Page 50 of Hell to Pay

“I have school.” Matt sounded almost disappointed.

“We can go after,” Jude said. “If it’s okay with Lilah, I mean. Don’t you get out of school around two?”

“Two-fifteen,” Matt said.

Nolan looked at me. “You work until five tomorrow right?”

I nodded.

“We could pick Matt up for you,” Jude suggested. “Get him out on the water for a bit before dinner.”

I didn’t know why the thought made me nervous. Was this what it was like being a parent? Was this how my mom had felt all those times she was insanely protective?

It wasn’t that I didn’t trust the Bastards. In fact, they might just be the only people I did trust (weird, I know), but what if something happened? What if Matt fell out of the boat and hit his head like Jude that time?

They were looking at me expectantly, even Rafe.

Except it wasn’t my call. For once, Matt could make his own decision.

“Do you want to go?” I asked him.

He shrugged. “Sounds fun.”

He was trying to play it cool, but I could tell hedidwant to go, the first time he’d shown any real enthusiasm for anything since I’d picked him up outside the deli the night before.

“It’s your call.” I looked at Nolan and Jude, then Rafe. “You sure you don’t mind?”

I was surprised when Rafe was the one who answered. “No biggie.”

I forced myself not to make a big deal of it and tried for a blank expression, but in the end it didn’t matter.

He turned away without another word.

35

LILAH

I spentthe first hour at my new job meeting with Meredith, the HR manager, filling out paperwork for taxes and reading the employee handbook. I hadn’t been sure about the dress code, but Mayor Maxwell had been wearing slacks and a blouse when I’d gone for my interview, so I’d played it safe with a simple navy skirt and a floral blouse, one of the few nice things I owned, and I felt like a completely new person as Meredith showed me around.

She was friendly and warm, in her thirties, with curly black hair and the prettiest brown eyes I’d ever seen.

She showed me the break room and told me to help myself to the snacks in the cupboard unless they had someone’s name on them. I was also allowed to bring my own coffee mugs as long as I didn’t leave them in the sink. There was a fridge and a microwave, so I’d be able to bring food from home for lunch, which would save me money. Important, since my savings was basically gone.

After the break room she took me down a long hall, stopping in one of the office’s open doorways. Inside a guy a little older than me sat at a desk, a laptop open in front of him. His brown hair looked like it had been cut with a ruler, his shirt so fitted I wondered if it was tailored. There wasn’t a single whisker on his smoothly shaved face, something that probably only seemed weird because I’d been surrounded by the Bastards who were always in varying states of scruff.

“This is Phillip. He’s Mayor Maxwell’s assistant. You can talk to him about anything related to her schedule,” she said. “This is Lilah. She’s the new part-time receptionist and office admin. Tuesdays and Thursdays.”

He smiled. “Nice to meet you, Lilah. Welcome.”

“Thanks.”

We continued down the hall and Meredith introduced me to an older woman named Terri, the community outreach liaison who had a short purple pixie cut and was around my mom’s age. Then it was on to an empty office, where Meredith said Ashley Wang, the communications director, sat when she was in the office (she wasn’t today).

“There are a couple other people who come and go,” Meredith explained as we hooked a right and started down another hall. “Gary, the IT guy, he works for all the town offices on this floor, and Frank, the lawyer for the Mayor’s Office.”

We stopped at another door, this one closed. A brass plaque on the wall readMayor Maxwell. “A word to the wise: don’t bother her if the door’s closed unless it’s an emergency.”

“Even if someone calls?” Now I was nervous. What if I screwed this up?

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