“She probably saw you getting into a car with a stranger. It’s nothing unusual about her wanting to know where you are,” I say
But her eyes tell me everything I’m already feeling.
I don’t want to deliver her back to her mom either, but if this thing between us is gonna work. If my town project is gonna happen…
I’m gonna have to play by the rules.
To begin with anyway.
“Well. There’s Cherry,” Jacinta scoffs, jutting her chin towards the view.
But I’m already over the scenery.
I want in on a very different kind of deal.
The forever kind, and with her.
CHAPTER SIX
Jacinta
Kyle is so understanding.
Mature. Like a real man would be.
I mean, like he just is.
He can see both sides of my distress, and despite me practically begging that he come in and talk things over with my mom, he stays outside in his car.
Me?
I’m trying to avoid strangling my mom as soon as I see her.
“How dare you just take off like that, Jacinta,” she hisses, gripping my wrist hard, keeping her voice down so the customers don’t overhear her, but I think half the diner catches her meaning just fine.
It’s nothing new to hear her going off at me or someone else, so nobody takes any notice.
“How dare you interfere with my first day on the job?” I spit back, yanking my wrist free.
Feeling confident only because I can still see Kyle’s car parked outside.
He hasn’t left.
Not like everyone else with any sense in this town.
“Job?” My mom asks, her voice softening, but I see those dollar signs in her eyes light up.
Moms experienced the good life, had it right up until my dad went broke. And something tells me she’d kill to get that life back.
She saves whatever she can, but likes to spend it as fast as she can earn it when it suits her too.
Any time there’s the mention of money or a way to cut back the work she has to do?
My mom’s all ears.
“What kind of a job?” she asks next, her voice full of suspicion.
I could shrug and tell her to mind her own business, but if I want her to leave me and Kyle alone I’ll need a plausible reason to spend time with him.
Showing him the sights of Cherry isn’t a good one, even though it’s what Kyle himself is insisting I’ll be doing.
“Uh… He has a professor friend. An archaeologist who needs help with something.
It’s a terrible lie, but I panicked, making up and then going along with the first thing that pops into my head.
“Why didn’t you say so?” she scolds me. “I mean, you just take off like that after the guy nearly runs you down out front… He could be a serial killer for all I know. But an actual archaeologist’s friend, huh? This could be the break you’ve been looking for.”
Her eyes shift around, edgy almost as she looks for Kyle.
“Well, where is he then? You’d better go apologize for being so stupid and try and get your job back,” she snaps as if it’s her idea that I go work for the man.
She is my mom, I know that much. But I also know deep down that I’m really my father’s daughter.
I mean, I’m nothing like my mom and I am grateful for that much at least. Sure she got the skinny gene, but my dad’s side of the family?
Not loco like my mom is.
He had the good sense to get out, even though it meant leaving me behind. But I don’t have time to dwell on that.
“He’s right outside,” I explain through gritted teeth, struggling not to lose my shit altogether.
If it wasn’t for Kyle waiting and watching? I’d probably be scratching this woman’s eyes out right now.
Years of freedom away from my mom and this town, and now a glimmer of hope in Kyle coming here. I’ll be damned if I’m gonna let her screw this up for me. And without waiting for her approval, even though in some crazy way I have it, I spin on my heel and make my way back to the door.
I feel something inside close off. Like I’m done.
Done with my mom’s antics, done with this town, and done wondering if the world will ever cut me a break.
Because it doesn’t work like that.
Sure good and bad things happen to people all the time, but it’s people like my dad, people like Kyle who actually make it.
People who take calculated risks.
They bite off more than they can chew sometimes, but that’s what winners are. People who take a chance, and if they lose or fall they get straight back up again. Something I’ve never been very good at, I never had any reason to until today.
Wherever my dad is, I don’t think he’s struggling. He would’ve found a way back up to the top. I know it.