Page 40 of Five Mountain Daddies

“It’s not a pretty story.” I finish my drink in one shot. “I don’t like to tell itoften.”

“You don’t have to,” she sayssoftly.

I wave that away. “I was a young guy, home from school, just like you are now. And I got involved with agirl.”

I take a breath, remembering this painful part of my past. I can still remember the girl, the way she smiled at me, the way she kissed me, the way she fucked. And I can still remember everything after, when I realized what kind of person she reallyis.

“Her name was Haley,” I say softly. “And we really liked each other at first. Unfortunately, she had a boyfriend that I didn’t knowabout.”

London groans. “I can see where this isgoing.”

I smile a little bit “Probably not. I’ll make a long story short though. She accused me of raping her when her boyfriend found out about us, and although nothing ever came of it, my reputation was destroyed. Everyone assumed I was a rapist, so I decided to leave town and never comeback.”

London takes a sharp breath and lets it out. “That’s horrible,” shesays.

“I know. She was cornered and felt desperate and she said something that she thought would get her out of trouble, without realizing how bad it would be for me. Obviously, she didn’t try and press charges or something, but her boyfriend tried to fight me and… well, it was a mess.” I stare down at the table, trying not to remember her boyfriend coming at me, my fist in his face, the way he bled on myknuckles.

“I forgave her a long time ago,” I say finally. “She made a stupid mistake. People make mistakes when they’re afraid and not sure what else to do. But this town, everyone just assumed I was a villain, despite the fact that so many people here knew me and knew I wasn’t that kind of guy. The rumor mill went crazy, started dredging up all of my past mistakes, and from there I wasfinished.”

“I’m sorry,” she says. “That’shorrible.”

“I know what this place can do. I livedit.”

“So why are youback?”

I shrug a little. “I guess I don’t hate it,” I say. “People are what they are, and they’re like that all over. I guess I just think I can try and make it better for everyone, and where better than my ownhometown?”

She nods a little bit at that. “I guess I always assumed it would be better someplaceelse.”

“It will and it won’t. Big cities come with new problems and sometimes those problems are harder tosolve.”

“What do we do?” she asks me, sipping her wine. I can see the pain in her expression, and I know that deep down she doesn’t really hate this place, not exactly. She has a complicated relationship with Leadwood, but everyone does. Home’s never as simple as people pretend itis.

“Well, that’s why I asked you here,” I say, a smile on mylips.

“Uh oh,” she groans. “I should have guessed this wasn’t just a simpledinner.”

“Nothing’s ever simple with me,” I say with awink.

“What is it then?” sheasks.

Before I can go into details, the waitress comes. I ask for another whisky and I order the shrimp and grits. London asks for a salad and another wine before crossing her arms and giving me alook.

When the waitress leaves, I grin. “This is a job interview,” Isay.

London raises an eyebrow. “What?”

“A job interview,” I repeat. “Although I’m not really interviewingyou.”

“Okay, now I’mconfused.”

“You have the job already,” I say, laughing. “You’re the one interviewingme.”

She grins a little bit. “Okay, I’ll bite. What’s thejob?”

“Well, we’re stuck in the last century, pretty much. So we want you to run our social media account. You know, since you’re young and hip and all thatshit.”

She laughs. “Wow. You really areold.”

---