“Yes, Zach, I know,” Joel interrupted the beginning of the lecture. He made his voice exaggeratedly patient. “That’s why I left. Because fights are bad and I didn’t want one. Okay?” He neglected to mention that he’d ended up fighting the drunks off anyway. What Zach didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. And it was better to keep Nina out of the conversation entirely.
Teri slipped by on her way to get the cheese grater out of a drawer, and poked Zach hard in the side as she passed. Zach held up his hands immediately. “Okay. Sorry. I just wish you’d said something to us before you left—or texted, or anything.”
Joel felt a stab of guilt at that. Zach didn’t deserve to be blanked just because Joel was caught up in something he wanted to keep secret. “I should’ve texted at least. Next time I will.”
“How about next time you hang out and eat your burger with us,” Zach countered. “You staying for dinner tonight?”
Joel looked at the clock. Six-thirty. Still a long time until Nina got off work at eight. “Sure.”
Dinner was...fine. The food was good, but it just reminded him of what he’d been avoiding by spending so much time out at the cabin. Zach and Teri were so in love it was impossible to ignore; it was like Joel could almost reach out and touch the feelings in the air between them. It made him uncomfortable.
It was worse because he did genuinely like Teri. She was smart, down-to-earth, and loved the Park as much as anybody did. And she wanted to get to know Joel, she wanted to spend time with him and talk to him. She wanted them to be a family.
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She couldn’t help it that Joel flinched away from the whole idea of mates. She couldn’t help it that when he was around her and Zach, watching them be the most couple-y couple that ever coupled, he started to get claustrophobic.
So he ate as quickly as he politely could, participated in the conversation a little—Zach again brought up the idea of them coming to help work on the cabin, and Teri chimed in, clearly eager. Joel couldn’t just shut her down, because she was trying, he could see her reaching out, wanting to connect on something. So he made noncommittal agreement noises and hoped he could put it all off until the cabin was done.
“I know you like the great outdoors more than anything in the world,” Zach said, making it a joke, “but you could bring some of us with you into the great outdoors sometime. I haven’t even seen your cabin, you know.”
“Sure,” Joel said. “We’ll do it.” Sometime in the far future, after he’d convinced Nina to stick around. He glanced at the clock. Seven-fifteen. Still too early, but he couldn’t wait any longer. “Thanks for dinner. I’ve got to head out, though.”
“Now? Where? Just out to the cabin again?” Zach asked, frowning.
“No, I’ve got some stuff to take care of, but I’ll probably head up there after. See you later.” He escaped from the table before there were any more questions. He’d learned as a teenager that if he wanted to get out without Zach making him stay, speed was key.
This was another reason he needed to get out of the house and live in his own place. Whenever he was irritated about something, whether it was Zach’s fault or not, he could feel them start to transform, becoming the sullen fifteen-year-old kid and the out-of-his-depth twenty-year-old guardian. They were both men now, and they needed to start living like it.
Joel shook off thoughts of Zach as he headed out into the night. He’d shift and run for a bit to kill some time, and then he’d head over to the diner.
***
Nina’s shift had dragged on forever. She’d changed her mind about whether she was going to stay long enough to meet Joel four or five times throughout the day, and she still wasn’t sure she’d settled on the right decision.
Was it dumb to be so wary? Would it be dumber to trust too easily? She’d trusted easily and been proven wrong before.
The only reason she thought Joel was trustworthy was the truly crazy explanation, When I look into his eyes, I believe him.
And God knew, given the other parts of Joel she’d been looking at, it might not be her brain that was making that decision.
But she stuck around anyway. Despite thinking, every time she looked at the door, that maybe she should just cut her losses and get out, she stuck around.
And at seven-fifty, the door to Oliver’s opened and Joel came in. Nina felt his eyes on her as she finished up her last rounds. Her body responded to his gaze like she’d never felt before: tingling and tightening whenever she glanced over to see him looking.
He stayed back, waiting in the front of the restaurant while she finished up, clocked off, took off her apron. He waited while she said goodnight to Ethel, collected her first paycheck, and made her way to the door.
She could feel her body getting closer to his like there was some kind of magnetic pull.
“Hi,” he said when she’d finally reached him.
“Hi.” She felt awkward and unsure, but she took the lead anyway. “You said you wanted to talk. So talk.”
He tilted his head for the door. “Can we go for a walk?”
That should be ringing alarm bells in her head. Where did he want to take her? Who else might be there, waiting? But it didn’t.
For whatever dumb reason, she trusted this man. She kept remembering the night before, when he’d distracted those assholes, put their attention on him, and given her the chance to run away.