by Kayn, Debra
When nominations came up for a new manager, someone or twenty put his name on the ballot. He shut off the torch. The extra couple of hundred bucks a month allowed him to work on his car and put the rest into his savings account—which usually got ate up when something big went kaput.
A loud wolf whistle split the air followed by Jason pushing past Kirkland to reach Shayla. Emmett turned toward the action.
Shayla bounced down the rickety wooden steps onto the lawn. "Out of my way, boys."
"You're not leaving us alone tonight, are you, Shayla?" Jason stepped in front of her.
"Would you miss me?" Shayla cocked her hip.
"Damn right, sweetheart." Jason looped his arm around Shayla's waist and dragged her forward. "Stay with me."
"Can't." She kissed Jason's cheek and eyed Kirkland, almost daring him to fight for her. "I need to go pick up my cousin."
"Does she look like you?" Jason stepped back.
"Hands off her, douchbag. She's got more class than to fall for the likes of you." Shayla turned and hurried to her car.
Emmett walked over and sat in his lawn chair. So, the mysterious cousin was going to come back and hang out at the park. His night suddenly got interesting.
Nick walked out of the trailer. Kirkland turned to Nick and said, "Hey, can I bum a cig?"
"Fuck off." Nick blew the smoke in Kirkland's direction.
Lori and "Bill" Billiard strolled up to the burn barrel hand in hand. Emmett lifted a finger in welcome. By the end of the night, the married couple would walk their separate ways. Lori back to Lot 24. Bill would crash on someone's couch. That's if the cops weren't called on them for domestic disturbance first. Those in the park learned long ago that the Billiard's got off on fighting and making up.
"How's work?" asked Bill.
"Good." Emmett stretched his legs out and hooked his hands together behind his head. "If the damn suppliers could put their drivers on a route that included Federal, I'd be happier."
"Still have a backlog?" Bill left Lori's side—his first offense for the evening.
"Yeah." Emmett watched Lori glare at Bill before spotting Grace walking toward the lot and hightailing it to her friend. "Nothing has changed."
Nothing ever changed in Federal.
The same people ran the town, term after term. The bikers kept enough fear in people to keep the riffraff out with their presence and reputation. The schools thrived after each failed levy. The bars stopped serving at two o'clock in the morning, and on Sundays, the doors to every business in town closed for the day. Meanwhile, he scraped by in life owning the auto parts store in town and pretended tomorrow would be a new day. Glad for when his routine stayed the same.
An emergency, an upheaval, and lack of funds broke everyone he knew. Cash made the difference between eating macaroni and cheese and going without a meal. He lowered his arms. He'd been on the wrong side of payday for too many years not to appreciate what he'd sacrificed and saved.
He had a roof over his head. Friends at his door. He never had time alone to worry about much else, and he liked it that way.
A rumble reached his ears. He lifted his gaze from the fire and found dust coming in his direction and Shayla's car barreling to her front yard next door and stopping. The night's entertainment had arrived.
Nova.
It sure in the hell wasn't the fact her parents named her after his favorite car that grabbed his attention. Underneath the stuck-up air she threw out, she barely hid the trailer park stamp on her nice, firm, round ass. The mix...fuck him. The mix turned him on.
"Hey, we're back losers." Shayla bounded across the patch of weeds toward the crowd in front of Emmett's trailer. "Everyone, this is my cousin Nova. Nova, this is everyone else."
Nova lifted her hand and smiled, sweeping her gaze from left to right and landing on Emmett. She cocked her brow at him and said, "Nice to meet...everyone."
The others gathered around her as if she'd moved into the park and opened her door to every walking hard-on that strolled by. Emmett crossed his arms, content to watch. He had no idea why Nova put on a show for everyone. The others would accept her regardless of how she acted.
"Does she party?" Shayla threw her arm around Nova's shoulders. "Heck yeah, she parties. Who has the drinks?"
