Page 28

Shane had never felt so uncomfortable in his entire life, and he’d been in some damned uncomfortable situations.

There was a strange assortment of folks ranging from their early twenties to their sixties littering the furniture. An excessively busty bleached blonde dressed like a slutty sports referee was perched on the knee of a guy with a white beard in dirty jeans. A brunette riddled with track marks and sporting a matte, vacant stare was sitting in their kitchen, absently scratching her forearm, wearing a white tank top and an angel halo. Everyone was nursing a beer, and the house glimmered with the blue haze of pot. Be Here Now crackled from a radio, the station coming in and out of focus. Nobody cared.

Laney was sitting on the floor, a beer in hand, propped up against the liquor cabinet. Cary had pulled up next to her on an ottoman, his elbows on his knees, hands loose between his legs as they talked quietly.

The scene wasn’t unfamiliar to him, that wasn’t what was making him uncomfortable. What was bothering him was how every man in the joint was painfully aware of Laney. He could see it in their tight expressions, in how they all avoided looking over at her and kept glancing at Cary, like they were afraid to be seen checking her out. Like they were afraid in general.

Inside, out of the shadows, it was easy to see why. Cary was built like a football player with the face of a movie star. He had thick blonde hair, cropped short on the sides and in the back, and startlingly green eyes like Laney’s, only… mean.

He could see it, plain as day, the meanness in him. There was something cold and ugly lurking behind that face and it had Shane on edge. As if he hadn’t been already.

A leggy Indian girl in a tiara, a red bikini, and a beauty pageant sash that said Miss Bareback swathed into the room on teetering stilettos, her eyes narrowing on Cary and Laney. She stalked over to them and squished onto the ottoman behind him, spreading her legs and planting them on either side of Cary. She snaked her hands around his waist, long nails glittering, and planted her chin on his shoulder.

“Hey baby,” she slurred in a sultry, slightly accented voice. Cary didn’t even acknowledge her, just kept talking to Laney in that low murmur that Shane couldn’t quite make out.

It wasn’t lost on him that the men freely ogled the beautiful bikini queen despite clearly being Cary’s girl. Frankly, it was hard not to. She was stunning with her dark skin and dark waves swinging down her back, thick eyebrows arched over dark lashes and full lips… She was dripping with exotic sex appeal, the kind of woman you were more likely to find in a penthouse centrefold than a house party. But whatever rules applied to allowing the visual perusal of his girlfriend clearly did not apply to his sister – she appeared to be entirely off-limits for ogling, which was difficult with her dangerously petite body all wrapped up in leather.

Someone thrust a beer into his hand.

“You best be wiping that look off your face, boy,” mused an older guy with curls to his shoulders, more grey than brown, and a bushy red beard. “You don’t want to be starting no shit with Cary, tonight. He’s itchin’ for a rough and tumble, and I don’t mean with Sarita.”

It was the guy from the photo in Laney's room.

Shane fisted the beer, his knuckles white, and chugged half the bottle. “I don’t want trouble,” Shane mumbled, rolling his neck.

The man snorted. “You’re in for all kinds of trouble, you keep lookin’ at little Laney like that.”

Shane scrubbed his face with his hand and stared up at the ceiling. “I know that, old man. Believe me.”

The guy chortled and stuck out a gnarly, weathered hand. “Name’s Jerry.”

“I know. I'm Shane.”

They shook and sipped their beers, Jerry standing beside him in thoughtful silence, Shane trying – and failing – not to look at Laney, who was still steadfastly ignoring him even though he could feel her peripheral vision on him like lightning.

“I know you been staying here,” Jerry said after a while. Shane tensed. “First time I ever been here an’ it don’t stink like cat piss. ‘Bout damn time.”

“It took me two days of scrubbing the hall runner with bleach,” he said with a grimace.

“You got grit, kid,” Jerry laughed, clapping him on the back. “You in school with her?” Shane shook his head, and Jerry’s eyes narrowed. “You supposed to be in school?” Shane just shrugged, and Jerry sighed. “I didn’t like school none, neither. You workin’ then…?”

