Perfect Bastard (Mason Creek)

“It’s not too bad.”

“Why? Because Emma’s doing all the heavy lifting?”

He laughed. “If I had boobs, I could do more. But she insists on breastfeeding. Anyway, that’s not why I called.”

“What’s up?”

“There’s a barn dance tonight.”

I held up a hand even though he couldn’t see it. “That will be a hard pass.”

“You haven’t heard me out. I signed up to bring a couple of kegs, but I don’t want to leave Emma. Once the kids are fed, I’m sending her off to bed. Can you take the kegs for me?”

My sigh was heavy and long, so he felt the weight of it. “Fine. Where are they?”

“Here on my porch. They were dropped off earlier.”

“They couldn’t have dropped them off at the barn, because duh.”

“Dude, sleep-deprived. I didn’t think about it until after it was delivered.”

“I thought you said you were getting enough sleep.”

“Stop whining,” he joked. “Are you going to help me out or not?”

“You know I am. That’s why you asked me. Old reliable Nate.”

“I don’t remember you being that reliable when we were growing up.”

“Really? I recall being there every time you got your ass chewed out for breaking the rules when I’d made it out scot-free.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Are you coming?”

“I’ll be there in a half an hour. And don’t ask for sooner. I’m in the middle of something. They can wait for the beer.”

Going to the barn dance would turn out to be a very bad idea.

ELEVEN

Avery

Tugboat called to me from the office. He was one of Dad’s mechanics. I raised my arms in confusion because I was standing under a car ready to do an oil change. I hadn’t felt like sliding under the car, so I’d raised it up.

He waved me over, and I frowned. I wiped my sweaty brow before heading toward the office. As I got closer, I noticed Haley inside. “Hey. What are you doing here?”

I feared the worst, as Haley would usually call. She didn’t pop by often unless she was bored. If that was the case, she would have waited for me to finish before making her presence known.

“I need to know if you’ll go with me tonight.”

I opened my mouth but failed to speak at first because I was sure I hadn’t heard her right. “That couldn’t wait?” I asked, only half-annoyed.

She was exuberant and nearly bouncing on her toes in excitement. I knew her well enough to pinpoint her nervous excitement.

“I texted you, but you haven’t replied.” She glanced up over at Tugboat, who hadn’t left. He was half in love with her, but she was clueless.

“Oh, I’ll leave you two,” he said and rushed back to the bays.

“Anyway, I need to let Agan know.”

“Agan?” I asked, now officially annoyed.

She’d been seeing him the last couple of weeks. I could see the crash before it happened. Her hopes were going way up. The guy had money, lots of it, and he wouldn’t be looking for a wife in the backwoods of Mountainside.

“He was invited to a barn dance in Mason Creek and wants me to go.”

“Okay. What has that got to do with me? Do you need me to babysit Zoe?”

Haley clapped and finally started bouncing. “No. She has a sleepover tonight. I need you to come. I don’t want to go with just him. If he has to talk to people, I don’t want to be standing alone.”

“Great, so that would leave me standing alone when you’re dancing the night away with him. No, thank you. You’re on your own.”

She grabbed my hand. “Please. I’ll tell him I’ll meet him there. If I ride with him, I’ll do something stupid. So far I haven’t been stupid.”

I looked her straight in the eye. “You’re saying you haven’t had sex with him yet?”

She shook her head frantically. I ran a hand over my head. “Fine. I’ll go. But you owe me. And I don’t get off for a couple of hours.”

We had a backlog of cars. People wanted their cars tuned up before getting on the highway for the holidays or they didn’t want to get stranded, given a major storm was barreling down and would hit in a few days.

“Call me when you’re ready to leave,” Haley said and waved goodbye.

I rolled my head on my shoulders, not looking forward to going to Mason Creek. I’d managed not to run into Nathaniel the past few weeks. Then again, I suspected he would more likely be at the bar than a dance.

Who was I kidding? What I didn’t want to see was him there twirling some beautiful woman around. There were plenty to throw themselves at him.

I went back to the car I’d been working on and threw myself at it. I caught Tugboat throwing glances my way. He was a soft-spoken giant of a man with a big heart.