Running From the Law by Jami Albright

Author:Jami Albright [Albright, Jami]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-11-13T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Nine

“Do you want to puke before or after you sweep the peanut shells?” Hailey came around the bar and handed Charlie the broom and dustpan.

She took the instruments of her trade. “Haha. Sue me. I don’t like the smell of peanuts.” A lot of aspects of her job had gotten easier over the last two weeks—everything but the smell. Every time she walked into the bar Pod threatened to stage a mutiny. Ironically, the stale beer and cologne aroma seemed to help neutralize the effects of the peanut stink. Pregnancy was weird.

Hailey leaned her back against the bar and crossed her arms. “You know, Ariel is going to probably charge you a thousand dollars for her dry cleaning.”

Charlie tied her apron around her waist. It was still early, and the bar was empty except for a group of guys playing darts in the beer garden. “Worth it.”

A smile pushed against Hailey’s lips. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. Nobody messes with my friend.” Charlie couldn’t help the hopeful tone in her voice.

The amused expression on Hailey’s face slid away like ice melting on a warm winter’s day. “We’re not friends.”

“We used to be. I’d like to be again. I know you’re mad at me because I left without saying goodbye, but—”

Hailey pushed off the bar, and her fists went to her hips. “That’s what you think I’m mad at you about? You don’t have a clue, do you? I didn’t blame you for leaving without saying goodbye. I understood. It was hard for all of us.”

“Then why…” Why do you hate me? But she couldn’t say the words. It gave them too much power.

“Because I needed you, and you turned me away.”

“What are you talking about, Hailey? I never turned you away.”

The tears swimming in her oldest friend’s eyes sliced at her heart. “After Lottie was born, and I was lonely and depressed, I tried to get in touch with you. I called you, but you’d changed your number, so I called your mom. At least she was nice to me, unlike her superstar daughter who didn’t have time for her small-town friends.”

“Hailey, I never got any messages. I would’ve called you back.”

Her boss swiped the tear that ran down her cheek like it personally offended her. “Don’t lie, Charlie. Your mom told me that she gave you the messages. I wasn’t important enough for your time.”

Her mother was the worst person ever. Lord, she’d probably be in therapy for the rest of her life dealing with that shit. “I swear to you that she never gave me any messages from you. She kept my phone and monitored my calls. I wasn’t allowed to call anyone back home. I tried more than once, and she finally changed my number. By the time I realized I didn’t have to do everything she said, it’d been so long since we’d talked that I thought you’d have moved on without me.” Her voice shredded as she thought of the years of anger at her mother and herself for not standing up to the people around her.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.