Page 10 of Believe in Caloosa Springs (Caloosa Springs #3)

Porter

ME: I’m so sorry about the flowers! I seriously didn’t know, I was trying to do something nice.

TIAN: It’s not your fault. I’m just cursed.

ME: Maybe we can try again- I’ll bring chocolates next time instead. :)

***

ME: I hope you are not too itchy today, my hands seem to be getting a little better. I got some calamine lotion that is helping a lot. Do you want me to bring you some?

***

ME: Hope you have a good day.

I shook my head in frustration and tossed my phone down onto the bed. I’d blown it with Tian; that was for sure. Jiminy Christmas, I was a complete fool. I didn’t even get to kiss him goodnight because of my ingrained heteronormativity. Why would a guy like Tian want me to bring him stupid flowers, anyway?

“You couldn’t have just played it cool and hung out with the guy? You had to come on all heavy-handed with flowers? Flowers that ended up ruining the whole thing?” I stared at my reflection in the small bathroom mirror as if I was expecting an answer from myself.

I pulled a long sleeve shirt over my head and unscrewed the small cap on the half-empty tube of cream, careful to avoid the open blister on the pad of my thumb. It was getting better, but the spots that had blistered were still tender. I’d already called off yesterday’s shift and felt bad enough about it. I just didn’t think I was going to be much use trimming the plants with swollen, painful fingers, however. I was lucky that Ty was exceedingly concerned and sweet.

As I applied a generous layer of cream across the palms of my hands and down to the tips of my fingers, two quick knocks sounded on the other side of the door before it opened and Henry came into view.

“Hey,” I said, nodding my head towards him as he walked in and closed the door behind him.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” he asked. “How are your hands?”

“Better than my pride,” I replied wryly.

Henry rolled his eyes. “I’m sure your little boyfriend will be just fine.”

“Well, I wouldn’t know,” I sighed. “He won’t return my texts since the other night.”

Henry didn’t immediately respond. I realized that I’d gotten my hands all greasy before getting into my coat. Darn it. Well, it was, like, a five-minute walk to the grow rooms. I’d survive without outerwear.

“Well, maybe that’s for the best,” he said finally. It actually took a moment for me to reconnect the broken thread of the conversation.

“Why would you say that?” I asked, bemused.

Henry’s gaze fell to the floor as he shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s just not… like… a good fit for you.”

“A good fit?” I was a little taken aback. “And what would you know about what a good fit ? I think you’ve met one person I was romantically involved with.” Henry’s flippant remarks were making me mad. “What is your problem with him, anyway? I’ve never seen him be anything but sweet to every single person he’s come into contact with.”

“It’s easy to pretend to be a good person in front of a bunch of strangers, Porter. Come on…”

“ Come on what? You don’t even know him. Shit, for that matter, I don’t even really know him! ” I lifted my hand to run it through my hair in frustration, but managed to stop myself.

“Why are you yelling at me? I’m just trying to look out for you.”

“ I’m not yelling! ” I yelled. “Why are you being such a judgmental prick?”

Henry’s lips flattened down into an almost invisible line and his face went red. He looked so frustrated, I thought he might actually start crying. “I’m just trying to look out for you! We’re supposed to be in this thing together, and I feel like you’ve completely pushed me aside ever since we got here! You’re not even acting like yourself!”

I clenched my fists, making the open blisters sting as I leaned over to get into Henry’s face. “Maybe you should go home, then,” I growled through gritted teeth. Henry’s eyes went wide, and I turned and walked out the door.

I was mad enough to spit as I stomped my way across the back property towards the grow houses like a petulant toddler in the throes of a temper tantrum. I hadn't meant to unload on Henry. It wasn’t actually his fault. I could understand his concern, I guessed. He was worried about me, which was fair, but hating on Tian just because of the way he looked was infuriating. That’s the kind of shit we always talked about wanting to get away from! The judgmental, holier-than-thou attitude. Not being able to be ourselves. Not being able to be myself.

I thought he understood that…

I walked through the doors of GROW ROOM 3 just as Mandy was giving instructions about the day's tasks to Jake and Dillon.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little pissed off with her, as well. She saw those flowers I handed him that night. She knew exactly what they were—that’s why she had insisted Tian take them with us. After all, she didn’t want poison oak sitting on her countertop. She could have given us a heads-up.

