Page 8 of Willow Vale

Irene: Delilah, please answer me.

Irene: You know you hurt my feelings when you do this. Please, Delilah. I really need you right now.

Irene: Keep ignoring me then. I’ll find someone else to waste my time on.

The texts went on and on in the same pattern. One second she’s begging me to pay attention to her, the next she’s bitter and angry. Lashing out with all the weapons she had at her disposal. The ones that she seemed to know hurt me the most. I’d be a liar if I said I was unaffected by my mother’s selfishness when it came to us. If I said that her weapons didn’t cut deep, leaving ugly, jagged scars on my heart.

Tossing my phone onto my bed, I rubbed my eyes until they hurt. Not wanting to shed any tears for her. Still, I couldn’t stop them from escaping anyway.

Just like I couldn’t stop the memories ofthatsummer from overwhelming me once again. Travis. Irene. The hospital.

Me…alone.

CHAPTER 5

Lila

The Rusty Pintwas oddly quiet during the day.

There were so many times when I’d driven past the most popular bar in town and it was practically overflowing with people. Live music blasting through the windows and the streets filled to the brim with cars.

Today, however, on a Sunday afternoon, there was only an older man sitting on the far-right side of the bar, nursing a beer. After leaving River with the babysitter for a few hours, I headed to The Rusty Pint for my first official training shift, and my stomach was in absolute knots.

“It should only take an hour to get acquainted with the layout and fill out some paperwork,” Desi said shortly after introducing me to the other bartender on shift. “Jake here will walk you through everything. Who knows, if you do a good job, maybe we’ll keep you around as theonlybartender.”

She’s clearly teasing, but Jake, a young man with long blonde hair tied back into a bun, bumped her shoulder. “That’s hurtful, Desi. I thought we had something going here.”

“When you miscount the till for the third night in the row,you’re officially on my shit list,” she shot back, all sass. “Do you have any idea how annoying that is for the person opening the next day? Do you know who happens to open in the mornings? I’ll give you a hint”—she pointed to herself—“it’sveryannoying.”

Jake looked at me and shrugged. “She’s just mad because I turned her down last week.”

I grinned.

“You wish, man bun.”

“All right, Lila. Come on around the bar and I’ll walk you through the fun stuff first before you do the paperwork the boss man likes so much.”

It was a struggle not to react to the mention of Travis.

Myboss.

I’d worked hard to avoid him for so long, and now I couldn’t seem to stop thinking about him. Thinking about how different he was from the boy I’d met years ago. Or the way his eyes burned into me even when I thought he wasn’t looking at me. Setting me on fire.

I tried my best not to think about Travis ever since he hired me the other day. I wasn’t proud to admit, however, that the thought of being so close to him now was keeping me on edge.

Shoving any thought of Travis far,faraway from my mind, I focused on Jake.

He explained that between me, him, and Desi manning the bar or running food out to tables, the evenings during the weekdays were slower, with a steady stream of regulars who came in after work or the group of well-seasoned ranchers who liked to gather around the bar to gossip about people in town. I had a feeling I’d be seeing a lot of familiar faces around here.

Jake walked me through the bar, chatting the whole time,which was fine by me since he filled all the awkward silences that were bound to happen with two strangers. Being an introvert, I always found small talk to resemble a long, drawn-out way of pulling someone’s teeth out. Painful and unnecessary.

It was nice to meet someone who had no problem carrying a conversation.

“You’ll rarely have to go into the kitchen since you’ll be receiving orders through the window, but every now and then we might go into the stockroom to pull some bottles,” Jake said as I followed him down the hall to the left and through a door. After showing me where they kept the kegs, whiskey, and other bottles, he led us into the kitchen. “Manny! Say hi to Lila, she’s our newest victim. Try not to scare her off,” Jake hollered, catching the attention of an older man wearing a gray baseball cap. He waved a large hand my way with a nod before he got back to whatever he was doing at the chopping block.

Manny’s voice was gruff as he said over his shoulder, “Don’t be afraid to tell him to shut up, Lila. Otherwise, there’s no stopping Jack.”

“It’s Jake, man. Jake! How many times do I have to remind you? I swear he does it on purpose,” Jake whined before they started bantering back and forth.

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