Page 35 of No One Else Can Have Her

“How?” Carly asked, and then hated herself for giving in. “How would it make this easier?”

“Because then at least you would be talking to me,” he said. “Look, I get it. All of this makes us look bad.” Mitch grabbed the back of his head, grimacing as he did so. “None of us needed to be paid, Carly. You need to know that. I was already coming to keep an eye on you, but you know Nate. He has to take care of us all. You know what it’s been like for all of us. We’re not going to turn down an opportunity to make money. None of us are.”

“Nate didn’t even need to do that. You don’t get it. He lied to me, about everything. The dates. This place. You guys. What hasn’t he lied to me about?”

“He hasn’t lied to you about us, and what does it matter if he stopped you from being near a couple of rancid snakes? None of them put up a fight, Carly.”

“That doesn’t matter.”

“Doesn’t it? Because as far as I’m concerned, it pretty much fucking does. None of them cared to fight him. To tell him to fuck off. They were only interested in a good time, but then the others didn’t want to deal with him. None of them did. They were all a bunch of fucking cowards and the last time I checked, Carly, we all agreed you don’t deserve a goddamn coward.”

“Why didn’t he tell me?” she asked. “Why didn’t any of you tell me?”

Mitch shrugged. “Because we all knew Nate was in love with you and he needed to be ready to tell you. We couldn’t do that to him or you. I know it doesn’t sound like a great excuse but I’m being honest about this … about all of this.”

Carly couldn’t be angry at him, she wanted to be but knew deep in her heart it would be pointless.

“How can someone be in love with you and do that?” she asked.

“It’s Nate. Think about it. All that guy has known is disappointment. He doesn’t trust easily, but the only person he cares about is you.”

“That’s not true,” she said.

Mitch chuckled. “Look, I know he cares about us in his own way, and I don’t give a shit about what order of care or love or whatever, but you’re different. You always have been. Nate is in love with you. He cannot stand the thought of anything bad happening to you, and like an asshole, he did what he had to do. Just because he asked all of us to stop by, or paid us, doesn’t mean we wouldn’t have done it anyway.” He held his hands up. “That’s all I’ve got to say. You can be angry, you can be upset, but hopefully you’ll see it was all coming from a place of love.”

With that Mitch walked up to her and pulled her in for a hug. Carly didn’t fight him and instead wrapped her arms around him and held onto him tightly.

“I love you, Carly,” he said.

He kissed her on the head, and then he left.

****

Carly was tempted to not go to work. What was the point, Nate was the boss, and he was just going to manipulate everything, even though she’d never actually seen him inside the bar, ever, not as a manager or the owner.

So, she went to work rather than mope around the apartment, missing Sarah. She did miss Sarah, even though she was still angry and hurt by her. She’d already cried a lot and didn’t think the tears were going to come again.

Dalton walked into the bar, and for the first time in a long while he didn’t look ill or worn out. He looked calm, collected, and in control. He took a seat at the bar and locked his fingers together. “Are you going to spit in my drink?” he asked.

She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t do that kind of nonsense.” She shook her head.

“I deserve it, so I wouldn’t hold it against you if you did do that,” he said.

Carly shook her head and poured him a beer, and made sure to slide it across to him without spitting in his drink. There was no way she would do that to him or anyone, not even to a rude customer.

“You paid to be here?” Carly asked.

Dalton chuckled. “Probably, but then I’m the kind of guy that has no problem taking a guy’s money. This isn’t a job to me, Carly,” he said.

“When you’re paid to do it, it’s a job.”

He shrugged. “Yeah, well, I came before, even when money wasn’t on the table. I always figured this was Nate’s way of taking care of us.”

Carly stopped and thought about it. She and Nate, together, had always taken care of them all. Even when she had to stay in the system for an additional year, she’d done everything to help them. Once she got out, they had all lived in a small, rundown apartment, a complete shithole, but they made it work. She couldn’t remember how it had all changed, but slowly they had moved on and moved out to where they were now.

But she and Nate had continued to take care of the whole unit.

“You can’t be angry or hurt at Nate forever.”

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