Page 7 of The Nerd & the Ex-Con

Scottie’s face was so red I would have laughed if he hadn’t irritated me. Our letters had been easy. I’d come to anticipate getting them every month. We had exchanged over a hundred letters, and he still acted as if I were a stranger when he was the one who’d lied to me.

“Why did you pretend to be someone you’re not? Why are you still doing it now?”

He squirmed in the chair and fiddled with his glasses. “I’m not—”

“Scottie, don’t make me put you over my knee in front of a bar full of people.”

His mouth fell open wide. The bartender placed the Coke in front of him and frowned.

“You okay over here?” he asked Scottie.

I nailed him with a scowl for him to mind his business, but he ignored me until Scottie nodded, then walked away.

“You’ve never drunk a day in your life, have you?”

He straightened his spine. “I have…” His shoulders sagged. “Not.”

“Then what are you doing ordering a scotch?”

He sucked his bottom lip between his teeth and released it. “The Internet says it’s a safe drink to order at a bar.”

“Not for a new drinker. First the photograph and now this. Why did you send that picture?” Especially when the real version of him was so much better. This man sitting next to me fit the image of someone who’d gone out of his way to keep me informed about my kid for the last nine years better than the guy with the cocky smirk in the photo he’d sent me.

“I…I don’t know.”

“You do know, but we’ll come back to that. What else did you lie about?”

“I’m so sorry. I thought you’d never be released, and I didn’t want you to worry.”

My body went rigid. “What did you do?”

“There are a few things you should know first, but before I tell you, you have to promise me you won’t try to see Jay until I say he’s ready.”

“I’m not agreeing to that.”

“You have to. I need time to come clean to him about what I did. I have to be honest with him.”

“Do you go through life being a liar, or is this a special effect reserved only for the Burke men?”

“Now that’s not fair,” he snapped, blue eyes flashing. “Most of what I told you is true. And if I fibbed, it’s because I didn’t want to hurt your feelings. If you’re going to judge me all night, then I’ll go. You can screw up everything with Jay if you want. See if I care anymore!”

So the pretty, mousy boy with the braces at the ripe age of twenty-five had claws. Interesting. Maybe not everything he’d told about himself had been lies.

Before he could get up, I placed my hand over his.

“Don’t go.”

He curled his fingers into a fist. “Are you going to keep bringing up what I did?”

“I don’t understand it. Eventually, we’ll have to talk about it, but the important thing right now is Jay and how to get through to him.”

He relaxed his hand until his palm was flat on the bar with mine still over it. Human contact wasn’t something I’d had much of a choice in behind bars. I’d been prodded and searched at a stranger’s whim. My hand over Scottie’s was my choice. I hadn’t touched anyone this way since I’d been out.

That must be the reason I didn’t want to let go.

“Yeah, Jay’s still upset when someone mentions you.” He cocked his head to the side as if apologizing. “All I want is a week or so to let him know that I’ve been writing to you. He’ll be upset, naturally, so I’ll need another few days to break it to him that you’re out.”

“This sounds like it’s going to take forever.”

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