by Carter Ashby
“Not particularly.”
Adam laughed. “Okay, tough guy. I won’t pry.” He glanced at the moaning guy on the ground. “What do you reckon he was doing?”
“Smelled like alcohol to me,” Cash said. “And he was yelling into a cell phone.”
Adam frowned and nodded. “Shame.”
“Yep.”
Cash glanced around again.
“What do you do, Cash?” Adam asked.
Cash frowned at him, wondering what his angle was. “I’m an electrician.”
“Really? A man who works with his hands. That’s cool. ”
“Yeah, well. What do you do?”
“I’m a lawyer. Not nearly as sexy.”
Was the guy flirting with him? It had been so long since Cash had flirted that he couldn’t believe what was happening. Besides, last time a guy had flirted with him, it had ended in disaster. He thought he should quickly decide whether to flirt back, but the distant approach of sirens saved him the trouble.
Adam knelt next to the drunk guy. “They’re coming, dude. Just hang in there.”
“Bastard’s lucky I don’t add some more injuries before they get here. Nearly killed us both.”
Adam smiled up at him. Cash looked away. He was in danger of thinking this guy was for real.
The ambulance came, and then the police. While the drunk guy was being put on a gurney, Adam and Cash were giving their information to the police. A tow truck showed up to pick up Adam’s car.
He would need a ride.
The tow truck driver would give him a ride. But still, maybe Cash should offer.
When the police thanked him, Cash turned and started walking toward his truck. The idea warred within him until he finally stopped at the edge of the highway and turned back. Adam was looking sadly at his pounded up car.
“You need a ride?” Cash called to him.
Adam’s face lit in a smile. “Yeah. Hey, thanks, man. That would be great.”
He jogged up to meet him, and they walked side-by-side across the highway to Cash’s truck. They followed the tow truck the rest of the way into Fidelity. Cash glanced at his passenger, struck with the incongruity of Adam’s fancy suit and slicked back hair inside Cash’s beat-up pickup with the torn vinyl seats and the crumpled soda cans on the floor.
A couple miles down the road, Adam relaxed, and it occurred to Cash that some of Adam’s brightness and cheer might have been nerves. Not that he didn’t seem still cheerful. Just calmer.
“So, Cash,” he said, “I gotta ask because I’ve been wrong before. You’re not straight, are you?”
He said it almost hopefully. Cash suppressed a grin. He couldn’t bring himself to look at the man. He was grateful to be hiding behind dark sunglasses. “No,” he said. “I’m not.”
“That’s fantastic news.”
“I don’t see how. You’re not my type.”
“Aw, I’ll grow on you. Here,” he said, reaching in his pocket for a card. He handed it to Cash. “My cell number is on there.”
Cash took it, glanced at it, and slipped it in his shirt pocket. “You don’t even know where I’m moving to.”
“You must be moving here. To Fidelity.”
Cash laughed. “Why? Why must I?”
“Well, because I always get what I want, that’s why.”
“Jesus Christ. You really lay it on thick, don’t you?”
Adam chuckled. “I’m not timid if that’s what you mean.”
Cash stared hard at the road, trying to keep his face expressionless. “I’m not looking for anything right now,” he said.
“Sure, I understand. No pressure. But you get settled in here and then call that number. I’ll buy you a beer sometime. If you don’t like me, no big deal. You can always use more friends, right?”
Cash glanced at him. They had arrived at the garage, and he pulled into the parking lot. “You want me to wait?”
“Nah, I’ll get a rental. Thanks for the ride.” Adam started to climb out. He stopped and looked back. “I’m sorry you and your truck got banged up, but it was really great meeting you, Cash.”
And then he was gone. Cash watched him for a moment. Adam waved at a woman who was passing by him on her way out. She smiled and waved back. Cash wondered how, in a town this small, Adam managed to keep such a positive demeanor and such confidence. He didn’t swagger, but he held himself like a man who’d never been beat down by life. A man who always got what he wanted.
Cash shook his head and put his truck in reverse. He drove to the new home he’d be sharing with his brother.
