The Crush

Nathan was waiting for me in the kitchen when I got back.

I dropped the paper bag of tortilla chips on the counter.

“Sorry I took so long. The line was out the door.”

“No problem, man.” Nathan opened the other bag and began taking out the contents, examining the writing on the burritos to determine which was his. “How’s your dad?”

“Health wise? He seems to be stable. It’s everything else that’s screwed up.”

He stopped messing with the food. “Everything else? What’s going on?”

“There’s something I haven’t told you,” I admitted.

His eyes narrowed. “Everything okay?”

“Let’s take our food to the table.”

We did, and I spent the next several minutes telling him about the situation my father had gotten Muldoon Construction into.

He shook his head. “God, I always thought Phil had a better head on his shoulders than that. I guess addiction sometimes gets the best of them. I mean, look at your brothers.”

“Yeah.” I gritted my teeth. “All the men in my family have issues, apparently.”

“So, what are you gonna do?”

“I’m heading to the bank tomorrow to see if we qualify for a loan. I just want to pay these guys back and deal with the rest later.”

He nodded. “Well, I wish I could help, but as we know, I am one broke-ass motherfucker right now.”

“There is a way you can help.”

“How?”

“You can be vigilant.” I braced myself. “One of the guys we owe money to came by the house the other day looking for me. Farrah answered the door.”

His face turned red. “That’s not good.”

I exhaled. “I know. I told her never to answer the door if one of us isn’t home.”

I knew nothing meant more to Nathan than his sister. She was the only family he had.

“I need to tell Farrah what’s going on with your dad,” he said.

“I already did.”

His eyes went wide. “You did? When?”

“The other day—when we had dinner together. She came into the kitchen and saw me at my lowest point. It was right after I found out about it. She asked me what was wrong, so I told her.”

“Wait…you told Farrah that day, and I’m only now finding out about it?”

Shit. “It’s not that I was keeping it from you. I just didn’t want to upset you. You seemed to be in a rare mood that day. So I opted to wait.”

He raised his voice. “Maybe I was in a rare mood because I came home to find you all up in my sister.”

Whoa. What the fuck? I feigned shock. I had to. “What are you talking about?”

“Things looked a little compromising when I found you two in the pool. Your hands were all over her. She was practically naked.”

My pulse raced. “I don’t know what you thought that was, but we were just playing around.”

Several moments of silence passed. It was awkward as fuck, and I hated every second.

Then Nathan backed off and shrugged. “Okay. If you say so.”

I tried my best to make myself believe what I said next. “There’s nothing going on there, Nathan. I love Farrah...like a sister. She helped take my mind off everything that day. We were having fun, like a couple of kids in the pool. That’s it. You got me?”

He looked at me for a few seconds. “Yeah.”

I recognized the look in his eyes as one of cautious trust, which meant I needed to be careful moving forward.

“Good,” I said.

The silence that followed as we finished dinner told me Nathan was still thinking about it. That sucked. I felt like shit. And I was sweating. Because deep down, I knew what had been happening with Farrah lately wasn’t innocent.

Chapter 5

* * *

Farrah

My shift at the law firm ran from seven to three. It was a cushy job, and what some people might say was a waste of my time. I wasn’t going anywhere in life by filing things and typing up correspondence. But it paid decently, and they didn’t care whether I had a college degree, which made it kind of hard to give up. I’d been working there for the better part of a year. The hours were great because there was never any traffic at three in the afternoon.

One of the first things I did when I got home from the office was check on the girl next door. Nora’s mother left her alone after school. I always felt bad for her because I could relate; I knew all too well what it was like to come home to an empty house when you needed a hug or someone to talk to.

Her mother had given me a key to use so Nora never had to answer the door—to avoid inadvertently opening for the wrong person. (Like I did the other day.) Nora was doing her homework when I came in.

She put down her pencil when she saw me. “Hey, what’s up?”