Page 21 of Avenged

“God no, I’m just humoring you,” I responded. “Besides, I just sent off my resume for a new job. I might be able to get benefits through them.”

“Really? What about the bookstore?”

“I can do both.”

His head tilted as he considered what I’d told him. “What’s the likelihood of you getting this job in time to help you?”

I shrugged. There was a good chance they wouldn’t even call me back for an interview. Other than my degree, it wasn’t like I had a bunch of experience in helping people—not on paper, anyway. And if, by some chance, they did hire me, it would be part-time and probably wouldn’t qualify for medical, but he didn’t need to know that.

“You need another drink,” he said, swapping the glass for the paper in my hand. I drank it. It didn’t matter. I could pass out on the couch, and he’d go home, and I would wake up with a headache and a dream where someone had wanted to take care of me for a few minutes.

“Item four: No kissing on the lips,” he said as he wrote.

“Like in Pretty Woman?” I snorted.

His eyes flickered with humor. “Exactly like Pretty Woman, but you’re not a hooker, and I’m not a billionaire, otherwise I could just buy you medical insurance.”

“First The Sound of Music, and now Pretty Woman. I’m not sure what it says about you that you know all these romantic films.”

“Did you miss the part about my grandparents owning the last SmashBuster in the world? When they closed the store in Clover Lake to keep the one in Oregon open, we kept a lot of the old DVDs.”

It certainly explained why he had them, but watching them was a totally different thing, and I told him such.

“True story,” he acknowledged. “But I liked to keep my mom company while she sobbed into her ice cream after Dawson’s dad left her and my grandparents moved away.”

This wiped the smile from my face. The thought of a young Travis keeping his divorced mom company because she was sad. It was a little too heartbreaking. It was a little too close to home. Except neither Violet nor I had been enough to keep Dad company. The bottle of whiskey had instead.

I put the glass down with a bang.

The whole thing was suddenly ridiculous again. Out of hand. It had gotten out of hand and wasn’t funny or shocking or even believable. It was something people did in books and movies and not in the real world. But there was a tiny part of my brain wondering why the hell I wouldn’t do it. Why I wouldn’t sign up to get medical benefits—that I clearly needed—from someone who was offering me a free, legal way to get them.

I didn’t know if it was the alcohol or some tucked-away part of me that was a glutton for punishment that was thinking it, but it was getting louder and louder in my head. Plus, there were 106,097 other people who’d had this discussion and ended it with marriage. I wanted to ask myself what Captain Marvel or Wonder Woman would do, but then I remembered they didn’t need medical care. If they were broken, they needed powers greater than those on Earth to heal them. I just needed a few normal, mundane things—like medical insurance.

What was really so wrong about that?

Truck

EVERYBODY

“So don’t give up now,

You’re so close to a brand-new day.”

Performed by Keith Urban

Written by Marx / Urban

The mood had gotten light. Jersey had actually laughed, an adorable little snort of laughter, which made me smile all the way down to my bones. And then, she’d flipped back to the serious Jersey who’d floated through the house the entire time I’d lived there. I wasn’t sure what had changed, what I’d said other than watching movies with Mom. That didn’t seem enough to rocket anyone into seriousness.

I wanted to see her smile again. I wanted to hear the frickin’ snort.

“Speaking of billions. I’ll write that I don’t want any of your money, so when you win the lottery, I can’t have a claim on it.”

And there it was, a tiny sliver of a smile that came back.

“That would mean I’d actually played the lottery,” she said.

“You’re telling me you’ve never bought a lottery ticket?” I asked with surprise.

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