Page 84 of To Believe In You
Anger scalded Matt’s throat. The man had punched him? How … Who jumped out of a wrecked car and hauled off and punched someone?
Did it matter? He’d deserved it. If he hadn’t made such a royal mess of his life, he would’ve had a nicer car. His vehicle wouldn’t have broken down in the middle of a lane because of a pothole.
The driver pushed past him, shaking out his fist, and stalked toward the grass.
As shock wore off, the heat of pain in his temple sharpened. Matt pressed the heel of his hand to the area, and it came away red. Was the guy wearing a ring?
The driver of the sedan blinked at him, stunned, a phone to her ear.
At least someone had responded to the wreck by calling the police.
Matt would need to stay to talk to them—about the car, not the punch. Could he hurry through this and still arrive in time for his shift at the home improvement store? Maybe, maybe not, and the tension of the unknown was one more stressor in a long list of them.
He touched his palm to his cheek again and came away with another smear of blood.
He couldn’t do this. Couldn’t keep fighting to make things work. He was exhausted. Tired of fighting. Mentally. Physically. All of it.
He got Russ back on the line. “Someone hit my car. I’m not going to make it in.”
Russ missed a beat. “You know what this means.”
Sirens cut through the morning, police responding to the accident. If only the tow had been so quick. Then again, the accident had happened in under five minutes, an impossible time frame.
“You have to let me go.”
“Come in and sign the papers when you’re done there.” Russ sounded an awful lot like Dad had after Matt had put the dump truck through the ice.
To think he was supposed to be a better man these days. Instead, he was clean and sober and still making a mess of his life. But go in and sign to make it official? “No offense, but no thanks.”
“You’ll be leaving on bad terms,” Russ said.
Seemed pretty unavoidable at this point. “Sorry it worked out this way.”
“All right. Lesson learned.”
Which lesson? Not to hire former rock stars? Don’t take a chance on drug addicts? On applicants who’d been fired from their previous job? On employees who knew nothing about doors and windows?
There had been a host of reasons to not hire him, and Russ had given him a chance anyway. Russ’s optimism was probably gone now, one more casualty in a long list of people Matt had disappointed.
He disconnected and lowered himself to the grass away from the others.
After his deductible, insurance would cover the damage to the other cars if this was deemed his fault, but it wouldn’t replace the Brownmobile. Tim might let him borrow his rental occasionally, but he couldn’t drive that indefinitely for the pizza delivery job, which meant that source of income was out the window too.
Down a car and two jobs in one day, on top of everything else.
All the losses would be okay if he could land the Awestruck gig.
But was that ever how life worked out for him?
No, no it was not.
23
“Who’d you pick a fight with this time?”
Lina’s fingers stilled over her keyboard as Samantha’s question rose from the back hall of Key of Hope.
Only one person could elicit such a question. Lina rose but caught herself before she leaned over her desk to see all the way down the hall to the back entrance. Moments later, Samantha stepped into the walkway between the classrooms, followed by Matt.
