Page 38 of Cold Foot Cash

He cracked a grin and gave her a smirk, then dragged his gold eyes back to the road. “Between fights,” he agreed. “Anyway, when Wreck pulled me out of Cold Foot, we had to gothrough a trial period to see if we would be a good fit for his Crew, and it was the first time in a long time I really wanted something. I thought, if anyone can keep me out of trouble, it’s the phoenix.”

“Phoenix,” she repeated softly.

“Yep. Wreck is a monster, but he’s a monster with a heart, and his moral compass is straight due north. And when I did get into the Cold Foot Crew, I made a promise to myself.”

“What promise?”

“That I was going to try and be more normal. Less wild. I was going to try and stay out of trouble. I was going to try and make solid friends, and settle down, and live every day like the last, and just live and die boring.”

The truck had a bench seat, and he’d pulled up the console between them, so it was all connected seats and nothing but a couple feet of space between them. She faced him and drew her knees up, rested her arm on the back of the seat and her hand on her cheek so she could see him better. “You’re funny. Do you use humor to mask what’s going on in your head?”

“Mmm,” he grunted, staring thoughtfully at the road.

She knew she’d hit close to the mark. “You have a hole inside of you, Cash, don’t you.”

He didn’t answer…just stared at the road ahead.

“Sometimes when a man has a hole inside of him, he has to fill it up with something, but sometimes he doesn’t fill it up with the right material. Sometimes he doesn’t know how. Sometimes he doesn’t have the tools. Sometimes he only knows how to fill it for a short time, and then he has to find something else.”

He scratched his jawline with his thumbnail and cast her another glance. His eyes were fiery gold now. “How do I fix it?”

“You figure out what made the hole in the first place.”

She could see the gooseflesh ripple up his arms from here.

Cash looked over at her, and then to the empty seat between them, then back to her, then back to the road. “Are you going to have to leave soon?” he asked.

She huffed a laugh and teased, “Are you ready for me to go already?”

“No.” The way he said it had the smile fading from her face. He was serious. “No, I don’t want you to go. It’ll be boring around here again.” He inhaled deep. “I mean, who will give me an excuse to go out and buy six different flavors of canned margarita’s, you freakin’ trailer park princess.”

She belted out a laugh. “Did you really?”

“Yep, and I’ll be watching you try the different flavors tonight. At some point I’ll figure out what all you like, but until then?”

“Guessing games?”

“Guessing games. I liked the roast beef sandwich the most. Jot that down.”

She giggled and opened up a blank document in the notes tab of her phone. “Cashew’s favorites,” she said aloud as she typed the title. “Local beer called Happy Hooker.”

“I tried that the first time based solely on the name.”

“I figured. I would’ve done the same. Favorite sandwich? Roast beef. My favorite season is spring.”

“Oh, tell me more.”

“Favorite color is mustard. Favorite season is winter.”

“Oh, why winter?” she murmured, typing as fast as she could.

“My animal likes it.”

She jerked her attention over to him. “Abominable snowman?”

“Close.”

“Really?”

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