Emmett looked away and grinned. None of the losers had a beer to their name. Not on the twenty-eighth day of the month. His liquor sat on a shelf in his bedroom where the assholes wouldn't find it.
Over the next couple of hours, he enjoyed the conversations, the insults, the memories each one of them recounted as the night grew later. He'd joined the men closer to the burning barrel as the mountain chill laid down on all of them while keeping Nova in his view opposite the fire.
"The back corner blocks of old man Stuart's trailer are sinking again." Nick pulled out a cigarette from the inside of his coat and lit the end while the others were distracted.
"I'll check it out tomorrow after work." Emmett picked up a couple of pieces of dry lumber scraps left over from repairing Ms. McKinley's carport and tossed them on the fire. "Spring thaw shifts the ground each year on the back loop. One of these years, Stuart's going to wake up and find his house tipped off its blocks."
Half the mobile homes in the park had sat on their lot since before the seventies. The next generation of residents had their hands full keeping the rotting floors and leaking roofs from ruining the only home they'd ever own. Emmett stepped back from the smoke. He'd moved into his trailer at twenty years old when an elderly woman decided to move in with her daughter in a different state due to health problems and her hardship turned into good luck for him.
Once he got rid of all the crap Mrs. Dolores sat on the porch and tossed the wind chimes away, he had the best home in the park. It served the purpose of having a roof over his head without throwing his money away on rent, and when the other residents weren't pissing him off, he enjoyed the nights like tonight.
He looked across the fire and lost track of Nova. His body tensed and he turned to ask Nick where she'd gone and found Nova approaching Nick's other side.
"All right, cuz. Give me some of your time." Nova slipped her arms around Nick's waist and smiled up into his face. "I listened to your bullshit story about how your job is good, your sister is good, and beer is good. Tell me everything else. How did you pick Federal to settle down in? Have you missed me?"
Nick ruffled the top of Nova's hair. "Ran out of gas and decided to check out what was available around here to rent when we got foreclosed on back in Washington. Instead, I got a good deal on a private contract to buy the trailer. I haven't missed you at all."
Nova groaned on a laugh. "You're such a liar. What about the meatloaf I used to make just for you?"
"Damn," muttered Nick. "I have missed your loaf."
"Play nice while I'm in town, and maybe I'll give Shayla the recipe for the meatloaf and she can make it for you." Nova hugged her cousin. "God, I've missed you, even though you always pick on me."
"Is that why you came to Federal? You missed us?" asked Nick.
Nova pushed away from Nick and grinned. "Of course, I missed you."
"Where are you staying?"
Nova gazed over at the fire. "In town."
"The Inn?"
"Yeah." Nova bumped her hip into her cousin. "I saved up some money and thought 'What the hell. It's time for a family reunion' and here I am."
Emmett studied Nova. She lied to her cousin.
Oh, she covered up her fib and blew it off as a spontaneous decision to show up in a mining town. But, her story stunk worse than the farm down the road from the park.
Chapter Five
Aware of Emmett listening to her conversation with Nick, Nova steered the topic of why she came to Federal to a safer subject. Only Shayla knew about her job with the Network and swore never to tell. It wasn't to save her reputation. She'd lost that a long time ago.
Nick, while a loner by nature, he took personal responsibility for Nova as
the only male relative. Learning the truth would cause problems, and he'd demand she leave the Network.
The whole illegal occupation in the eyes of the government and the little tax evasion problem meant years in prison if the wrong person found out she was a prostitute at bordellos across the United States.
"So..." Nova tilted her head. "How do you stand working hundreds of feet below ground?"
"It's alright." Nick shrugged. "Hotter than hell but the money is good. The work is steady."
"Remember when you used to work at Barney's?" Nova laughed. "Shayla and I used to sneak through the back window—"
"And, raid the ice cream machine." Nick rubbed the back of his neck and turned to Emmett, including him into the conversation. "My first job was at this place that served dip tops and sundaes. The owner, ex-military, believed in order and promptness. He never could control Nova and Shayla. Never saw them coming by each night before closing to load up on ice cream."
