Page 14 of About Time

Her shoulders drop, and I can tell that she’s hurt, but I would rather push her away now than accidentally give her false hope something could happen between us. Or worse, allow myself to slip down the slope where I start to think something could happen between us. She might be legal, but Harriston is a small town, and people have been ostracized for less.

“Yeah, I’ll uh…pack up my stuff.” Hattie scrambles to throw the few things she’s taken out back into her bag. “See you around, Charlie,” she mumbles, then scrambles her way back to the parking lot.

“I really hope not,” I grumble.

But that’s the thing about small towns, you’ll eventually run into everyone whether you want to or not.

I do my level best to avoid Hattie for a week. We are still a week or two out from our first softball game, so there was no risk in running into her there. No softball means there was no Sunday barbecue at Martin and Elisa’s. Not that they don’t have frequent gatherings the rest of the year, but it’s easier to make an excuse for those if one would have come up.

Since the Parker’s house is where I usually see Hattie, the only thing I need to do is avoid the other places that teenagers usually hang out in the summer around here. There’s noshopping center in Harriston, so that leaves a couple of parks, the pond, and the one restaurant in town. I don’t have kids of my own, so I don’t usually frequent the park. The few times I have gone have either been with Griffin or when I was watching Liam, but at eleven, he doesn’t like to go with us anymore.

Avoiding the diner is a little harder since it’s the only real restaurant in town, but contrary to popular belief I can actually cook for myself. I am not only avoiding it because of Hattie either. The diner fills with teenagers during the summer because it’s air-conditioned, the food is affordable, and they don’t hassle people to leave immediately after they finish eating. It’s the perfect place to hang out when your options are limited.

Since I’m an adult over twenty-one I do have an option not open to Hattie, the bar. The food selection is more limited, but at least you can eat without a cloud of Axe Body Spray hanging in the air.

Griffin and I both have a rare night where we are free to hang out at the same time. Ordinarily, the only time he gets a night out is when I am watching Liam. This time though, Mrs. Howell took Liam for a few hours. Dolores is a colorful woman who is like everyone’s grandma. She’s getting close to seventy, but she still has more energy than Griffin and I. It’s likely she’ll wear Liam out long before he does her. Which means we get a guilt-free night out, and I plan to make the most of it.

We claim the corner booth, where it’s easiest to see everyone who comes in. Griffin sort of collapses into the seat and tips his head back against the back of the bench.

“If you fall asleep, I will draw a dick on your face,” I warn him. Just because we’re legally adults doesn’t mean that we’ve matured a lot past our teenage years, at least I haven’t.

There’s a muted baseball game playing on the flatscreen. The few people inside have been loading the ancient jukebox withquarters, and it’s been pumping out classic rock since we walked in. I wouldn’t say it’s a nice place, but it is familiar.

The sedate atmosphere disappears when a crowd of college kids enter. They are yelling over each other in a battle to be heard. I barely pay them any attention, despite how loud they are, because it wasn’t that long ago that I was one of them.

“Were we ever that young?” Griffin asks.

“I was. You had Liam and a wife.” We usually don’t talk about Griffin’s ex-wife. She’s been away now longer than we’d even known her, but for him, time hasn’t softened the blow of her leaving.

“I thought Martin’s little sister was too young to be in here,” Griffin comments.

“You mean his sister-in-law? She isn’t his sister.” I’m not sure why I feel the need to make the distinction. Ever since the day at the pond, I haven’t really thought of her as his sister like I did before. It’s like if I start to make that distinction, I will somehow be less of a dirtbag for the thoughts I keep having about her.

Hattie is one of those rule-following good girls, so I don’t even bother to look and confirm that she’s not here. “There’s no way she’d come in here. She’s only nineteen.”

Griffin tosses back the rest of his beer. “It’s not like they card anyone, and everyone in town knows that.”

“Yeah, but she doesn’t break the rules. She’s—” A couple of the guys walk over to the pool table and let me see what Griffin is seeing. “Shit, Martin is going to blow a gasket,” I mumble when I see Hattie standing in the middle of the ruckus.

At this moment, I could give a shit what Martin is going to think. The thing that has my blood boiling is that one of the preppy douchebags she’s here with is eating her up with his eyes and standing way too close to her.

I start to stand up, and Griffin shakes his head at me. “Leave her alone. She’s not a child anymore, and if Martin doesn’t like it, then let him take it up with her.”

My blood simmers, but I force myself to sit back down. It gets harder and harder for me to sit there and watch her flirt. I have no one but myself to blame. Two years ago, I was coaching her on doing exactly what she’s doing now. It never crossed my mind then that watching her do it would drive me insane with jealousy.

We finish our beers and head out. At least, I follow Griffin out of the bar and make like I’m leaving as well until I see his tail lights heading down the road. He is going to get Liam earlier than he had originally planned, but right on schedule for when I knew he’d head out. He’s a great father, better than either of ours were. He’ll also be so focused on his son that he won’t be paying attention to the fact that my truck isn’t on the road behind him as he heads back toward the main part of town.

I go back inside the bar and move up behind Hattie. Taking hold of her elbow, I pull her toward the door. She doesn’t argue with me or protest my high-handed treatment. If we’re going to have this conversation, it needs to happen outside, away from prying ears.

“What the fuck are you doing inside a bar?” I ask her.

She gives me a saccharine sweet smile, which is a good indication she's about to say something to piss me off. “You're not my dad, Charlie. I haven't had one of those in a long time, and I've made it this far.”

Yeah, I was right. “You know those boys only want one thing.”

She cocks an eyebrow. “So? I'm nineteen, Charlie. Do you remember being nineteen?”

I clench my jaw so hard that I can feel the muscles snap over the tendons. I have to force a slow breath in through my nose torelease the tension in my face. “Why this bar? Aren't there tons of them around Central Valley that you could've gone to? I bet there's even several that don't card.”

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