Page 8 of Away Game

“You were there, and you know what happened,” he said through gritted teeth.

Oh, this was going to be fun. “I can’t seem to recall. What happened? Did you punch a customer?” I bit out the words, trying to hold in a laugh as West’s face grew redder by the second.

West watching Candy as she gave me a blowjob didn’t make him an asshole. No matter, though, I loved that he thought it did.

He choked and spluttered so much, I thought I was going to have to take over driving for a moment. “Do you think I’d have a job at Lucia’s if I punched someone?”

Damn, he made it too easy. “It is possible. Why else would you be working at the resort instead of at the diner during the break?”

“Ugh,” he yelled. “You wouldn’t understand. You’ve never had to worry about money a day in your life.” His knuckles turned white as he gripped the steering wheel in a death grip.

“While that may be so, I do understand not everyone is as fortunate as I am, and there are plenty of people in the world who struggle.”

West’s jaw hung as he stared over at me. I thought he was going to run us off the road with his dumbfounded expression.

“Did you lose your job in town?” I finally asked to break West out of his state of shock.

He let out an annoyed huff and turned back to look out the windshield. “Not that it’s any of your business, but no, I didn’t lose my job. During winter and spring break, I work up here, and the rest of the year, I’m at the diner.” For some reason, I wanted to know why, but I wouldn’t let myself care, so I stayed silent. As if West knew my unspoken question, he answered, “I make more money working at the resort than I do working at the diner for two months.”

“Then why don’t you work at the resort… more?” I doubted he had the funds to afford to drive up here all the time if he drove this piece of shit truck up the mountain.

“If it paid as good as it does in the winter, I’d spend my summers up here, but they don’t need a ski instructor during the summer.”

“Did your coach know what you do during the offseason?” I knew our coaches would have handed us our asses if they knew we were skiing or if there was any possibility we could get hurt. I had no one to answer to now that the season was over, but if I made the team at Willow Bay next year, I wouldn’t be taking the chance. I’d heard the new coach was a real hard-ass and would throw anyone off the team if they were caught not following the rules. It didn’t matter if they were the star of the team or a bench warmer.

“Another prime example, I’m not as good as I seem.” He let out a dark chuckle.

I had a feeling West wasn’t doing it because he wanted to be a bad boy but because he needed the money. While it was honorable, I wasn’t going to let West off the hook.

A dark chuckle escaped. “If you think working two jobs makes you a bad boy, you’re delusional. In fact, it does the opposite.”

Pulling into a dark driveway, he stared drolly at me. “Why do I have a feeling you’ll never let me win?”

Because I hated West Jackson and the way he made me feel.

An evil smirk crossed my face. “Now tell me what happened at the diner that makes you an asshole,” I demanded.

5

West

Out of thecorner of my eye, I tried to watch as Fin took in my home for winter break. It wasn’t much, but it was free and warm, and nothing beat that. During the first season, I worked as a ski instructor at Snow Valley. A couple of years ago, one of the employees, Taylor, saw that I was trying to live out of my truck to save money. He offered his guest house for me to use, which was probably the size of a shed compared to what Fin was used. It had a bathroom, a fireplace, a full-size bed with a tiny kitchen and living room area. It was my home away from home, and I thought it was cozy. Going by the pinched looked on Fin’s face, he thought the opposite.

“How the hell do you stay here?”

The disgust in his voice had me wanting to kick him out and let him fend for himself, but I knew he’d likely die out in the blizzard, and I couldn’t live with that on my conscience. That and Fin would probably beat the shit out of me or try to kill me if I attempted to push him out the door.

“Not all of us live in mansions,” I said as I moved through the area.

With Fin in my space, it felt a whole hell of a lot smaller. It was like he’d sucked the air out of the room the moment he walked in. His large frame took up almost the entire living area.

Fin’s nostrils flared as his eyes narrowed. “I do know that. Don’t hold it against me that I come from a privileged family.”

“And don’t hold it against me that I have to work two jobs to help my mom support my brother and me. I need to make all the money I can before I head off to college.”

I had no idea why I opened up to him. Fin tried every chance he got to make my life miserable whenever we were anywhere near each other.

Fin threw the bag he’d brought in on the floor by the door before he turned to me with a strange expression on his face. It looked like he wanted to throttle me, and at the same time, a sense of understanding was there. There was no way Finley Huntington understood what it was like to be poor. To not know if you’d have enough money to pay for groceries for the week or the electric bill.

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