Page 12 of Hard Knock Hero

“I’m going back to the diner.”

Aiden hooked his thumb toward the bar. “I’m parked in the lot out back. I can drive you.”

“It’s a few doors down. I’ll walk.” I paused. “You can walk with me if you want.”

I started down the sidewalk, and instead of getting his car, Aiden fell into step beside me. Snowflakes tumbled across the few puddles of light from the street lamps. “I’m not from Hartley. I grew up near Colorado Springs, and that’s where I met Jeremy. I thought I was in love.”

Aiden nodded, as if this revelation didn’t surprise him in the least. I hated the thought of being a cliche. But every story, no matter how classic, had its shades and nuances. When I’d lived it, I hadn’t seen how my love story would go so wrong.

My mother was an unrepentant romantic. Married four times and currently working on a fifth. My dad—Trace’s father—had been her second, and that marriage hadn’t lasted long. Mom loved the anticipation and the chase, but living as a married couple usually proved unsatisfying.

I’d wanted a life for myself outside my mother’s shadow. Big dreams of traveling the world, creating beautiful and delicious food like the celebrity chefs on TV. But not much money to make all that happen. I hadn’t minded paying my dues, though. The most inspiring successes had a lot of hard work behind them. I’d thought, why not me? I hadn’t wanted to be rich or famous. I’d just wanted a place of my own.

I’d been working three jobs and barely paying my bills when I’d met Jeremy. He’d walked into the restaurant where I was a waitress, all confidence and flashing his killer smile. A fancy sales associate at some white-collar company. I’d ignored him at first, but after he asked me out at least six times, I’d finally agreed.

“He was on his best behavior in the beginning,” I said.

“But?” Aiden asked.

“Jeremy had a thing for getting into bar fights.” He’d had a temper and couldn’t bear the slightest insult. He’d gotten jealous easily, which I’d convinced myself was sexy. A hint of jealousy could be a turn-on if it was tempered with trust and respect, plus a hefty dose of common sense. But Jeremy was too quick to anger, as if it was always simmering inside him and could leap to full boil at any minute.

“The local cops in the Springs warned him again and again. He had some friends in the police department because his dad had been in the Air Force, stationed at the base there. But after too many close calls and near arrests, Jeremy realized it wasn’t going to end well. Not unless he learned how to manage his temper, andthatwasn’t going to happen. So he decided to move to Hartley and asked me to come with him.”

“And let me guess. Jeremy’s last name is Rigsby?”

“You catch on fast.” I smiled without any humor. “His family was from Hartley, including his cousins like Chester and Mitch. And his uncles. After we moved here, Jeremy only got worse. One night, he came home drunk, and we argued. Same old story. He was jealous over some imagined thing. That time, he hit me. I was pretty shocked, because he had never done that before. But the warning signs had been there. I decided to leave him. Packed my stuff and left that night.”

Probably because I had known, deep down, that if I let it go that one time, I might let it happen a hundred more. That wasn’t me, and I couldn’t ever let that become me.

I would never presume to judge another woman’s story. But this was mine.

“And then?” Aiden asked, his tone softer than before.

Then I’d taken my beat-up car and driven to the motel. The owner was a touch paranoid, security cameras all over the parking lot. So a camera spotted Jeremy when he showed up later that night.

“When Jeremy caught up to me, he put me in the hospital.” I said it with as little emotion as possible. I’d talked about it a lot in the past, and though it hadn’t gotten easier exactly, I’d gotten further away from it. As if I could step back from the incident now instead of feeling like I was still inside of it. Living in it.

“I’d had a pocket knife with me that night,” I added, “and he needed stitches to his face. So at least there’s that.”

Aiden and I started walking again. We were going slow, but we’d almost reached the diner. No cars out front, no sign of anyone nearby.

“Was he arrested?”

“Yep. By Owen. There was camera footage proving my side of the story, so there was no way for Jeremy or anyone else to deny it. Plus a woman staying at the motel happened to be a witness, and she made sure to tell anybody and everybody what happened. All of that was enough to get Jeremy to plead guilty to the charges. He got four years in prison, which everyone told me would be two years in reality. And that’s exactly what happened. He just got his parole.”

“Only two years for putting you in the hospital? After his history of violence?”

“It was his first official offense, and he had a parade of character witnesses at the sentencing.”

Aiden exhaled a white cloud of vapor. “What about your family? Your brother? Didn’t they come to Hartley to help you through that?”

“I never told them. Trace and I weren’t close. Our father divorced my mom when we were kids, and Trace and our dad moved to the east coast.” I chewed my lower lip. “I chose to make Hartley my home. I loved it here. In spite of everything, there are a lot of good people in this town. People who never doubted my side of the story.”

That, and I’d refused to run. When I’d left Colorado Springs, I’d been runningtosomething. A man I’d thought I loved, a new home. There was no way I was going to slink back, my dreams dashed, literally beaten down. No, even then I’d had too much defiance in me. All you had to do was ask my mother for confirmation of that fact. The battles we’d had when I was a teenager were epic.

“Then why is Chester Rigsby trying to run you out of town now?”

“Because Jeremy is heading here. And he’s made it clear that we can’t exist in the same town together. It’s him or me.”

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