greatest enemies,” he says sincerely.
I can’t help but laugh. “You’re in a feud with all lawyers?”
“That’s right,” he says earnestly. “I’ll destroy them for you. It would bring great honor to my family.”
I laugh again and shake my head. “No thanks, lawyer slayer. I think I’m good.”
“Lawyer slayer. I like that.” He flexes a little bit. “I think it fits.”
“Totally. You’re a very scary man.”
He grins at me and I suddenly feel better. It’s strange, and although I’m still angry as hell about everything, I suddenly don’t want to scream my head off. He took the edge off my mood and even got me smiling.
“Want to walk back?” he asks me.
“Sure, but didn’t you want to see the flowers?”
“Ah,” he says, shrugging. “They’re beautiful. Let’s go.”
He turns and starts walking and I have to hurry to catch up. I smile to him, not understanding at all what his deal is, but I don’t mind. We start chatting again, just falling into a comfortable rhythm, and soon he has me laughing again.
I don’t know what he’s doing out here, but I’m glad he came. I wanted to scream and cry and I knew I’d be an angry mess all afternoon, but suddenly it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. In fact, by the time we get back to the office, I feel like I’m ready to fight back against whatever’s coming.
“I’m glad you found me out there,” I tell him. “I was pretty angry.”
“But you’re not now?”
“No, I’m still mad. But I’m glad you found me anyway.”
He laughs a little and leans up against his truck. “I’m glad I found you, too. Actually, I wanted to ask you something.”
“What’s that?”
“What are you doing for dinner tonight?”
That makes me pause, a little surprised. The image of Caleb flirting with me from the night before drifts back into my mind, mingling with my anger at his father for wanting to build on the preserve.
But I’m not sure why. I don’t have anything to do with Caleb. I don’t know why I’d pause over this attractive man asking me out, especially when I so clearly want to be with him. Caleb Carter has nothing to do with it.
“Nothing,” I say honestly.
“Good. I’m taking you out.”
“Okay,” I say, a little surprised at the excitement coursing through my veins.
“You like The Bunker?”
I laugh a little. The Bunker is this little diner at the other side of town, an all-night place. Nothing fancy, but it’s a local institution. “Best food in town.”
“Perfect. I’ll pick you up at eight.”
&
nbsp; “See you then.”
He grins and gets into his truck. He fires up the engine and I step back. I feel his eyes roll up and down my body, and normally I’d hate it, but right now I don’t mind. In fact, I want him to look at me.
He pulls out and heads back down the road. I feel my pulse hammering in my chest, and a strange, confused feeling washes over me.
I’m excited to go to dinner with him. But I’m afraid of losing the preserve. I don’t know which feeling is stronger. But I can’t deny the tingling between my legs and the way my body is just drawn toward him. I’ve never had a man like him ask me out before.
He’s ten years older than me, which should give me pause. Maybe to some people that’s a little weird. But I don’t really care. That doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, I think I like it. He’s an older man, which means he’s experienced and mature, which is maybe what I need right now. He can make me laugh and keep me level-headed, even in this awful time.
I head back inside to see Laura, feeling slightly better.
5
Lucas
Alice nearly flips her shit when I tell her that I have a date with Mia Hayes.
I smile to myself, my truck idling in her driveway. She told me to wait for her in the truck while she finished getting ready because her father is asleep. It was a little strange but I didn’t feel like asking any personal questions right off the bat. I haven’t been on a date in a long time, and I’m maybe a little fucking rusty.
Alice though, she nearly freaked. Couldn’t believe I was actually going out with someone. She acted like the heavens opened up and an angel took a crap on her kitchen floor. She immediately agreed to watch Noah, said she’d watch him for as long as I need with that stupid wink she does.
I doubt it’ll come to that, but I quickly change my mind as soon as I see Mia come walking down her front walkway toward me.
The girl is fucking gorgeous. Tight dark jeans and a top unbuttoned just enough to show off her perfect fucking breasts. She knows exactly what she has and she’s teasing me with it, which only makes me that much more excited. I get out of my truck and walk around the passenger side, opening the door for her.
“What a gentleman,” she says, laughing.
“What can I say? I’m a very complicated person.”
She laughs again as I get back into the driver’s seat. I pull out and head over toward The Bunker.
“So, can I ask something maybe a little personal?” I say, glancing at her.
“My father has Alzheimer’s,” she says right away. “I assume you’re wondering why I had you wait in the car.”
I grin a little sheepish. “Yeah. Sorry if that’s rude.”
“No, it’s totally fine. He doesn’t do great with new people sometimes, so I figure it would be easier that way.”
I nod, watching the road. “I understand that. You live with your mom?”
“No,” she says. “Just me and my dad. Mom died a few years ago.”
“Damn. Sorry to hear it. Your mom was a nice person.”
“Yeah, she was.”
“So you take care of him?” I ask, a little surprised.
“With the help of some nurses. I have one there now.”
“You’re a good daughter,” I say, genuinely impressed.
“Maybe,” she says, and I can tell she doesn’t want to keep talking about it.
I change the subject to The Bunker’s long and storied history, but in the back of my mind I can’t help but keep thinking about how impressive this girl keeps turning out to be. She takes care of her sick father and is apparently too modest to really talk about it. I know she’s a smart girl, and I bet she could have gone to college.
