“I’m surprised you told her to stop shooting.”
“Yeah, well, you were nice enough to drive here with my purse, so…”
I looked beyond her shoulders. “Is she…your daughter?”
Aspyn hesitated. “My niece.”
“Ah. You don’t have kids then…”
“No.”
“Babysitting?”
She looked down at her feet. “Not exactly.”
“She lives with you?”
Aspyn looked up at me. “My sister…died. So, my niece divides her time between my place and my parents’ house.”
Shit. I swallowed. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
“You don’t have to feel sorry for me. I can see that look in your eyes again.” She mocked, “Poor little Aspyn stuck in Meadowbrook.”
My heart sank, regretting the stupid shit I’d said earlier. “That’s not what I was thinking at all. Not in the least.”
The sad look in her eyes hit me hard. I wanted to hug her, which was weird, considering how much I knew she disliked me.
Droplets of water dripped down her T-shirt as she blew out a breath. “Anyway…thank you for dropping this by. I really appreciate it.”
“Yeah.” I slipped my hands into my pockets. “No problem.”
I lingered for a few seconds until she grabbed the door handle. I took that as my cue to leave. Nodding my head, I made my way out the door, and she wasted no time closing it behind me.
Aspyn couldn’t get rid of me fast enough.
• • •
Because I’d had to drop off the wallet, I was ten minutes late meeting my buddy Eric for dinner at a local bar and grill. Eric had gone to high school with us, and this would be my third time hanging out with him since arriving back in Meadowbrook.
He was already seated in a booth when I got to Boone’s Pub, where the air always smelled like a mix of burned meat and alcohol.
Eric immediately looked down at my wet spot. “What the hell, man? Did you piss yourself?”
“No.” I took a seat across from him. “I got shot at with a Super Soaker. I didn’t have time to head home and change.”
“What the fuck?”
“Yeah…this little girl—long story. I’ll explain later.” I grabbed a menu. “Let’s just order. I’m starving.”
After we put in for our food, I asked him the question that had been weighing on me the entire ride over. “You ever take one look at someone or something from the past, and it just brings back all this shit you’ve tried to forget? Makes you realize all these feelings you thought were gone never really went away?”
Eric nodded. “That’s how I feel when I look at Stoli vodka. Reminds me of the time I puked all over Christy Hemingway in tenth grade.”
Aspyn was like my very own pile of vomit.
“You remember Aspyn Dumont from high school?”
He ripped apart a piece of bread. “Yeah, sure.”
“She works at the place my grandfather’s at.”
“Really? Wasn’t she psycho?” he asked as he reached for the butter.
His use of the word psycho jarred me a little, mainly because I knew he’d gotten that idea about her from me. That had been my usual nickname for her after the incidents in high school. But even if I’d thought she was a little psycho back then, I should’ve chosen the words I’d spoken aloud more carefully. I felt like shit right now.
“She had her moments, yeah. We pretty much hated each other, talked shit about each other. But a lot of it was my fault.”
While we continued waiting for our food, I caught Eric up on the situation with Aspyn and explained why she’d been assigned to chaperone the outings. I also reminded him of the reason behind some of the crap she pulled on me in high school.
I sipped my beer and stared down at the bottle. “Anyway, I don’t know why I’m even talking about her...”
“What does she look like now?” he asked.
The waitress came by with our food, and that gave me a minute before responding. I thought about Aspyn’s physical appearance. Her sand-colored hair was so long, almost down to her voluptuous ass. Without a drop of makeup, her skin was smooth and flawless. She was naturally beautiful, even more so somehow when she got mad at me. I’d been taken aback by the fact that I found myself very attracted to her, someone I used to have nothing but disdain for. That was a contradiction I hadn’t experienced before. Maybe somehow her hatred made her more appealing in a twisted way?
I downplayed it. “She’s not a knockout or anything, but she’s…pretty. Nice ass and tits. It was hard to see past the look of hatred on her face, though.”
“Well, sounds like you’re gonna have other opportunities to change her mind about you if you’re stuck with her twice a week.”
“Not sure I should bother trying to change her mind. She seems really hung up on the past.”
He chewed a sweet potato fry. “How long are you staying in Meadowbrook anyway?”