“Hey, Porter,” she greeted me cheerfully as I walked in the door. “Are you feeling better?”

I ignored her question. “How’s Tian?”

Mandy grimaced slightly. “He’s getting better.”

Not being able to help myself, I replied, “Might have been able to mitigate that disaster a bit if someone with more knowledge about the local plant life had maybe mentioned something about it sooner.”

“Porter, I didn’t thin-”

“Where would you like me today, Boss?” I asked curtly, cutting off her excuse.

Mandy sighed, a pained look on her face, “I told Jake and Dillon that this room needs to be harvested over the next three days or so, and they are ready. They are starting on row one, if you want to start at row twenty-two and just work your way up to meet in the middle?”

I nodded and walked past her to the supplies cabinet. I slipped my greasy hands into a pair of latex gloves before sliding my work gloves over them. I didn’t want to rub all my cream off, and I didn’t want the inside of my good gloves dirty.

Grabbing a medium-sized pair of metal trimmers, I went over to the last row of plants and began trimming the buds. It took a good 10 or 15 minutes to figure out how to hold the trimmers and apply enough force to the handles to cut through the stems in a way that didn’t send burning pain shooting through my palms.

I got myself into a semi-comfortable rhythm and was about to move on to my second plant of the day when Jake came sauntering over. I bit down on the side of my lip, hoping whatever he was coming over to say would be quick. Why didn’t I put my headphones in before leaving the cabin?

“Feeling better, bud? We sure did miss you the past two days.”

His words were nice enough, but his tone was vile, mocking. When his question didn’t elicit a reaction, he continued on.

“You know, I think I was giving you too much credit. I thought since you were quiet and so serious looking all the time, you were like some brooding, no-nonsense country boy…”

I picked up the trimming shears and grabbed hold of the stalk of the next plant in line and started clipping up as close to the fluffy green buds as I could, letting them fall into the waiting bin below.

Just ignore him…

“But, now, it’s pretty obvious that’s just a fucking farce. You don’t even know the difference between poison oak and a fucking daisy. So, you’re clearly not a country boy… and, seeing as how you showed up to the bonfire with a dude, it makes a lot more sense.”

Dillon began to snicker across the room.

“You know,” I said between gritted teeth, “Sexuality has nothing to do with being a city boy or country boy. Or more masculine, or any of that other toxic shit.”

He didn’t seem to have a coherent response to my logic, so he just looked over at Dillon and laughed. “Sure. Whatever you say, Mary…”

My aim was a little off, causing my knuckles to connect with the side of Jake’s cheek instead of his nose, so I quickly followed it up with another blow from my left fist. Jake recovered quicker than I thought he would and sent a punch into the side of my ribs, making me momentarily wheeze, before I hit a knee to the floor to duck another throw. I came up hard, slamming into his torso, sending him stumbling backwards into a work table, and causing pots, soil, and hand tools to go flying to the concrete floor. The clang of metal and the crash of shattering clay were deafening.

“ Enough !”

Whipping my head, I froze as I locked eyes with Tyler. He was standing in the entranceway. I glanced over at Jake to make sure he wasn’t coming at me again. Jake scraped the back of his sleeve across his bleeding nose.

“He attacked me!” he whined.

I scoffed, biting down on my lip as I tried to hide the pain radiating through my ribcage. Fucker punched hard. I wasn’t the one bleeding all over the place, though. At least, not externally. I hadn’t been in a fistfight since middle school. All things considered, I think I did pretty well. With the look on Tyler’s face, I was positive I was about to be fired for it, but it was what it was. I didn’t have a rebuttal to Jake’s statement. Technically, he was right; I’d swung first.

Panic suddenly took hold, and all the events of the last few days seemed to come crashing down around me. I shook out my throbbing knuckles and turned tail, heading for the main door of the grow room.

What was I even doing in this crappy little town, anyway? Why had I left our planning entirely up to Henry? We could have ended up in a million different places doing a million different things. Henry had always been more logical, more apprehensive, more conservative in every fashion. I had imagined leaving the planning up to him would have been a safe bet. Why here?

Why Caloosa Springs?

