Read Online Dirt: A Sexy Small Town Romance (Copperwood Book 1) by Reese Patton - Free Book Online

would go along with it.

14
    Mya
    I moved through the motions of setting up the bar at Pick’s without thought or care. Kirstin usually ran late, so I tried to get as many of the menial tasks done before she raced in just before the rush.
    We weren’t closed, but only the diehards showed up earlier than five o’clock. We all might be drunks in Copperwood, but we could at least pretend we were civilized.
    Mike slid through the bar door, earlier than expected and I moved to the cooler for a beer, but he shook me off.
    “Just a coke, Mya.”
    I felt my eyebrows lift in surprise, but I filled his order and placed the glass down on a cardboard coaster. “You didn’t seem hung over this morning.”
    “I’m not here as a customer.”
    Of course he wasn’t. “Did dad send you then?”
    “No, Mya.” His calloused hands spun the glass around on the coaster. “He’s leaving tomorrow.”
    “I know that.”
    “And you still aren’t really over him since when he left ten years ago.”
    I grabbed a case of beer and stocked the cooler. Anything to avoid the rest of the conversation.
    “Mya, he was a friend. He still is, but so are you and I don’t want to see you hurt all over again.” Mike continued the lecture, even with my back to him. “And when he leaves tomorrow, it’s going to be me having to sit through a marathon of weepie ass movies with love lost women watching you eat a pint of ice cream.”
    He wasn’t wrong, but he wasn’t right either. The Shane who spent the afternoon with me and dropped me off at my house with a kiss I never wanted to end wasn’t the same Shane who pushed me away all those years ago.
    He even took the tip back, reluctantly, when I explained that I couldn’t take it. That it didn’t feel right. He finally laughed and said, he’d just have to come in and order a bunch of drinks and leave a tip for each one.
    “It’s different this time.” I stood up too quickly and grabbed the edge of the bar to steady myself before taking another step closer to him.
    “How is it different?”
    “I know he’s leaving this time.”
    Mike stared at me. The only thing I saw in his sharp eyes was a sadness I should have expected, but it still surprised me. “You deserve better.”
    His admission floored me. In all our years as friends, we never really talked about relationships. Sure, I dated a few guys, but Copperwood bordered on incestuous. Everyone knew everyone and knew what everyone was doing. It was hard to have a relationship without every well–meaning grandma offering unsolicited advice.
    “Maybe he deserves better.” I’m not sure why I said it and from the look on Mike’s face, he was appalled at my admission.
    “What do you mean?” Mike grabbed my wrist and pulled me close to him until his nose touched mine. “Mya, he’s not a bad guy, but he isn’t going to give you a white picket fence, and you deserve that.”
    “And you’ll give me that?” I shouldn’t have said it. As soon as the words left my mouth, I wanted to stuff them back in.
    Mike let go of my wrist as if my skin burned his hand. “We tried and it wasn’t good. I don’t think for a minute that you’re for me.”
    I couldn’t be positive, but I could have sworn his gaze flipped over to the back hallway. I wasn’t sure who or what he was looking at, but I refused to look away from him. He might have the best of intentions, but Mike wasn’t my keeper.
    We stared at one another. Neither one of us willing to back away from the other because then we’d have to admit they were right. I didn’t want to be wrong and even though Mike probably wanted to be wrong, I think he believed he was right.
    Finally, I looked away from him and stared at the front door of the bar instead. “I’m used to disappointment, Mike. I just want a little bit of fun to make my craptastical life a little less craptastical.”
    I wanted to say that I didn’t criticize his choice of sleeping partners. I didn’t berate him for