Shane shrugged again. “Sort of, I guess. I’ve been helping Dustin out, while his leg was broken.”

A shadow passed over Jerry’s face, but he shook it off.

“Guess you’ll be needin’ something new, then. The kid looked fine, to me. Prob be wantin’ to go back to work, now that…”

Shane knew what he was going to say. Now that Cary’s home.

Jerry studied him, slowly reaching into his chest pocket and pulling out a blunt, which he perched between his teeth and lit, blowing out a few smoke rings, before handing it to Shane.

Shane took it and inhaled long and hard.

“You know how to drive?” Jerry asked Shane as they passed the joint back and forth.

“Yeah.”

“You got a license?” Jerry asked, with a pointed look. Shane shook his head no. Jerry sighed and clapped him on the back. “Well that don’ really matter none, so long as you don’ fuck up in the yard.”

“The yard?”

“I got a scrap yard. Could use some help with the forklift. Last kid kept showin’ up drunk, ran it into my perennial garden.” Shane couldn’t tell if he was joking or not. About the job, or about the perennials. “I’ll pay ya twelve bucks an hour, cash. You can use one o’ my trucks for scrap runs, or for helping out these here kids. Just don’ drink on the job, and don’ speed. I don’ need my truck being impounded.”

“Wait… are you for real right now?” Shane asked.

Jerry put his hand on Shane’s shoulder. “I love these here kids. But I can’t be helpin’ ‘em more than I already do. I’d fuck ‘em up right good.” He scratched his beard. “I seen you here, a few times, when I been by…”

He trailed off but didn’t say what he came by for.

“I seen you all together. And I never seen Dustin like that with nobody but Laney. That girl keeps good house, but this place has a man’s touch, now. Things that broke and needed fixin’ been being fixed.” He puffed on his joint again. “I respect a man who take care of family, like that. Even if… he mightta needed somethin’ out of it for himself. Even if he mightta needed a place to be.”

Shane didn’t know why, but he felt the prickle of tears behind his eyes.

“Sometimes good folks jus’ deserve a break.”

Shane blinked, willing the tears to evaporate before embarrassing him by squeezing their way out of his tear ducts.

“When can I start?”

“Monday. 7:00am. I’ll drop ya the truck by then.”

Shane was floored. “Thank you…” His voice was thick with emotion.

“No sweat. Just watch yourself,” Jerry said, nodding towards Laney.

“It’s not… like that… not really…” Shane started. “I really just needed a place to stay. I’ve been helping out…”

Jerry shook his head. “Don’ start bein’ a liar to me now, boy. I can see it plain as day. Don’ matter none what you’re doin’ or not doin’. What you feelin’ is written all over ya. You might think abou’ rearrangin’ your face, before someone else does it for ya.”

Shane was exhausted, and just wanted to drag himself to bed, but he realized he had no idea where to sleep now that Cary was back. “I guess I’ll go crash on the couch downstairs,” he mumbled.

“Oh, no ya don’t,” Jerry said with a smile. “You don’ needa be down there tonight. You go crash in Dusty’s room. He blowed up the air mattress for ya. Now, I gotta piss.”

Shane nodded numbly and turned to walk down the hall, Jerry trailing after him and pushing the bathroom door open.

“Hey Jerry?” Shane asked. Jerry paused in the bathroom doorway. “What happened to Laney’s cat?”

Jerry frowned and turned to face him. “I known Cary a long time. Since he was little. And he has his virtues. But Cary don’ share.” He looked Shane dead in the eye. “I’m tellin’ you, you be smart about that girl. Consider it a… a condition of yer employment.”

And then he shut the door, leaving Shane emotionally, mentally, and physically wrung out, his stomach turning over as he thought about the photo of that orange cat on Laney’s wall. He wondered if he should ignore Jerry altogether, grab Dustin, throw Laney over his shoulder, and run.

In retrospect, he really wished he had.