Page 42 of Side Hustle
Rolling my eyes, I pinched my nose and huffed out of the room. Let them go uselessly digging for gold they’d never find. What did I care? Poppy and Polly hustled out the door with their shovels and pans, talking over each other about the best spot to start digging.
Granny smiled at me from the door and whispered, “I trust your senses, honey. I’ll just tag along for the amusement of watching those two hussies try to find gold. And to call for help when they step in one of their own holes and sprain an ankle.” She cackled and closed the door.
Well, that certainly got my mind off Rip for half a second. There was never a dull moment around this house. I waited a few minutes until I felt the stench of gas had most likely dissipated from the kitchen before I entered again and poured my cup of coffee. One blessed sip in and the front door banged opened.
I sighed. “Forget a shovel or something?”
There was a long enough pause I spun around.
“Why would I need a shovel?”
My mother stood in the doorway of the kitchen, her hair matted to one side of her head. Huge bags hung under her bloodshot eyes. If I wasn’t mistaken, she’d slept in the clothes she wore this morning. I could feel my upper lip twitching into a sneer.
“Well, look what the cats dragged in.” I slammed my mug of coffee down on the counter and braced myself for whatever she came here for.
“I just want to talk, Hazel.” Her voice sounded thinner. Like she was tired right down to the bone.
A little tiny part of me wanted to feel sorry for her. Clearly, the drug withdrawals were getting to her. You can only be an addict for so long before your body just can’t recover anymore. I squelched that little voice that told me to hear her out and remembered instead how she’d left me a week before our end-of-the-year school band recital. I hadn’t picked up an instrument since that day.
“What do you want?”
She winced at my tone and her gaze dropped. A thin finger lifted as she pointed to my legs. “What’s that mark?”
Heat, the kind that makes a person do things they’ll probably regret the next day, burned me from the inside. My fingers felt the slightly raised skin on the side of my thigh.
“Seriously?” I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, I was so mad. “That’s a burn scar. A permanent reminder of what a jackass I have for a mother.”
She flinched back again, this time not looking me in the eye. I took a step closer and she backed up.
“I was five. We were living with one of your equally jackass boyfriends. But you weren’t there. It was late and I was hungry. Starving, actually. I dragged a chair into the kitchen and got a box of mac ’n’ cheese from the cupboard. I couldn’t read the directions, but I’d seen you make it enough to know what to do. Unfortunately, I didn’t know how hot the stove would get. I burned myself pretty badly, but no one was home to help me. Cried myself to sleep that night, but at least my belly was finally full.”
Kendra’s gaze lifted and there were tears spilling over onto her sunken cheeks. Oh no, she didn’t. She didn’t get to act all contrite now, when I could have used her all those years ago when I was an innocent kid.
“I should thank you for leaving. Letting Granny raise me was the best gift you could have given me. Which is why I’d like you to leave again. Didn’t need you then, don’t need you now.”
I grabbed my keys off the counter and rushed past her, stopping only to grab some flip-flops by the front door before rushing outside to my Jeep. Tears burned the back of my eyes and my heart was threatening to explode right out of my ribs. I’d rather die than cry in front of her. These tears weren’t for her anyway. They were for the little girl who cried for hours for her mama in an empty house when she burned herself. The grown woman I’d become knew that some wounds just didn’t heal.
The familiar tall pine trees flicked by as I drove, too engrossed in my own emotions to know where I was going. I rubbed the tears off my cheeks the second they dared to trickle down. The Jeep bounced as I turned into the parking lot of Hill Hotel. I put it in park and looked up at the densely treed slope behind the hotel.
Rip’s land.
I wasn’t going to be the girl who ran to the guy the second they had sex, expecting him to be her rock through emotional drama. We’d had great sex, but we hadn’t talked about our emotions. Or what we even were now. Were we a couple? Boyfriend, girlfriend?
Taking a huge breath to try to stop the tears, I pushed open my door and climbed out. I wasn’t wearing a bra, but my T-shirt was loose and my shorts didn’t have a hole in them. All in all, I’d call that a success. Maybe hiking up the hill would keep me warm. I couldn’t run straight to Rip, but I could run to his land and soak in all the things that made me feel good.
The trail started climbing almost immediately, making me wish I’d grabbed tennis shoes instead of flip-flops, but beggars can’t be choosers. The dead pine needles littering the path made everything slippery, but already, I could smell the trees and hear the birds. An occasional voice would flit through the air. Probably the crew he’d hired to mine the cave. I reached out and touched the bark of a tree, leaning in to sniff it while an ant marched right across my finger. The tightness in my chest began to lighten the longer I immersed myself in this place.
The quick turn left deposited me at the flat space by the cave where we’d found the gold. The security guard Rip had hired did a double take when he saw me. His gaze lingered on my bare legs before flicking up to my face. He was dressed in dark pants built for a hunter or law enforcement or something. I bet he had compartments for a ton of little gadgets.
“What’s the name?” His arms folded across his chest like some kind of tough guy.
“Hazel Redding. Rip gave permission for me to be here.” I wasn’t exactly sure about that, but I hoped he had.
The guy grunted. I could have sworn his gaze was now on my chest. Dammit, a bra would have been really helpful right about then.
I hitched a thumb over my shoulder. “I’m just going to hike up the trail.”
I spun and left, not giving him a chance to ogle me further. Somehow I didn’t think Rip or any of our male friends would have been as blatantly obvious as this fuck knuckle. I got it. Nipples were intriguing things to guys, but have the decency to look me in the eye, you know?
