Page 65 of Fool's Errand

He pressed his lips together and smirked, an obvious sign he wasn’t going to give me the answer I wanted. I sighed and rubbed my jaw where it ached. If he had any idea where he was, he’d know that we wouldn’t call the cops because it was a sure way to get me kicked out of Lakeview.

“Come on, mate. We’ll let you go, all we want is an answer.” I shook my head. “It’s not you I want, is it? There’s no reason for you to trash my trailer unless you were looking for something.”

Moose grunted and lifted the stranger off the ground before slamming him back down again, causing him to yell out. “Tell Tav what he fucking wants to know or I’ll beat your face unrecognizable, you motherfucker. Nobody comes into our park and messes with our friends, you hear me?”

I smiled down at Moose for the help.

The stranger groaned. “Fine. Jesus. I was sent here by a rich bitch, all right? She wanted me to ransack the trailer to see if I could find any dirt.”

Rich bitch. I didn’t have to ask him who he was talking about. I clenched my eyes shut and pressed my fingers into them. Fuck. She was never going to stop. No matter what I did, I’d never be good enough for Judah as far as she was concerned.

“Let him go, Moose,” I ordered gently, and the giant did as I’d instructed.

The stranger stumbled to his feet and took off so fast that dust followed him as he ran down the dirt road. I watched him until he rounded the corner to the larger road that cut through the center of the park.

“You know which rich lady he’s talkin’ about?” Moose asked, rubbing the back of his neck.

I sighed. “Unfortunately.”

“Anything to do with the new guy you’re seeing?” His eyebrows rose in curiosity. I cocked my head toward him, and he laughed. “You know what the park’s like. They gossip. But Shep told Law, who mentioned it to me. Shep said he saw you at the farmers’ market with him.”

I chuckled and rubbed my sore jaw again. My back ached, too, but it was a pain I could ignore. This wasn’t the first time I’d ended up in a fight, and it wouldn’t be the last if I continued to live here. Coming to blows was a guarantee in Lakeview. “He’s my teenage sweetheart.”

“Gross.” Moose scrunched up his nose. “Leave that shit behind, Tav. The only good thing about your teen years is finally losing your V-card. Everything else stays in the past, man.”

“Not Judah,” I said with a grin. “Sounds corny, but that man’s my forever.”

He shook his head. “I wouldn’t be sayin’ that loud enough for anyone else to hear.”

I winced. Bloody hell. I’d forgotten where I was. Peering around carefully, I gave Moose a short nod. “Thanks for the help. I’m goin’ to go lock up my trailer again and head out.”

“Want me to keep an eye on your place?” Moose crossed his arms over his massive chest, the white muscle shirt stretching to accommodate large pecs. He was another one of the few who was bigger than me.

“Aye, that’d be nice of you.” I patted him on his shoulder.

“You hear about Denise?” he asked.

I froze, worry immediately assaulting me in the gut. “What? What happened? Is she okay?”

He nodded solemnly, but I hadn’t seen Moose be anything but serious and gruff. “Law took her out of here. He gave up their trailer. ’Parently, he got her into a nursing home. A good one, too. Out near that nice area in Claremont.”

“How did he afford that?” I frowned. The one thing about Law was that he always kept his head on straight and tried to avoid anything illegal, unlike his twin. He worked hard for his mum.

“New job.” Moose shrugged. “Good for him. He deserved a break.” He gave me a wave goodbye, leaving me to stare at the mess of my trailer with my thoughts caught between being happy for Denise and Law, while being devastated for the state of my home.

I hesitated before I took a breath and made my way to my trailer. I stepped inside, taking in the disaster. Papers and my belongings were scattered everywhere, a chaos created from loathing because that’s what Elizabeth felt about me—she hated me. I wished I could understand why, but I never would. Like Judah, she came from a world too different from mine.

I picked up and tidied what I could, but when I came across one of the few possessions that had belonged to Mum—a blue vase she’d put fresh flowers in every day—shattered and in pieces, tears prickled at my eyes. I stared at the broken fragments in my palm and closed my fist around them, aware of the biting cuts that sliced through my skin. I didn’t care. I let myself fall to my knees.

“Fuck. You loved this vase, Mum.” An ache began in my chest and I rubbed it. I closed my eyes and tried to remember her face and the way she smiled. She’d been the kind of person who’d tell me that the vase wasn’t important, that the memories of her were more so, but imagining her saying that didn’t make it hurt any less.

I finally released my hold on the shattered pieces, and they clattered to the floor. I rose, knees shaky, and stared at the progress I’d made. I’d barely made a dent in the mess, but I couldn’t stay in the trailer for a second longer. I stumbled out the door and down the step and turned to secure the lock only to find it had been smashed. The most I could do was simply close the door and hope nobody else decided to raid my home.

Once I was back in my truck, I stared at the steering wheel as I considered what to do. Judah would expect me at home, but I wasn’t sure if I could go back there yet. No. There was someone I needed to see first....

I turned on the truck and headed out of Lakeview. Even though it’d been twenty years since I’d specifically come this way and many things had changed, there was also a familiarity about it. I could close my eyes and still get to the house I was heading to.

I knew for a fact that Elizabeth and Judah’s father still lived in the same place because Judah had mentioned it in passing after we’d seen Elizabeth the first time. As I pulled into the driveway, all the courage I’d gathered as I was driving here withered, replaced by fear of something more—rejection.

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