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“Jayce,” I said. “Did you know?”
The fire left her eyes, and then she snorted. “Why do you think I’ve been callin’ him a fool every time he comes in here? I told you to stay away from that boy. Told you the first time you sat in that booth, yes I did.”
“The sheriff’s upset about it,” I said. “He’s acting like I cheated my hours by having help. I think I’m going to be in Eastland a lot longer than I expected.”
Mindy’s brow furrowed with worry. “Oh, honey. I’m so sorry…”
Flop gave me a sympathetic shake of the head, as if to say,welcome to Eastland.
I walked back outside just as the sheriff pulled up. “Stay right here!” he shouted at me, rushing out of his car. “The judge is cutting his fishing trip short. He’s on his way.”
“Well that’s a shame for him,” I said numbly.
“It is,” the sheriff said. “Fish were biting today. Judge won’t be pleased with you.”
“Lucky me.”
I tried to feel some sort of hope about the situation. Maybe I could convince the judge that it wasn’t my fault, I did all the hours expected of me, that I couldn’t help if Jayce had tagged along while lying to me about his hours. But I couldn’t muster the energy. Good things didn’t happen to people in Eastland. I’d been here long enough to know that.
And then, to make matters worse, I heard the familiar sound of an Indian Scout motorcycle.
Even though he was riding up the main street slowly, Jayce’s hair blew gently in the wind and pulled his face tight behind his sunglasses. He had a backpack slung over his shoulder and wore the same hole-filled jeans as the first night I met him, along with the jacket he’d given me to stay warm in the jail cell.
No, I thought. I should have been out of town by now. Then I wouldn’t have had to see him. I could have avoided this twisting, suffocating feeling in my chest.
“Can we go wait in the station?” I asked the sheriff. He pretended like he hadn’t heard me while watching the bike approach.
Jayce rolled to a stop in the middle of the road, planted his feet on the ground to steady the bike, then stared at me for a long time. When he finally removed his sunglasses, his eyes were so bloodshot I could see them from twenty feet away.
“You’re not supposed to be here, Peaches,” he said quietly.
“Youaren’t supposed to be here,” I spat back. “Your community service ended a long time ago.”
He froze with his hand in his pocket. The guilt on his face was confirmation enough.
“Why did you do that?” I demanded. “Why?”
He got off the bike, leaving it in the middle of the road where it would block traffic. None of us cared. He took a few steps toward me, then stopped a respectable distance away. Which was good, because if he got any closer I probably would have slapped him.
“For you,” he said, barely more than a whisper. “I stayed for you, Peaches.”
My heart tried to leave my body and go to him. Iwantedto forgive him. To pretend like everything was okay, and embrace him there in the middle of town. Jayce had done it for me.
He’d stayed forme.
I was close. All I needed was a little more convincing and I would have given in and thrown my arms around him. But he didn’t say anything else to me.
Because he wasn’t here for me.
“You need to get out of here,” he told the sheriff. He pointed. “Take Charlotte back to the station and hide.”
The sheriff squinted at him. “Hide? Boy, you don’t give orders to me. I’m the sheriff in this town.”
“You’ll be a dead sheriff if you stay.” He turned to Flop and Mindy who were coming out of the diner. “Flop, things are about to get hairy. Go hole up in your bar away from the windows.”
Flop sprinted off without questioning it.
“You too, Mindy,” Jayce added.
