Page 7 of Love By the Slice

What Rowan probably needed was money, or rather, an adult bringing in regular money. Greg and Shelly couldn’t do that.

Shelly was still texting. “I’d ask who he lives with, if there are brothers and sisters, where he lives, and things like that. Where does your mom work? That stuff.”

Greg replied, “Would that have helped you?”

He regretted it the instant he sent it, but he could see she was already typing.

“Maybe.”

Then, “I don’t know. It would depend if I trusted them.”

Greg sent, “Why should Rowan trust the guy who made him a pizza?”

Shelly replied, “Because you’re trustworthy.”

That…was not what Greg had expected to read. In all his life, no one had called him trustworthy.

Ezra didn’t trust him. Ezra thought Greg was a screw-up. Greg’s father didn’t trust him with the metal press equipment.Even Greg’s mother, although she never said she didn’t trust him, always checked to make sure he was wearing those steel-toed boots when he went to work, as if without her supervision he’d tromp off through ten inches of snow in flip-flops.

Shelly said, “Then I’ll be the first. To Rowan, you look trustworthy.” A moment after, “You said you wouldn’t call the cops, and you didn’t. You made Rowan a whole extra pizza. You even ate a slice of it, so Rowan didn’t feel like a charity case.”

That was interesting, because at the time, Shelly had scolded him for doing exactly that—and Shelly hadn’t taken one.

Shelly finished with, “If keeping your word doesn’t make you trustworthy, what does?”

Maybe to Rowan, the social distinctions of who was important who wasn’t important were all a blur. Maybe the pizza dude was equal to the school principal and the crossing guard and the doctor and the pastor. At that age, had Greg realized a machine shop owner wasn’t on a par with the mayor of Bangor?

Greg replied with, “Thank you. So, if I see the kid again, I just need to do what I say I’ll do.”

She replied, “And be approachable. You’re very approachable.”

She must still be drunk from that midnight kiss. This was very close to buttering him up.

If he were that approachable—and that trustworthy—then maybe someday, Shelly would trust him enough to approach for real.

CHAPTER FOUR

EZRA SAID, “EARTH to Shelly?” and her head jerked up from over her phone. He tapped the three pizza boxes on the counter. “You may want to deliver these.”

“Yeah, sorry.” Shoving her phone into her pocket, she uncoiled from the counter stool and hopped to the floor.

Ezra said, “Who were you texting?”

With a tearing sound from the hook-and-loop closure, Shelly opened the thermal bag to start loading pizza boxes. “Greg. I wanted to ask about that kid hanging around.”

Ezra’s eyes darkened. “No.”

She turned to him. “Yeah, he didn’t seem to have—”

“I mean, no. You were smiling and glowing while you were texting the entire contents ofWar and Peace. I’m not having you fall in love with him.”

Shelly huffed as she sealed the thermal bag. “Like you have a choice.”

“Youhave a choice, and that’s the important thing.” Ezra scowled. “Greg’s not right for you. You have goals, and he’s going to get in your way.”

Shelly smirked. “Yeah, that’s how it works. I exchange three texts with your friend, and ten minutes later, all my life goals are in the trash.”

“Greg doesn’t take anything seriously.” Ezra huffed. “You know that as well as I do.”

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