Page 38 of Indigo Sky

"Roy fired me when Bill waltzed into the shop today, threatening to call the cops." I looked straight into his eyes and continued, "He thought it was me."

"And you …" Nate shook his head and raked a hand across his cropped hair. "You took the rap?"

"What do you think?"

The giddy expression fell from his face as a breath whooshed from his lungs. "Wow. Shit, Rev. I don't know what to say."

I lifted my brows and barked an incredulous laugh. "You don't know what to say? How about,Oh, I'm sorry, Rev. Let me go down there and get your job back? Or, how about,Shit, you know what? Let me go turn myself in? How about that?"

To my horror, he shook his head. "You know I can't do that. I need that job.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. My brain wouldn’t comprehend, wouldn’t compute.

I laid a hand over my forehead and asked, “Wait …what? You-you thinkIdon’t need that fucking job? Is that seriously what you’re saying?”

God, what the hell was happening?

Two hours ago, I had been getting ready for work. Everything was normal; everything was right. Now, I was unemployed and two seconds away from begging my best friend to fess up to his own fuckup.

Nate stood up, bare-assed naked, but his nudity did nothing to faze me. It was the nonchalant way he moved around the room—grabbing his clothes and coveralls before he started getting dressed—that was messing with my head.

“Where the hell are you going?” I asked him, exasperated.

He glanced over his shoulder as he stepped into his brown coveralls. “Uh, getting ready for work?”

My gut somersaulted at the disbelieving look on his face. Fuck, how could he do this to me?

“I’ll see you later, all right?” He clapped me on the back and left me sitting on his bed as he sauntered into the living room and out the door, never once looking back.

CHAPTER NINE

“You werefired?” Mom couldn’t believe I’d lost my job, as made obvious by her inability to say anything but those three words since I’d walked through the door.

“God, Susan, people are fired all the time,” Dad grumbled, no longer sympathetic to her shock. Instead, he was angry.

After Nate had left the apartment, I’d spent a good long time thinking about what I should do. I thought about all the questionable things Nate had done over the years, every time he’d glazed over screwing me over, the conversation I’d had with Joe a while back, and it’d all come down to me realizing one thing.

No friend would put me through this shit.

I had relied on him, and he had relied on me. We were codependent. But were wefriends? Had weeverbeen?

I didn’t have the answer to that, but I knew I had to do something. I had to leave.

So, I stuffed my backpack with enough clothes to get me through a few days, left the apartment, and headed over to my parents’ place. It was Saturday, and that meant they were both home, and neither of them had expected me to walk through the door in the middle of the day.

I hadn’t told them why I’d been fired. I didn't know that I ever wanted them to know, although it’d be easy enough for them to find out if Dad just had a conversation with Roy. Iguessed, at the end of the day, I just couldn’t get myself to stop protecting the guy who apparently no longer wanted to protect me because, at one point, he was the only person who had, and I wondered if there'd ever be a time where I wouldn't feel indebted to him for that.

"Do you want me to talk to Roy?" Dad asked, regarding me with tired eyes from across the kitchen table.

"No," I said hurriedly. "It's fine. I'll … I don’t know … I'll figure something out."

"You have bills to pay," Mom reminded me, as if I'd forgotten. "Your dad and I can help you out where we can, but, Revan—"

"I know," I cut her off. "I'll look around for other jobs tomorrow. I just …" I sighed and dragged my palm over my mouth. "I can't think right now."

Dad nodded solemnly. "I get it. Take the night, let the dust settle a little, and tomorrow, get back in the saddle."

Then, Mom asked the question I didn't want to answer. "What about Nathan?"

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