Page 121 of Break My Heart
I look at them. ‘Wait—what do you mean?’
‘They’re going to help us clean up,’ Sawyer explains.
‘Oh, you guys don’t have to do that,’ I say to Jason and Brody. ‘I don’t want to take up your Sunday.’
‘It’s not just them,’ Sawyer says. ‘We’ve got a whole crew lined up to be there.’
I turn to Sawyer. ‘You hired people? I can’t pay them.’
‘You’re not. They’re doing it for free.’
‘The boys and I talked to some people in town,’ Carl says. ‘We told them what happened and that we could use some help. Some will be there today for the cleanup and others volunteered to help Nash out when he starts the repairs.’
‘But they don’t even know me.’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ Carl says. ‘This is how people are here. Someone needs help, we all pitch in. Haydon Falls is a good town. Those two that attacked your business don’t represent us. They’re just too bad seeds that made you their target. It wasn’t right, and the rest of us want to help fix it.’
‘Whatabout all that stuff they read about me? The stuff Wade put online? There have to be at least some people in town that believed that stuff and want nothing to do with me.’
‘A few of the old timers, sure, but that isn’t about you. It’s about them not wanting anyone new moving to town.’
‘I’ll be over around one,’ Nick says, getting up. ‘I need to do some work in the orchard before I go.’
‘I’ll help you clean up,’ Lyndsay says to Martha as she gets up to gather the plates.
‘Thanks for breakfast, Martha,’ I tell her.
‘You’re welcome.’ She winks at me and smiles, then smiles at Sawyer.
As we’re driving back to his place, my phone rings. ‘It’s Ryder,’ I say to Sawyer. ‘I’ll tell him I’m busy.’
‘You should tell him—’ Sawyer shakes his head. ‘Never mind.’
This morning before we left for breakfast, Sawyer and I had a long talk about Ryder. Even since I told Ryder what happened to G’s, he’s been calling and texting me, offering to come here. Sawyer doesn’t want me to remain friends with Ryder because he’s convinced Ryder wants me back. I insisted Ryder and I are just friends, but Sawyer didn’t believe me and we argued about it until Sawyer said he trusts me and that if I really valued Ryder’s friendship that much that he’d stay out of it.
‘Hey, Ryder,’ I say.
‘Hey, I was just checking in to see how everything’s going.’
‘It’s good. The supplies have been ordered and we’re going to clean up the debris today.’
‘Any idea when you’ll reopen?’
‘No. It really depends on when we get the supplies.’
‘When you have a reopen date, I’ll come down the week before and get everything set up.’
‘You don’t have to do that. That’s my job. It’s my place.’
‘Yeah, but you’re new at this. You might miss something.’
‘I won’t,’ I say, getting that irritated feeling that pops up whenever Ryder talks to me this way, like I’m incompetent. ‘I can do this, Ryder. I don’t need your help.’
Sawyer glances at me as we wait at a stoplight. I can tell he wants to say something, but he won’t. He agreed to stay out of it.
‘Why don’t you drive up to Green Bay next weekend?’ Ryder says. ‘Get away from that place. You could use a break and it’ll be good to have you here again. We can go out to that restaurant you like, the one with the smoked meat.’
Ryder likes that place. I don’t. He just assumes I like it because I didn’t complain all the times we went there.