Emmett looked to Nova. "Sneaky, huh?"
She gave him a half grin without replying. A master at throwing bait to curious males to keep them interested, she played for entertainment to see how long he'd wonder about her. The others gathering around looked at her to distract them from life. Only a visitor to the park. An interruption to their normal night.
For some reason, she wanted to push Emmett's buttons and keep him curious.
Instead, Emmett moved away from the fire and left her to her secrets. She watched him walk away without a care. Either he was smarter than everyone here or he'd caught her destination when she'd ran away from him to Red Light the other night, she had to remain diligent.
Loud rock music came from the trailer behind her. She turned and caught sight of Emmett jumping off the step of his house. Her stomach fluttered at the way her plan backfired. He was the one who was supposed to wonder about her, not the other way around.
Every day insecure men visited her behind the green door. There was nothing timid about Emmett.
He walked in a secure loop, neither uptight or unaware. Not in a hurry, and never slow. Owning the space he occupied, he met everyone's gaze and made sure his presence was known without saying a word.
His confidence appealed to her. In any other circumstance, she'd enjoy spending time with him if she had the freedom to have a social life out in the open.
"Nova," called Shayla, waving her arm above her head. "Let's go inside. I'm freezing my ass off."
She nodded and turned to Nick. "Which one of us wants to tell her the ass she's worried about would keep a small village warm all winter?"
Nick grinned and shook his head. "You're on your own. I have to live with her."
"Come on." Nova laughed and tugged on his arm. "Come inside and visit with me."
Nick followed her over to the next lot. "Emmett, come on over."
She glanced back and caught Emmett lifting his chin and setting out to follow them. She opened the door, pushing it wide for Nick behind her. Emmett slipped inside before the door shut.
"Emmett, this is my cousin, Nova." Nick plopped down on the couch.
"We've already met." Emmett carried one of the dining room table chairs into the living space and straddled the seat backward, placing his arm over the back. "Didn't know you had any relatives in the area."
Nova frowned. "Why would they tell you?"
Emmett shrugged. "Not much is kept a secret around the park."
"That's what you think." Nova took the empty rocker in the corner of the room.
"I know..." Emmett lowered his voice. "You're definitely not from around here."
Shayla carried in two bags of chips and a half a package of vanilla cream cookies and set the food on the coffee table, in reach of all of them. "Nova's a traveler. She's been everywhere."
Her pulse raced. She had to distract Shayla from giving Emmet and Nick more information on her. "It's not that exciting, but to answer your question. No, I've never been to Idaho before. It's nice. Quaint. Mountain-y."
"What do you do that lets you travel?" Emmett grabbed a cookie.
"This and that." Nova copied his movements and instead turned the outsides of the cookie in opposite directions, opening the inside layer of cream to her tongue. "Mm..."
"Do not put the cookie back in the package after you've licked everything off." Shayla laughed. "You used to do that when you were young, and then we'd hide and watch Nick pop them in his mouth, one after another, and almost pissed ourselves when he failed to notice."
Nova glanced at Nick and wrinkled her nose. "Sorry. We were so immature."
"Great, girls." Nick scooted the cookies closer to him. "I don't even want to know what else you did behind my back."
Her happiness over being with her cousins outweighed her embarrassment in front of Emmett. Family meant everything to her. If she could bottle the good times, she'd keep the memories forever.
"Everything we did was behind your back." Nova grinned. "You were overbearing and strict."
"Someone had to be," muttered Nick.
"Right," she whispered on an exhale. Her aunt's lack of supervision while she drank herself drunk meant the three of them grew up doing whatever they wanted. She'd taken the free-time and spent her youth running the streets, tagging her artwork all over town, and doing her best to keep out of the hands of the older boys who wanted to take advantage of her.
"Have you thought any more about moving in with us?" Shayla opened the bag of chips and settled down on the couch beside her brother.
