Page 6 of Fire

“I want to be you when I grow up.”

“You want to live in a little house and sneak men past a sleeping granddaughter and great-granddaughter?”

“No. Or yes. I don’t know, yet. What I do know is that I want to feel comfortable being who I am. All the time. No filters. No fears.”

“Oh, honey. I still have my fair share of fears. Just now, I get to face them my way.”

“Exactly. That’s what I want. I want to do things my way.”

“Then that’s what you need to do. Contact that Reversal of Fortune Foundation and see what they say.” Grandma nods like it’s a done deal, like it’s the right decision, like there isn’t a million reasons why my idea is stupid or wrong.

It’s a strange feeling. Julian would be five paragraphs deep on that topic by now.

“I have no idea if we’d qualify or if she even counts as underprivileged—”

Grandma holds up her hands, stopping my statement in its tracks. “With a mom like you, she’ll never be underprivileged. She might be underfinanced, but that girl has all the love and support she’ll ever need. And that, my dear, sweet granddaughter, is a privilege not everyone gets to experience.”

“Love and support won’t put a roof over her head and until I find a job, I’m not going to be able to do that on my own.”

I’ve never had to support myself. Dad made it impossible for me to get a job and Julian swore I didn’t need one. Until recently, I wasn’t sure how long I was staying in the Keys, just that I needed time to figure everything out.

But I enrolled Nell in school here and this break feels more permanent with each passing day.

“Do you think Micah will finally step up if he gets word you’re seeking help through his aunt’s charity?”

His name brings a montage of memories of us as kids, back when I was madly in love, and certain we’d stay that way until we were old and gray. School dances. Watching movies, cuddled in his room. Laughing. Talking about our future. Him promising we’d stand the test of time and me, giving him my virginity the night before I moved to Seattle.

The night that changed the course of my life forever.

“At this point,” I say with a mental middle finger to the boy I used to trust, “the only thing I rely on Micah Hutton to do is not be there when it counts.”

“And look sexy without a shirt.” Grandma tosses me that crooked smile again and I laugh lightly in return.

“Yeah…he’s pretty much got that down to a science.”

CHAPTER THREE

Micah

Pushing through the front doors of The Pact Bar and Grill feels like coming home. My parents opened the place right before I was born, and I basically grew up here. They got some flak from people who said a bar was a shit place for a kid like me, claiming the reason I spent my childhood on the verge of serious trouble was the negative influences here. Those people had their heads so far up their own asses they had to bend over to see straight. Not only did I learn the right way to treat a woman by watching my parents live, love, and work together, but I learned a lot about the human condition by watching the patrons of The Pact. Turns out, despite our differences, we’re all pretty much the same. We want to have fun with good friends, and make enough money to eat, sleep, and keep a roof over our heads.

Besides, everyone knows we can thank my dad for my personality, not The Pact Bar and Grill.

I am, according to family legend, a carbon copy of Eli Hutton. Except I’ve never had a job as a stripper—something he definitely did. Though, to be fair, he never got in trouble for ‘suggestive dancing on the playground’—something I definitely did.

The familiar energy of the bar puts some much-needed pep in my step as the hubbub of people having fun washes over me.

This will be good for me.

The music coming from the old jukebox in the corner.

The laughter coming from the crowd.

And some riveting conversation with the people who love me most.

Just the prescription to get me back into my groove, which I’ve been out of since my run-in with Ivy. Seriously, what did I ever do to her to deserve such a cold shoulder? She’s the one who ghosted me. We’d been working so hard to stay together, despite the distance, and she sends me two texts, out of the blue…

I’m so unhappy.

---