I was mad enough to spit as I stomped off across the property, my boots crunching a fresh layer of ice beneath my feet. The sky had opened up sometime in the middle of the night and let out the season’s first big snow. A sparkling sheen of white dusted the tops of the evergreen trees scattered along the outer edge of the property, and the mountains in the distance had started accumulating their snowcaps that would remain throughout the winter.

I sucked in a haggard breath of icy air and wondered if the trembling in my fingers had been brought on by the blistering cold, or the adrenaline still pumping through my veins. I took in another breath, and pain exploded through the left side of my ribcage as my lungs expanded. I silently hoped that the bastard hadn’t broken one of my ribs. Being out of eyeshot from the grow room I’d just exited, I shook my hand out again. The cold was doing nothing for the throbbing in my knuckles.

I walked straight past my cabin. I had no clue where the fuck I was going, but the sudden urge to be off this property was stronger than my body’s painful urge to not be standing anymore. I carefully lowered myself into the driver’s seat of the car, wincing as a fresh pang of hot pain radiated through my rib cage. I took another slow breath in, trying to get as much air in my lungs as I could take.

I turned the key in the ignition… nothing.

I looked up to the car’s roofing and begged, I’m not sure to whom.

“ Please!”

Turning the key again caused the lights on the dash to come on. One more time and the engine began to spit and sputter, but eventually turned over. With an audible sigh of relief, I put the car in gear and hit the gas. The back tires slipped a bit on the slick gravel, but managed to gain traction. Within a minute or so, I was pulling on to the main road. I fumbled my swelling fingers around the controls to turn the heater up as the car was beginning to warm. The heater had barely changed the internal temperature of the car by the time I pulled it to the curb just outside Cassie’s Diner, which seemed like the most logical place to stop. It would be warm inside, and I could have a cup of coffee while I figured out what the fuck I was going to do next. Staying here really didn’t seem to be an option at this point. I’d lost my job, and, by proxy, my place to live. There was only one person in this town I wanted to spend any time with at all, and he wasn’t speaking to me. Rightfully so, as I was an idiot.

I walked into the diner and almost moaned at the warm air inside encompassing me as the door swung closed in my wake. It was busy that morning, and most of the tables had been taken. I walked past the counter and slid into one of two empty booths set along the back wall.

Cameron walked by and smiled, a tray full of round, white plates held high on his shoulder.

“Coffee?” he asked.

I nodded, and he smiled, continuing on his quest three tables down.

Cameron was pretty easy to look at with his angular features and shaggy hair, especially when he smiled. He had a really nice butt, too. It was both strange and nice to see cute twinks in the wild. Not something I was used to seeing back home. I was honestly surprised at the quantity of cute gay boys here. For such a small town, it sure seemed like they had more than their per-capita share.

I sighed and flexed my sore hand under the table. I don’t know why I was thinking about cute boys, anyway. I clearly wasn’t very good with them. The one cute boy I’d gotten to go out with, I completely humiliated myself. I wouldn’t talk to someone who had poisoned me, either. Probably the worst way you could start a potential courtship.

I huffed through my nose. One thing was for sure… I was never getting a boy flowers, not ever again.

Cameron reappeared at the table with a mug in one hand and a pad of paper in the other. He set the cup down on the table and pulled a pencil from behind his ear. Goodness, he was like something out of that show my sisters used to watch. Gilmore Girls. Just a small-town cutie.

“What can I get ya?” His voice was upbeat and cheerful, and his smile was light and carefree. He was clearly having a much better morning than I was, and for that, I was glad. As lousy as I felt, I found myself smiling along with him. He was contagious.

I hadn’t grabbed a menu, and he hadn’t offered one. I guess people just generally knew what they wanted. My head was still spinning, and I wasn’t even sure I could stomach food at the moment. Nevertheless, I racked my brain for a list of generic diner breakfast options and blurted: "Omelet?”

“Ham and cheese?”

I nodded.

“Hash Browns?”

“Sure.”

“White, wheat, sourdough, or a biscuit?”

“Sourdough. And a side of salsa, please.”

“Hot sauce or table salsa?” Cameron asked.

“Table salsa, thank you.”

Cameron nodded before turning away and heading back behind the counter.

I pulled out my phone and thumbed through my contact list. There were five people total. That, in and of itself, seemed pathetic. I only had five people’s phone numbers, and two of them were my parents. Then Henry, Tian, and Tyler.

