Read Online Down and Out in Bugtussle by Stephanie McAfee - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Stephanie McAfee
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attention, so that’s what I need to try to take away from her. Maybe I could steal some of her thunder if I started hanging out in the athletic office every morning and telling dirty jokes. That might work, but, dammit, she’s got a lot of thunder packed into those D-cups.
We keep drinking and Jalena joins us a little later, then Ethan Allen appears behind the bar and chats for a minute. Logan Hatter and Drew Wills come in an hour before closing time and it’s obvious they’re not just getting started. Lilly and I make a fuss overDrew Wills to the point that Logan Hatter starts getting jealous, so I turn my attention toward him so he doesn’t feel so left out. Wills eats up the attention from Lilly and is sorely disappointed when Dax shows up in his uniform at midnight. Never the jealous kind, Dax joins us at the bar, orders a Coke, and strikes up a conversation with Hatter and Wills about baseball.
Lilly leaves with Dax an hour later, and I think long and hard about going home with Logan Hatter. He keeps draping his arm around me and dropping not-so-subtle hints about needing some company tonight. I haven’t slept with him in who-knows-how-many years, but I’m sure he’s still the same old-reliable good-time roll-in-the-hay he always has been. I’ve almost made up my mind to take him up on his offer, when Ethan Allen announces he’ll be driving us all home tonight instead of Jalena. That causes me to balk on Hatter because if I start sleeping with him again, I really don’t want Ethan Allen to know about it. Not that I care if he knows so much; I just don’t want him to tell his best friend and my ex-fiancé, Mason McKenzie, that I’m backtracking.
Probably best,
I think to myself as I continue to put some distance between my shoulders and Hatter’s arm. Jalena would tell Ethan Allen anyway, and then Mason would still find out my life is moving backward instead of forward. Shit. I climb up in the front of Ethan Allen’s truck while Hatter, Wills, and Pete the tire man climb into the back.
7
S unday, I skip church and lazy around the house because my head is aching from the booze, my back is aching from the painting, and my nose is all stopped up, most likely from sweeping up Sheetrock dust in Jalena’s diner. I fix myself a Sprite with six cherries, pop four ibuprofen and a sinus pill, and then grab a sleeve of crackers. I head to the living room and while I’m looking for the remote, I remember that I almost went home with Logan Hatter last night.
“Thank goodness I didn’t do that,” I tell Buster Loo. I stretch out on the sofa and he snuggles up next to me. I turn on the television and start flipping through channels. My mind drifts off, and I find myself wondering where I might find that elusive little bastard known as happiness. And I wonder how everyone around me seems to know right where it is all the time; yet for me, it seems to be eternally buried someplace I’ll never find. Lilly and Dax arehappy, wearing their contentment like comfortable underwear. They never flaunt it, just let it be what it is. Then there’s Chloe with her big white house by the lake, which, according to her, is everything she’s always wanted in a home, and the love of her life, Sheriff J. J. Jackson, who, according to her, is everything she’s ever wanted in a man. Chloe took a bumpier path than Lilly, but they’ve both arrived at a place where they have a calm, quiet, and very grown-up kind of contentment. And then Jalena, whose happiness shines from her soul like a beacon in the night; and Ethan Allen, whose good-ol’-boy heart does the same. Each one of them seems to be with the person they were meant to be with. I take a sip of Sprite and wonder if there is someone out there for me and I just haven’t found him yet or if maybe I was just put here to walk alone. Well, not alone. I have Buster Loo.
I’m well aware that I need to cease and desist with the pity party, pull myself up by the bootstraps, and
We keep drinking and Jalena joins us a little later, then Ethan Allen appears behind the bar and chats for a minute. Logan Hatter and Drew Wills come in an hour before closing time and it’s obvious they’re not just getting started. Lilly and I make a fuss overDrew Wills to the point that Logan Hatter starts getting jealous, so I turn my attention toward him so he doesn’t feel so left out. Wills eats up the attention from Lilly and is sorely disappointed when Dax shows up in his uniform at midnight. Never the jealous kind, Dax joins us at the bar, orders a Coke, and strikes up a conversation with Hatter and Wills about baseball.
Lilly leaves with Dax an hour later, and I think long and hard about going home with Logan Hatter. He keeps draping his arm around me and dropping not-so-subtle hints about needing some company tonight. I haven’t slept with him in who-knows-how-many years, but I’m sure he’s still the same old-reliable good-time roll-in-the-hay he always has been. I’ve almost made up my mind to take him up on his offer, when Ethan Allen announces he’ll be driving us all home tonight instead of Jalena. That causes me to balk on Hatter because if I start sleeping with him again, I really don’t want Ethan Allen to know about it. Not that I care if he knows so much; I just don’t want him to tell his best friend and my ex-fiancé, Mason McKenzie, that I’m backtracking.
Probably best,
I think to myself as I continue to put some distance between my shoulders and Hatter’s arm. Jalena would tell Ethan Allen anyway, and then Mason would still find out my life is moving backward instead of forward. Shit. I climb up in the front of Ethan Allen’s truck while Hatter, Wills, and Pete the tire man climb into the back.
7
S unday, I skip church and lazy around the house because my head is aching from the booze, my back is aching from the painting, and my nose is all stopped up, most likely from sweeping up Sheetrock dust in Jalena’s diner. I fix myself a Sprite with six cherries, pop four ibuprofen and a sinus pill, and then grab a sleeve of crackers. I head to the living room and while I’m looking for the remote, I remember that I almost went home with Logan Hatter last night.
“Thank goodness I didn’t do that,” I tell Buster Loo. I stretch out on the sofa and he snuggles up next to me. I turn on the television and start flipping through channels. My mind drifts off, and I find myself wondering where I might find that elusive little bastard known as happiness. And I wonder how everyone around me seems to know right where it is all the time; yet for me, it seems to be eternally buried someplace I’ll never find. Lilly and Dax arehappy, wearing their contentment like comfortable underwear. They never flaunt it, just let it be what it is. Then there’s Chloe with her big white house by the lake, which, according to her, is everything she’s always wanted in a home, and the love of her life, Sheriff J. J. Jackson, who, according to her, is everything she’s ever wanted in a man. Chloe took a bumpier path than Lilly, but they’ve both arrived at a place where they have a calm, quiet, and very grown-up kind of contentment. And then Jalena, whose happiness shines from her soul like a beacon in the night; and Ethan Allen, whose good-ol’-boy heart does the same. Each one of them seems to be with the person they were meant to be with. I take a sip of Sprite and wonder if there is someone out there for me and I just haven’t found him yet or if maybe I was just put here to walk alone. Well, not alone. I have Buster Loo.
I’m well aware that I need to cease and desist with the pity party, pull myself up by the bootstraps, and
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