CHAPTER TWO
THE BRICK OVEN was located right on Main Street. Rye and Cash were led there by their noses Friday at dinner time. Unpacking was exhausting work, and their appetites testified to the fact. They took a walk down Main in hopes of stumbling across a pub or burger joint, but the smell of bread stopped them. They turned and saw, displayed in the window of the restaurant, loaves of artisan bread in a variety of shapes and flavors. When the two brothers pressed their faces to the glass and saw pizza being served, they exchanged a look and a shrug and went inside.
They’d lived in a few small towns, and usually the only pizza you could get was some reheated frozen stuff from a local convenience store. This was a real Mom & Pop operation. The kitchen area was all open. There was a huge brick oven built into the back wall and a cute, little brunette tossing dough and sliding pizzas in and out of the oven. There was a man working by her side. They looked alike, possibly brother and sister.
Cash and Rye took a small table in the corner. The waitress brought them their beer and took their order. “You guys new around here?” she asked, a twangy accent to her high-pitched voice.
“Yes, ma’am,” Cash answered.
“Well, welcome to town,” she said. “First beer’s on the house. I’ll get your pizza right out to ya.”
Cash grinned at Rye, and he found himself grinning back. Free beer. Cool.
“Maybe this town won’t be so bad,” Cash said.
“Yeah, we’ll see. Might be worth it just for this place. If that pizza tastes as good as it smells, we’re already two steps up from where we were.”
Cash was looking around. “I met a guy yesterday,” he said.
Rye felt himself go tense all over.
“The other guy in the wreck. Adam.”
Rye watched as Cash avoided eye contact at all cost. “We just got here.”
“I know,” Cash said. “I told him I wasn’t interested. But he gave me his number anyway.”
“So…it’s out, then? You’re not gonna play straight?
“Do you want me to?”
“I want you to do what’s best for you.”
Cash nodded. “Well…the guy pegged me right off the bat. So I think it’s best just to be honest. Maybe if I’m not hiding my sexuality, it won’t be seen as a weakness.”
Rye had no response. Truth be told, he was a nervous wreck. He’d been nervous since Henderson and the two towns they’d tried out after that had only validated his anxiety. Cash was simply in the wrong part of the country for being gay. On several occasions, Rye had tried to talk Cash into moving to a city, but Cash wanted to stay within a day’s drive of their mom and sister, and Rye mostly agreed. He’d hate to not get to watch his niece and nephew grow up.
With a sigh, Rye asked, “You gonna call this guy?”
“Nah. Like you said. We just got here.”
Rye nodded but looked down at his hands anyway. “Look, I appreciate you being careful. But if you like this guy—”
“You’ve sacrificed relationships too, Rye. You never say so, but I know you were in love back in Henderson.”
Rye dropped his head back. “Bullshit. Even if I was, she pretty much killed those feelings. Don’t worry about me, Cash. Take care of yourself. Maybe this place will finally be home. Maybe this guy is for real.”
Cash shrugged. “Maybe. But I’d rather be careful for a while. Get settled into our jobs.”
Rye shrugged. “Just don’t be too careful. You really need to get laid.”
“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”
“You know what it means.”
“No. I don’t. Go ahead and say what you’ve got to say.”
“Fine. You’ve just been downright bitchy lately; that’s all.”
“Bitchy? Who was it threw that temper tantrum when he stubbed his toe yesterday.”
“Wasn’t a temper tantrum.”
“Was so.”
The waitress brought their pizza and grinned at them. Rye smiled back because she was female and was wearing no ring. He thanked her with his best, most charming wink, and when she left, went back to his stoic demeanor.
“You know, it’s okay if you smile at other people, now and then,” Cash said.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, you switch on the charm to get laid, and switch it right back off for the other ninety-eight percent of your life.”
“Oh, getting laid comprises way more than two percent of my life, I guarantee you that.”
Cash rolled his eyes. “Just don’t expend all of Fidelity’s resources too quickly.”
A rather rowdy couple came in, laughing loudly and speaking vulgarly. The man had long, stringy hair and the woman was dressed like a white trash tramp. They both acted high as kites. Rye took note of them, but then tuned them out. They sat at the bar not too far from Rye and Cash’s table.
