AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I wave my hand at her, hoping she gets the drift to go back inside. I’m too mad for words, and I know anything I say right now will just make the situation worse.
I glance down at my brand-new white Nike Air Max shoes and curse under my breath. Kicking them off, I remove my socks as well, leaving them in a pile on the street, and hike up my pant legs.
As I make my way to my truck, mud and tiny plants wrap around my toes. With every step, my feet get heavier and more caked on with the disgusting organic matter.
When I make it to my truck, I fling the door open and hop in, trying to get everything off my feet before I place them on the floorboard.
I grab the keys from my pocket and crank the engine. The mean roar sounds like a kitten’s meow compared to the rage flowing through me.
I put it in reverse and back out of the marsh, through the fenced area, and back onto the street. I hop out to grab my shoes and socks, then lean down to figure out how to remove this strap Natalie attached to the front of my truck.
Once it’s off, I pick it up and throw it in the back of my truck.
“Is everything okay?” Trish asks.
“Not now,” is all I can get out as I hop back into the truck and drive in the direction Natalie just drove.
This town is not that big, and she’d better hope I don’t find her.
There was no way she was just randomly driving around, looking for my truck, so she must have been coming into town for a reason. I search a few parking lots, and that’s when I see her truck parked at the Alamo shopping center.
As I turn into the parking lot, my tires squeal when I press the gas much harder than I should have.
She’s nowhere to be found, so I hop out, grab the strap from the back of my truck, and lean on her truck with my arms crossed as I wait for her to come out of whatever store she’s in.
It’s not long until Natalie exits the store with a huge grin on her face and a small bag in her hand. When she sees me sitting here, she stops in her tracks.
That’s right, sweetheart. You should be shitting in your boots right now.
She approaches me with a smug expression on her face, then looks down and smirks at me. “Nice feet.”
She opens her truck door, not giving two shits that I’m standing here.
I hold up the strap she used to tow my truck. “What the fuck is this?”
She grabs it from my hand nonchalantly, like I’m handing her an ice cream cone and not the thing she used to just tow my truck into the marsh.
“Oh, thanks. I was wondering how I was going to explain to my brother that it was gone.”
She walks to the back of her truck to put it in the toolbox as I watch, stunned.
“What the fuck, Natalie?” I yell, knowing there’s nothing else I can do in this situation.
If this were her brother, I’d beat the ever-living shit out of him. But she’s a girl … so I stand here, helpless, as she acts like nothing happened.
“Paybacks are a bitch. Maybe next time, you won’t push my trailer out of the way,” she responds smugly.
I point to my truck. “You could have caused real damage.”
She steps right up and gets in my face. “And you could have caused damage to my dad’s trailer—the trailer he needs for the ranch—which he was letting me borrow when you pushed it out of the way. The only difference is, we don’t have the money to buy a new one, so any damage you caused would have been much worse than any little scratch on your precious truck.”
I’m speechless.
Rage races through me as I stare into her eyes, seeing my same anger glaring back at me.
She takes a breath, then steps back. “Thanks for the strap. I hope you don’t get an infection from being in the marsh in your bare feet. There’s some nasty skin-eating stuff in that water—that’s why it’s fenced off.”
My eyes open wide, and I instantly start cleaning the dry mud off my feet. When I hear her laughing, I glance up and realize she was just fucking with me some more.