But here she is, working at a nature preserve and taking care of her sick father. If that’s not a good fucking person, I don’t know what is.
We get to The Bunker and park out front. It’s not too crowded, which is surprising. It’s an old school diner with retro fifties styling, probably because it was built in the fifties and never upgraded. The place looks a little rundown, a little beat up, but that’s part of its charm.
There’s an old broken crane game and a cigarette machine in the waiting room. We head inside and the hostess seats us pretty much right away in a booth in the middle of the place. To our left is the counter and further down, toward the back of the building, is a bar. Some of the old regulars are sitting back there, probably a few deep already.
“So, what’s good here?” I ask Mia.
She smiles at me. “Everything.”
“I know,” I say. “I get the same damn thing every time.”
“What’s that?”
“Cheeseburger, medium, extra fries well done, and a milkshake.”
She laughs, shaking her head. “Are you serious? That sounds like what a little kid would order.”
“What are you going to get then, Miss Sophisticated?”
“I think I’ll get a Caesar salad.”
I groan. “Come on. This is on me. Go nuts.”
She laughs. “I’m just kidding, like I’m a dainty girl getting a salad. No, I’m having the double grilled cheese and tomato soup.”
“That’s better,” I say, grinning huge.
The waitress comes over a minute later and we put in our order, plus I ask for a couple beers. She comes back with the drinks right away and we toast. I know Mia is technically underage, but I don’t really give a shit and neither does The Bunker.
“So, Lucas,” she says after we’re done toasting. “I told you something personal earlier, about my dad. Now it’s your turn.”
I lean back, smirking at her. “Okay then. You ready for this?”
She nods, leaning toward me. “Give it to me.”
“I have a son. He’s eleven months old.”
She stares at me for a second, clearly a little surprised. I’m worried that I’ve fucked shit up already by telling her so soon, but it’s better to get that sort of thing out right away.
“You’re a father,” she says, smiling a little. “Do you have pictures?”
I grin at her. “Of course. What kind of father would I be if I didn’t?” I pull up my phone and opens the photos app. “Go ahead and scroll, it’s all pictures of Noah and flowers for the shop.”
She starts scrolling, making the usual noises about how cute he is, but this time I actually believe her. She gets to one picture of him with his diaper on his head, crying his eyes out, and she laughs loudly. “This is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen,” she says, hanging me the phone back.
“Thanks. He’s pretty great.”
“So, uh, can I ask about the mother?”
“She’s not in the picture,” I say. “She split after he was born. I left the service to come home and take care of Noah.”
“Really?” she asks, watching me seriously. “That’s a huge step.”
“I know,” I say. “But he’s my son. What else could I do?”
“A lot of things,” she says. “But most of them are pretty shitty.”
I smirk at her and shrug. “Guess that makes me a great guy.”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself. It just makes you okay.”
I laugh and she grins back at me. I like that she’s giving me shit. Most people fawn all over me because I’m a fucking veteran that came home to take care of my kid, but that doesn’t seem to impress her so much. I like that a lot about her. I’m sick of people pretending like I’m some hero or some shit when they don’t know what I did overseas at all. I could have been digging shit trenches for hours a day, or I could have been some horrible killer. I wasn’t either of those things, but people don’t know, and it’s refreshing not to have to deal with some frustrating hero worship.
I’m just a regular guy. I don’t see myself as a hero. And the shit over there, it’s hard to deal with sometimes. I don’t feel like a hero and I don’t want to be thanked.
“It must have been difficult,” she says. “Coming home and taking care of a baby.”
/> “You’re not kidding. But I have my stepmom, Alice.”
“That’s pretty great. A lot of people might bail.”
I nod, really thankful for Alice. “You’re right. She’s pretty amazing.”
Just then, the waitress returns with our food. She places it down in front of us and we toast again before digging in.
The girl actually eats, and I really fucking like that. Sometimes women pick at their food, not wanting to look like they’re humans who actually want to eat and enjoy food, but not Mia. She digs right in, just like I do, and I appreciate that about her. We go silent for a few minutes as we both enjoy our food. After I’m halfway done, I lean back in my seat and sip my beer.
“Alright,” I say to her. “We’ve established how great I am.” She gives me a look but I continue. “Let’s talk some about you.”
“What about me?”
“You stayed home to help your dad.”
She nods. “Yeah, that’s right. Someone had to do it.”
“Does your sister come by often?”
“Not really,” she admits. “Linda helps financially, but she’s all the way out in California. It’s impossible for her to visit too often.”
I nod but don’t say anything. It seems like a pretty fucked up thing to do for an older sister to let her younger sister bear this burden, but it’s not my place to say that or to judge.
“That’s good,” I say. “I know the distance can be hard sometimes.”
“Yeah,” she says softly. “Sucks worse when all your friends leave town for college.”
“All of them?” I ask, leaning toward her. “Not many people escape this town.”
“No, not all of them,” she admits. “But enough of them.”
“Lucky kids. You ever think about leaving?”
“One day maybe,” she says. “I want to travel. Or at least live in a big city, you know? Someplace where everyone doesn’t know my business.”
“Where you can be anonymous,” I say. “I get that. Part of why I joined up.”
“Yeah, you felt anonymous there?”
“I was a cog in the machine, serving my country. But that can get old pretty fast.”
