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“A day and a half is like a billion years.”
He snorted. “I’m so glad I don’t draw a paycheck from you. I’d hate to see how you do tax deductions.”
I shook my head and went to lock the front door.
Bryan slipped in before I reached my destination. Disappointment splashed inside that he was alone, but of course he was.
“What can I do for you?” I asked.
“I want a job.”
Not what I expected. I turned and headed back to the counter, talking over my shoulder as I walked. I could give him the same joke I gave everyone, that I only hired people whose names started withD, but there was an echo in the back of my head. Brooke reminding me these wereherkids. “I’m not hiring.”
“You should be. You’re busy.”
It was a little petty of me to cling to her statement, but it was easier to focus on that comment than the one she never made. “Why do you want a job all the sudden? And why from me?”
“I… want to impress a girl.”
“Pretty sure Paige’s friend made up her mind there,” Adam chimed in when we reached him.
Adam didn’t like Brooke dumping him via text, but at least he got a text. Then again, I was the one who kept insisting Brooke and I were just friends. I couldn’t be upset at her for my own inability to see, and that hurt.
“How do you know about that? Does everyone know?” Bryan asked.
Adam shrugged. “Paige told me. I doubt she told everyone. She’s your sister—do you think she told anyone else?”
Bryan’s scowl was etched deep. “No. And this isn’t about Jamie.”
“You can’t just hop from one girl to the next.” Was I talking to him or myself? I opened the register, but didn’t touch the day’s receipts.
Bryan made a growling noise that reminded me of Brooke when she was frustrated. “It’s not like that. I’m doing the right thing. Helping her out.”
“What right thing? Help her out with what?” Adam’s confusion sounded exaggerated.
I wasn’t sure if I should laugh or smack him.
“Nothing.” Bryan shifted some things around on the counter. “Look. I’m already fitting in.”
I put everything back where it had been. There was an order to these things.Please don’t make me keep a secret like this from Brooke.Not that I could. “Does thisnothingyou’re helpinga friendout with start with aB?”
“Pregnancy doesn’t start with— I mean,no.”
Yup. He’d gotten someone pregnant and that was going to be the less-than-ideal excuse I needed to call Brooke. Why did I need an excuse? I’d never needed one before.
“Babystarts withB,” Adam said.
“No.” Bryan sounded frustrated. “I’m not hopping from girl to girl, and it’s not mine. But she is a good friend, and I can’t tell you who and she doesn’t want the dad to know, and her parents are going to kill her if they find out—you know how uptight some of the people here are—and she just needs to get enough money for a bus ticket to her aunt’s house in Oregon. There aren’t a lot of job options in this town, and you obviously need help, at least for a few days. You’re sleeping with my mom, so you have to give me preference.”
“Give you preference?” Adam repeated the oddly formal phrase.
There was a lot to unpack in this conversation. “I’m not sleeping with Brooke.” Was that really what I should be focusing on right now? He was talking about helping a pregnant girl run away. “Did you not learn less than a week ago what happens when kids disappear without telling their parents?”
“Look. I need some extra cash, okay? Can we just leave it at that? Hire me for the weekend, I’ll tell you I’m spending it on comics if that helps you feel better, and it’ll get you back into my mom’s good graces, and maybe she’ll stop moping around the house.”
Something still didn’t feel right about his story. Like he was working too hard to give us a tale we’d grab onto and ignore what was really happening. But I’d circle back to that, because I was hung up on the fact that Brooke was moping over us. Wait.
“Who said I was the one who needed to get back in her good graces?” I asked.
