Page 34 of The Nice Guy
“Modelin’ naked. She’s not lyin’, I guess.”
Tears sting at my eyes, and I can’t help but wonder why these women I barely know, if at all, feel the need to say such terrible things about me. The assumptions made solely on my looks. I’m used to being torn apart by competitors, but I never expected small-town gossip could hurt worse.
“She’s stupid, right? I mean, she has to be.”
“She’s clearly only ever gotten by on her looks. She’s probably lookin’ for some poor sap with some land she can exploit, and Rhett’s just her way to find her next big score.”
It’s like these women have been given a cheat sheet about my biggest insecurities to cut me the deepest. I stare at my torso to make sure I’m not actually bleeding from the wounds they’ve inflicted with their words, because it feels like someone stabbed me repeatedly with a hunting knife. Talk in a small town wasn’t unexpected, but this level of cattiness wasn’t what I had in mind.
“Hey!” Darla says, and I jump, avoiding looking directly at her. “Are you okay?”
“I have to go,” I say, my voice barely above a whisper.
She points at the cart as I back towards the front door. “You don’t want to buy the crackers anymore?”
“Do you think she even graduated high school?” someone says over the aisle.
“Yeah, but she only did because she slept with the teachers. Even the female ones. Brynlee looks like the type who will sleep her way to the top, no matter who she has to climb on to get there.”
Shaking my head, I hurry outside, doing my best not to run and draw attention to myself. The last thing I want is those women seeing me. To know I heard everything, but more than that, I can’t let them see the effects their words have on me. I learned a long time ago to never let people see me cry. I just can’t believe how much they hurt me. My skin used to be much thicker than this.
Darla runs after me, but I barely glance in the mirror as I hurry back to the house. I’ll starve before I go back into the store today.
Bursting through my front door, I finally let the tears fall, and I climb into bed. I cling to the bear Rhett won me and sob.
Is it fair to keep dating him if this is how everyone sees me? How they’ll see him?
He said he dated Honor despite her reputation, and that he was the only one who wanted more than just sex from her. I can only imagine the comments he had to endure about herand their relationship. Knowing him as well as I already do, he defended her. I know he did. Making him do that all over again doesn’t feel fair. No matter how much I like him, how much I know I could fall in love with him, I don’t want to put him through that.
He’s one of the only friends I have in Copperwood, and if I lose him, I’ll lose Darla. And Carter. What’s the point of staying? Everyone else thinks I’m a trashy bimbo who sells pictures of various body parts on the internet.
I can’t prove them wrong, and I learned a long time ago that it does no good to even try. Nothing I do will ever matter. They’ve made up their minds about me, and that’s that.
For the first time since I left Chicago, I desperately miss the anonymity of the city. Being invisible would be really, really welcome right now.
Chapter Twelve
Rhett
“Dude, you better wife that girl up soon,” Carter says as he sets a beer on the table in front of me.
Brynlee hasn’t left my mind since I met her, but leaving her house last night was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done in my life. Our date isn’t for another eight hours, and I need something to distract myself to stop me from going to her house now.
“Where’s Darla?” I ask as I see his two daughters running around the yard.
“She had to run to the grocery store.”
“What happened last night?”
He sighs and shakes his head, his dark hair brushing his eyes. “Nothin’ I can fix right now.”
“Talk to me.”
“It’s complicated. She doesn’t think I believe in her. We just don’t have the money to start a salon right now.”
Taking a chance, I decide to push further than I typically do. “This is just me, man, so you can tell me to go to hell. But if you tell me the truth, it doesn’t leave the two of us. Is there a chance she doesn’t think you believe she can pull it off because you actually don’t think she can?”
His hand rubs down his face. “I think she can do anythin’ she puts her mind to, but this is a big risk. If we jump into this, and it fails, we’ll ruin ourselves. There won’t be any comin’ back from it.”