Cash changed the subject and asked Rye about his job interview. Rye told him about the conversation with Mrs. McKay.
That was when Mrs. McKay walked in the door with another woman. There was a curved bar dividing the kitchen from the dining area, and the women took seats and waved at the chef in the back. The chef finished what she was doing and hurried over to greet the women, all smiles. Rye guessed they were best girlfriends. Probably known each other since kindergarten. He slumped down in his chair a bit and hoped that she wouldn’t see him.
“That’s her,” he said.
Cash glanced over his shoulder. “Which one?”
“The blond.”
Cash glanced again. “She’s cute.”
“She wasn’t cute yesterday.” She did look different now. He hadn’t noticed what she was wearing yesterday, but today it was casual jeans and a loose fitting t-shirt. She looked younger. And smaller. She was pretty short. She might’ve had a good figure, but in those clothes, who could tell? Her face was nice, but she clearly wasn’t putting out any effort. In a bar or on the street, Rye wouldn’t even have glanced her direction except to make his standard acknowledgment that there was a female in the vicinity. The red-head she was with was a stunner, however. Long, tall, sultry. Rye tried to determine whether she was wearing a ring, but she was angled wrong so that he couldn’t see.
The front door jingled open again. Cash glanced back and quickly away. “Shit.”
Rye watched as a man in a suit went to join the ladies at the bar. Waves and smiles and hugs. The guy was almost as tall as Cash. Dark hair and blue eyes. Good-looking, Rye supposed. “That him?” he asked.
“Yep,” Cash said, hunkering down in his chair.
“We seem to have stumbled upon a local hangout.” More people were pouring in as the dinner hour approached.
“Let’s pay and get out of here,” Cash said.
“Hey, Lyssa, get your sweet ass over here and take our order!” shouted the rowdy redneck who’d come in earlier.
The chef made her way to his side of the bar. He continued to speak loudly and rather rudely to her. She behaved professionally, considering how obnoxious he was being. Rye wondered why her brother wasn’t doing anything about it. The guy had his back to the room, tossing pizza dough, as though nothing was wrong.
The red-head with Cora wasn’t so passive. “Hey, Les, dial it down.”
The guy laughed. “Kiss my ass, Franny.”
Rye and Cash looked at each other and silently agreed that this situation fell under the category of ‘none of their business.’ They each bit off a half a slice of pizza and tried to ignore the noise. Rye stole glances at the situation. Cora was trying to keep Franny from making matters worse. Meanwhile, the guy she’d called Les was on his feet and heading towards Franny. The guy’s girlfriend stood up and grabbed him. “Hey, where the fuck you going?” she shouted.
He jerked his arm out of her grasp. “Get off me, bitch!”
“Why are you being such an asshole?” the girl shouted. She shoved him. He shoved her back, and this time she punched him in the face. Fairly powerfully, too, because he spun and landed right in the middle of Rye and Cash’s table, face planted in their pizza.
Which officially made it their business.
They stood. Rye’s shirt was drenched in soda. He waited while the guy stood up. Les glared up at him. “What the hell are you looking at?” he snarled.
“I’m looking at the guy who’s buying my dinner,” Rye said.
Les laughed and spat on the floor. Then he turned around and found himself face to chin with the guy who’d been slinging dough only moments before. The guy was big, with dark hair and eyes. He glared down at Les, his hands on his hips.
“Relax, Sullivan,” Les said. “No need to get violent.”
Rye thought this was funny because Sullivan was just standing there.
“Now come on, man, back off,” Les said, sounding panicked.
Sullivan continued staring him down. He jerked his head towards Rye. Les turned around and dug in his pockets. He pulled out a wad of cash and gave Rye twenty bucks. “That should cover it, don’t you think?”
“Sure,” Rye said. “No problem. Reckon you ought to apologize to these ladies,” he said.
Les turned and looked at Sullivan, who nodded once. Les leaned past him. “Sorry, Lyssa. Sorry, Franny.” Lyssa nodded, and Franny flipped him off.
