Page 41 of It Runs in the Family

I made a face. “Gross.” Then I added, “Besides, you know Garrett has fits when he thinks about you sleeping your way through Mesquite County.” I held up a hand. “No slut shaming on my account—or his. He’s just worried you’ll pick the wrong guy and get yourselves into trouble.”

“Unlike you, we have a good sense of who won’t murder us and dump us out on the back forty of Triple D Ranch,” Ava said.

“You don’t have that built-in radar,” Mary Ellen said. “Which is why I checked him out before we gave him our blessing.”

“Fat lot of good it did if you didn’t sleep with him,” Ava said with a pout.

“Sorry?” I said sarcastically. “What good would come from sleeping with him if I wouldn’t even remember it?”

They exchanged a glance, their expressions shifting to grudging acceptance.

“So, why did you two really come over?”

“To hear how good Boner was,” Mary Ellen said. “We’re disappointed that didn’t happen, but you haven’t had a man since that pencil-dick Leon, so you’re a little rusty.”

“Which is why we’re going back to T-Birds tonight,” Ava finished.

I released a bitter laugh. “Um… no. My liver can’t handle another night out.”

“We won’t let you drink as much,” Ava said.

“What about Billy?” I countered. “Neither one of you is brave enough to stand up to him.”

“He won’t be there,” Mary Ellen said with a wave.

“He shouldn’t have been there last night, yet he was,” I said, then shook my head. “Besides, I already have plans tonight.”

Both cousins looked excited. “With who?” Ava asked, her voice giddy with excitement.

“Mannie,” I said. “I plan to confront him at the store tonight and make him squirm for getting me fired.”

“You getting fired was the best thing that’s happened to you in ages,” Mary Ellen said. “You were stuck there. Now maybe you’ll get a real job. Simco is hiring!”

“No offense,” I said with a grimace, “but I’d rather work at the Stop-n-Go then at the Simco warehouse.”

“We make eighteen dollars an hour and get benefits,” Ava said.

“Including health insurance,” Mary Ellen added. “We know you didn’t get any of that at the convenience store.”

There was no use arguing with them, because they were right. I didn’t even get paid sick leave. Maybe getting fired actually was a blessing in disguise.

But that didn’t mean I was letting Mannie off the hook.

Chapter Twelve

Saturday nights at Stop-n-Go were usually pretty busy with people stopping to get gas and load up on snacks and beer. A lot of teenagers tried to sneak alcohol or cigarettes with fake IDs, and when it got busy, it was easy to let one slip by. A year ago, an evening cashier hadn’t asked for ID from a kid who looked like he was pushing thirty, but he was a seventeen-year-old plant with the Mesquite County Sheriff’s department. They arrested her on selling-to-a-minor charges and she had to pay a fine. Jimmy had fired her on the spot. So, I knew better than to show up before ten p.m. I figured I’d get there about fifteen minutes before Mannie’s shift ended, making him a captive audience.

I spent the rest of the afternoon creating a profile on a couple of employment sites, then scoured the limited job offerings. I couldn’t help remembering my conversation with my grandmother the day before. She thought I was wasting my potential, but it was too damn late to do anything about it.

Wasn’t it?

After I made some mac and cheese, I ate it straight from the pot as I flipped channels on the TV. I stopped on an episode of the Power Puff Girls, which turned into several episodes before I finally shifted to a reality TV show.

At 10:30, I headed to the convenience store, pulling into the side parking lot at 10:45 on the dot. I saw that Lisa, the woman who worked the third shift on Saturdays and Sundays, had already parked her car next to Mannie’s. I’d purposely come around the shift change, thinking it wouldn’t hurt to have a witness when I forced Mannie to admit that he’d lied.

Idiot that he was, Mannie got excited when he saw me walking through the door. “Iris!” he called out like we were on that old bar show Granny liked.

I walked straight up to the counter with a dark stare. Mannie’s excitement fell incrementally as I approached.