Tian wasn’t responding to any texts, I highly doubted Tyler wanted anything to do with me at the moment. Henry was the very last person I wanted to see or speak to just then—I had pretty much made up my mind to blame him for all of this mess, fair or not. And I was still ‘on the lam’ from my parents. After depressing myself even further with my lack of human connection, I swiped over to the web browser and started looking for hotel rooms in the area. I didn’t have a whole lot of money left, but I could at least get the fuck out of this town.

What about Henry?

What about him? If he wanted to stay, he could figure it out on his own.

I was so engrossed in my search, I startled a bit and nearly dropped my phone when I looked up to see Tyler sitting in my booth staring at me from across the table.

“Jeez, man!” I exclaimed. “You’re like a ninja or something.”

Tyler squinted and chuckled. This close, the brim of his black cowboy hat showed signs of long-wear around the edges.

“My apologies. Didn’t mean to startle you. Was just coming in for a cup of coffee, and saw you sittin’ here. Thought you might like some company.”

I laughed nervously. “I would think I was the last person you would want to hang out with.”

“Oh…?” Tyler hedged, raising a bushy eyebrow, “Why’s that?”

“I can’t imagine you are too happy with your employees fighting.”

Tyler sighed. “I’m not. But to be frank, Jake had it comin’. The only reason I interfered was because you started knocking my plants over. I’ve been wanting to have a go at him since he started. I’m not oblivious to the banter and the bullshit that slips out of that ignorant mouth of his.”

“Really?”

Tyler nodded. “I wanted to fire him after the first day, but Oliver wouldn't let me. He said we had to give everyone a fair chance.” Tyler scoffed. “Always the optimist, my husband.”

I couldn’t help but smile at the love-dumb look Tyler got when he talked about Oliver. I wanted that.

“How’s the ribs?” he asked.

“Feels like they are trying to pry their way out of my body,” I replied honestly.

“That was quite a hit.”

“Yeah, he nailed me good.”

Tyler shook his head. “No, I mean that nasty one-two punch you landed in the beginning. All he could come back with was a sucker-ass rib hit. You hit him so hard he couldn’t even raise his hands up high enough to aim at your face…” Tyler trailed off as he began to laugh. It was deep and throaty. “What a little bitch.”

I began to laugh with him until my ribs radiated fire, reminding me again of his… how’d he say? Sucker-ass rib hit.

Cameron must have gotten tied up, because it was Cassie herself that delivered my breakfast to the table.

“Did you want anything, Ty?”

“No, thank you dear, I’m about to head out. But Oliver and I will see ya later for supper.”

“Oh, no. I won’t be in for the dinner shift tonight, Ty…” The older woman paused, brushing a few loose curls of gray hair from her forehead. “I’ve got a date.”

Tyler let out a low whistle. “Well, do tell!”

“His name is Morgan Hacklebuck. He just bought the old Anderson farm in Calico, and he asked me to have dinner with him when he came to the diner last week to introduce himself since taking over the dairy. He’s very charming.”

Cassie was absolutely beaming, and I was happy for her. Jealous, but happy all the same.

Tyler got up from his seat in the booth and put his arm on Cassie’s shoulder. “You just tell him that he better treat you right, or there’s gonna be a lot of pot-smokin’ cowboys that show up on his lawn.”

Cassie chuckled and playfully swatted him away. “You hush, Tyler Baker. Mr. Hacklebuck is a perfect gentleman. You just leave him alone.” She shook her head as she walked away.

Tyler looked over at me. “See ya in the mornin’?”

I was somewhat surprised by his question. “Really? I still have a job?”

“Oh course. Why wouldn't you?”

I shrugged. “I don’t-”

My sentence was interrupted by a loud crash just outside the diner. Everything in the diner went suddenly silent as everyone looked around for the cause.

I bolted up out of the booth and followed Tyler, who went running towards the entrance. As soon as I had cleared the doors, I saw him through the windshield. He was cursing and shaking his head as he opened the car door.

“Christian!” I shouted as my brain finally sorted out what I was seeing. I took off in a dead run across the street, Tyler right on my heels. Tian looked over the hood of the now-crumpled car. As we made eye contact, his pale face melted into tears.

“Are you okay?”

Without waiting for him to answer, I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and he buried his face in my chest and began to sob.