Les took his wrecked girlfriend by the arm, and the two of them stumbled out of the place. Sullivan pointed at the trashed pizza. “I’ll get you another. On the house.” And then he was walking away back to the kitchen.
Rye and Cash looked at each other again and shrugged. Free pizza. Cool.
Cash had escaped unscathed, but Rye had to sop up soda out of his shirt with napkins. The apartment was only a few blocks away, but they’d walked, and he didn’t want to go to the trouble to change.
Adam watched the whole scene unfold with more disgust than dread. The town would be darn near perfect if it weren’t for Les and Eddie Dunigan. There were three other Dunigan brothers, but two were in prison, and the other wasn’t a troublemaker at all.
He hadn’t seen Cash when he’d come in. But he saw him now as Cash helped the waitress clean up the mess and then took his seat at the table. It had been interesting to see the way the two brothers reacted. They’d kept their cool, but they’d stood together, and looked good doing it.
“You’re drooling,” Franny said.
He shook his head. “One of you should go after the brother. But the fair-haired one’s all mine.”
Franny giggled.
“His brother works for me. Zachariah,” Cora said.
“Zachariah,” Franny repeated. “That’s a mouthful I wouldn’t mind wrapping my tongue around.”
Adam laughed. Cora blushed and rolled her eyes. “Really, Franny,” she said. “Have some dignity.”
“If I have to choose between dignity and sex, then I choose sex.”
“Here, here!” Adam saluted, but his eyes were still glued on the brothers. Well, one of the brothers anyway. “Cora, Franny, go get a table for five, will ya?” He walked toward Cash and put on his most charming smile. “Small world,” he said, holding out his hand.
Cash stood, politely, and shook it. “Small town. Adam, this is my brother—”
“Zachariah, right?” Adam asked.
The brother winced as he shook hands with Adam. “Rye,” he said.
“Nice to meet you, Rye. Glad you guys found this place, they’ve got fantastic
food here.”
“The bite we had was real good,” Cash said. “Who’s the guy in the back?”
Adam glanced back toward the kitchen. “Sullivan Fletcher. He’s a god, isn’t he?”
Cash shrugged, but he was definitely admiring the view. “Straight, I guess.”
“Far as I can tell. I had such a crush on him back in high school. I went to school with his sister, and he was three years older. Hey, let’s go grab a table, and you can eat with us.”
“Thanks, but my brother…”
“Great! The more, the merrier!” Adam gave Cash’s shoulder a squeeze and then gestured for him and Rye to follow. Franny and Cora had found a large, round table by the window. Cora sat to Adam’s right, and Cash settled in at his left. Adam made introductions, and everyone shook hands.
“Mrs. McKay,” Cash said, “Rye and I appreciate you hiring us. He was probably an asshole yesterday, but I promise he improves on acquaintance.”
Rye turned his head and gave his brother an inscrutable look. Adam wasn’t so sure about the “improves on acquaintance” part of Cash’s speech. From what he could tell, Rye seemed like a bit of an ape. The guy had immediately checked out Franny when they sat at the table and just as immediately, for some reason, dismissed her. She was likely too high maintenance for him. But now he was casting glances at a couple of college girls sitting at the bar. Maybe he just preferred them young. The pig.
Cora smiled and addressed Cash as though Rye wasn’t there. “I hope so. His resumé was impressive even with the poor references.”
Rye turned his inscrutable look to Cora, who merely arched a brow at him.
“Trust me, Mrs. McKay,” Cash said. “He only acts like an asshole. Deep down, he’s got a good heart.”
Cora and Rye appeared to be locked in a stare down, her smirking, him expressionless.
Adam laughed. “What’s all this ‘Mrs.’ business?”
She shot him a look.
Franny answered. “She wears a ring at work. Lets everyone think she’s married.”
“You’re not married?” Rye asked.
She just glared at him.
“Cora, love, that’s crazy,” Adam said. “Why do you do that?” He’d never known this about her, but she didn’t always ask his advice when she was making decisions…especially when she didn’t want it.