From there, shit had just spiraled.
He started to cheat. I decided I didn’t care if he cheated.
And eventually, when he got the first girl pregnant—and no, the one currently behind me wasn’t the first girl—I’d decided it was time for us to call it quits.
We’d been divorced for years now.
I never regretted a single second of it.
“You mean the horror show with the teenager?” I asked curiously, grinning despite my tears.
Bain always had a way of getting me to smile.
“Yes.” He flicked a glance their way. “If looks could kill, Braxton would’ve murdered me by now.”
I didn’t bother to look over Bain’s shoulder.
Braxton could give less of a shit about me.
It’d always been Bain for him.
He was so jealous of Bain, it was embarrassing.
Bain is military. I can’t be in the military because I have bad knees.
Bain defended you. I couldn’t have defended you like that because I don’t have those kinds of skills.
Whatever.
“I have no clue what you’re talking about,” I teased. “You want a Dr Pepper?”
His eyes lit. “I would fuckin’ kill for a Dr Pepper.”
I patted him on the chest, as I said, “No need to do that and go back to where you were just at. I’ll get you one. Actually, I’ll be smart and get you two. We both know how much you love those drinks.”
Bain was a Dr Pepper man. As in, I didn’t think I ever saw him without one in the time that I’d known him.
He always had a can or a bottle of it somewhere close.
“Thanks, Luce.” He grimaced. “I guess I’ll go sit down and see what this shit show is all about.”
I snorted and headed in the opposite direction of their table, feeling a funny feeling take place in my belly when I had to walk away from Bain.
It was always like that for me, though.
Bain had always been a force. A… presence.
He was something so incredible that sometimes it hurt even being around him.
“Whoa.” Shawna whistled as I passed. “Hottie alert!”
I grinned as I took two glasses from the counter and started filling them with ice.
“What’s the story there with the hottie who hugged you?” my coworker asked.
Shawna and I had been working at Moe’s Diner together for going on three years.
She was working there because she just wanted to get out of the house, so she didn’t spend all day with her husband and kids.
I worked there because they worked well with my schedule and I could go to school while also working when it was convenient for me.
“Well, do you want the condensed version? Or the long, drawn-out one?” I questioned.
“The long, drawn-out one,” she answered immediately.
I snorted.
“Well, it all started with me meeting hottie’s brother,” I said. “I met Braxton when I was fifteen and we dated on and off throughout school until we were eighteen. When I was eighteen and a half, I went to prom with hottie, also known as Bain, because Braxton wouldn’t take me. Fast-forward a few years, I’m now married to Braxton. Bain is in the military. Or, he was being discharged from it because of a loss of hearing in his right ear. He got this job as a private security guy and I went to him because I thought someone might be following me. Stalking me. Come to find out, someone was stalking me. Multiple someones. Bain caught them and accidentally killed one of them. They charged him with manslaughter. He was sentenced with eight years in prison. Because of me.”
She blinked. “Wow. I mean, logically I knew that you had some issues with something a long time ago. Moe talked about it once. But I didn’t realize that it was that big of a deal.”
“It was that big of a deal,” I admitted. “I was scared as hell.”
“Good riddance, if you ask me,” Shawna offered.
“I said the same,” I admitted, “but the judge that Bain got was bad. The other lawyer and the judge, we think, might’ve had some sort of good-ol’-boy agreement. Because even though the jury found Bain guilty, suggested a parole instead of prison time, the judge overruled it and sentenced him anyway. Because he was a ‘dangerous weapon.’ Or some bullshit like that.”
“Judge sounds like a piece of shit.”
“The judge is still the sitting judge,” I grumbled darkly. “And he thinks he owns this town.”
“Kind of like that sheriff thinks he runs it?” Shawna wiggled her eyebrows.
I hated the sheriff, as did quite a few of the other locals.
He was lazy, barely responded to any calls, and he gave me the creeps.
“Needless to say, we could use a revamp of our criminal system.” I shrugged. “Are you okay with me taking your table?”
“Take away,” she hesitated and looked in the direction of the McDempsey family. “The older woman is looking at you like she wants you to come join them.”