Page 14 of Flick

“No, but I need it. Trust me. If I didn’t need it, I would have left a long time ago. Mr. Patrick is slimy and constantly brushes against me.”

Remi and Beth looked at each other, and Remi nodded. It was great when your sister knew what you were thinking without saying a word.

“We have multiple jobs, and I know so do the Nelsons. We’ll offer you a job at whatever you’re currently making. Then in the next month, we can help you decide where you’d like to work,” Beth said.

“Thank you,” Violet sniffled, then hung up.

Beth turned toward Flick. “I can’t believe you thought I’d set you up with someone horrible. Why the heck didn’t you text or call to confirm? How did you get away from her?”

Flick’s face pinkened, and he wouldn’t meet her eyes.

“Oh now, you have to tell me,” she said.

“I left the movie theater and hung out in the lobby for a while. When I went back in, I told her something at supper didn’t agree with me and I had explosive diarrhea,” he said with a sheepish look.

Laughter filled the room along withway to go’s. Beth giggled along with everyone. She wished she could have seen Rosalinda’s face pucker up at that.

“Forgiven?” Beth asked.

Flick nodded. “Yep, now let’s eat. I’m hungry, and the food smells delicious.”

Flick listened to everyone chatting and wondered how he had misjudged Beth. All the time he was on the date, he’d known she would have never thought he’d date that type of woman. And she wouldn’t set him up on a joke date because they currently had a moratorium on pranks.

They’d both been tired of looking over their shoulders, so pranks were currently outlawed for the next six months. The person who broke their agreement had to pay the other five hundred dollars and take any crappy job assigned to them for a month.

Flick passed the food and filled his plate. He never took getting to sit down and enjoy a meal for granted. Even though he worked at a small county EMT service, they were still called multiple times just as they were sitting down for a meal. Sometimes the meal could be kept; other times it was inedible.

He listened to the family he’d grown to love at Bluff Creek and felt a pang for his brothers. He’d love for them to experience this environment. He was a little melancholy; he always was at this time of year. It didn’t matter how many years it had been. He still missed his mom, or mama, as they’d called her.

Home had been wherever she was. With her death, they’d had to look to themselves for where home was. Flick hadn’t found it until coming to Bluff Creek. Flick hoped Brody was doing okay. He rarely missed their monthly check-in, and if he did, it was because he was on assignment. If at all possible, he’d get amessage to them beforehand. He wondered if Gunner would be willing to come visit. It had been over a year since they’d seen each other.

“Hey, sorry your date sucked,” Dex said.

Flick nodded. “Yeah, I should have known Beth wouldn’t do that to me, but in the moment, I wondered if she was willing to prank me. How did yours go?”

A myriad of expressions went across Dex’s face.

“It was interesting,” Dex replied.

“Interesting how?” Flick asked. He’d picked Dex because he was a good guy, and Beth needed someone safe to dip her toes back into the dating pool.

“I overheard a man talking with his wife while his date was in the bathroom,” Dex said, smirking.

“And you shared that with Beth,” Flick said. Yep, he could see where this was going.

“Yes. Hey, Beth, we had fun last night, didn’t we?” Dex called to where Beth was sitting down the table.

“Oh yes we did, and we got the Nelson’sHow Many Days Since We’ve Booted an Asshole from the Barreset,” Beth said, holding up a hand to stop Phoebe from saying anything. When Phoebe still started to talk, Beth turned to her.

“Listen, I not only pay the swear subscription, meaning you’re supposed to let it slide, but I came up with the subscription model. Are we clear?” Beth said.

Phoebe rolled her eyes and muttered yes.

Phoebe could put more attitude into an eye roll and a huff of her breath than Flick had ever imagined.

“Aww, and we missed it?” Bear whined.

“Dang, maybe they have video?” Scoop said, grabbing his tablet from the table.

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