"You're moving back?" asked Nick
"No, Shayla won't drop the subject. I'm only here for a visit." She waved off the question. "I'll need to...get back to my job in ten weeks."
"Are you still working for that art place?" Nick brushed off his hands on his thighs.
"I, um..." Nova tilted her head, trying to remember what her cover story was when she moved away. "Still work for an art gallery. That's why I travel to different places."
The lie spilled out like an old friend.
"Federal's hosting an art show?" Emmett chuckled. "That's a first. They usually stick with festivals."
"No, I'm not here for work. Just a vacation." Nova stood from the chair. "Shayla, can I borrow your room to make a phone call?"
"You don't have to ask." Shayla wrinkled her nose. "A little late, though, to call anyone."
"Time change. It's to the..." She drew a blank.
"I'm teasing you." Shayla stood. "I need to use the bathroom."
Together they walked down the narrow hallway in the single-wide trailer. Nova hooked her arm underneath Shayla's elbow.
"I need to talk to you," whispered Nova, pulling her cousin into the bedroom and shutting the door.
"What's going on?" Shayla leaned forward. "Everything is going great. Nick doesn't suspect a thing."
Nova rolled her eyes. "You're not helping matters. Stop asking me to move in and if someone asks about my job, at least change the subject. I don't like lying to Nick."
"Then tell him the truth. He's not going to care."
"Are you delusional?" Nova tapped her foot. "Nick punched Tommy Coche when he caught him kissing me in his car the day after I turned sixteen years old. What do you think he'll do when he finds out the miners he works with are visiting me at the bordello?"
Shayla's jaw opened, and she gaped at Nova.
"What?" said Nova on a hiss.
"Oh my God, what if Nick goes to town and buys sex?" Shayla blinked into Nova's face and then burst out laughing. "I'm just kidding. He's always broke. He couldn't afford you."
"You're disgusting." Nova leaned forward and shook her cousin. "I need to leave in an hour if I’m going to sneak back inside the building without getting caught. If Nick starts questioning why I only come at night and leave when everyone else should be sleeping, tell him I'm working from my room at the inn. Tell him my boss is demanding, even on vacation."
"Don't worry. I've got you covered." Shayla grinned. "All this sneaking around reminds me of old time
s. Except, I'm not out covering your ass while you tag the side of a train. Maybe you can decorate the pillars under the viaduct on your way over here, and we could act out our teenage years."
"Yeah, that won't be happening," mumbled Nova.
She returned to the living room to find Emmett and Nick talking about some sports team and the odds of them winning. Without disturbing them, she curled into the chair and listened to the deep male voices lulling her to relax.
Shayla came back and took up her spot on the couch, pulling the afghan Nova recognized as one of Aunt Jennie's off the back of the sofa and covering up.
She curled her legs into the chair, turned sideways, and laid her cheek on the upholstery. The ease at which she relaxed inside the trailer, the conversations and even the odd scents that seemed familiar comforted her.
Nick kicked off his shoes and put his sock covered feet on the coffee table. Emmet occasionally gazed at her while talking to Nick. Not in a weird way or even interest. More of an acknowledgment that she remained in the room, and he liked her there. She found herself looking back, even when he looked away. She liked his presence. He was comfortable with himself, and even in someone else's house.
She had a feeling if she walked across the room and sat beside him, he'd put his arm around her without even thinking or hesitating. He'd roll with the changes, and while he'd continue to talk with Nick, he'd make her feel secure at her side.
Not that she'd make a move on him.
She had no idea how she'd come to those conclusions about Emmett. He was not here because of her, and she wasn't here because of him. Emmett came over because Nick and Shayla were his friends. They were good people enjoying a night together.
An hour later, Shayla was sound asleep. The men had switched from sports talk to politics to the good versus better parts for Nick's truck. Nova yawned and stretched her legs. She needed to get back to town and hated the thought of leaving. The quiet conversation between the two men had lulled her into a semi-coma.
