Never Doubt Me: Judge Me Not #2(28)

“I don’t know, Chase,” Will says impatiently. “But, shit, let’s do something.”

He glances over at me. He’s squinting from the sun, and his eyes are watery. But, f*ck, that wetness isn’t from the bright summer day.

“Hey.” I pretend to punch his shoulder to lighten shit up. “Let’s go fishing down at the creek. There’s a great spot right over the hill.” I point to beyond the tree line. “I took Kay there a while back. We didn’t catch much that day, but she still had a blast.”

“Yeah, sure, fishing, okay,” Will mutters dejectedly.

I drape an arm around his shoulders and nudge him toward the house. “Come on, let’s go grab the gear. Hey, you never know, you may actually catch something.”

I’m trying to get Will to laugh, but he just gives me a sad smile. “Yeah, maybe I will.”

Little bro remains mopey as we trudge down to the creek. He perks up considerably, though, once we’re set up and he does indeed start catching fish.

The hours pass. We don’t talk a lot. We’re content to just kick back and savor the tranquility of sitting side by side on the creek bank, casting lines and enjoying the day. As the sun shifts in the sky, and late afternoon nears, we begin to pack up our gear, along with the several fish we caught.

Out of the blue, Will asks, “Hey, Chase, can you do me a favor?”

I close the latch on the tackle box. “Sure, what do you need?”

“I was wondering if you’d take a look at some stuff I’ve been working on for my comic book. I need an opinion from someone I trust.”

I am touched as hell that Will trusts my opinion, that he cares what I think of his work.

But when I respond, I just leave it at, “Of course I’ll check out what you’ve drawn.”

“Cool,” Will says, nodding, like this is a burden off his mind.

We walk back from the creek to the house, and as we approach the back porch, Will wants to know, “What’s for dinner?”

I hold up our catch. “Fish?”

“Nah…” Will shakes his head. “Kay shouldn’t have to cook again. She just made us that great breakfast.”

“Good point. We can always just fry them up ourselves,” I offer.

But when my brother shrugs, I sense he’s not in the mood to eat what we’ve caught.

“You got something else in mind?” I ask him.

“Yeah, what about takeout?” We reach the back porch and set our fishing gear down. “I could go for some pizza.”

I instantly think of Pizza House, since it’s the only game in town if you want really good pizza. Kay and I tend to avoid the place, though. For one reason only—Nick Mercurio. Kay used to date him—kind of—so she isn’t entirely comfortable dining there. She thinks our presence at the restaurant might make Nick feel uneasy. I really don’t give a shit how the dude feels. Fact is, Kay is with me now, and Nick will never again have a chance with her. Not that the guy ever really had a shot in the first place. Jackass.

I guess when I really think about it, I, like Kay, am not too into the idea of hanging out at the place where Nick Mercurio works. But if Will is set on pizza, then Pizza House it is.

Of course, as luck would have it, Nick is standing behind the front counter, ringing up an order, just as Will and I walk in the place.

Great.

I try not to picture the f*cker’s hands on my girl, but it’s tough. Kay told me they never had sex—thank f*cking God—but there was one night when he did get half her clothes off in the backseat of his car. I bristle at the thought, but remind myself that, like my hookup with Missy, it’s all in the past.

Still, so I don’t fly off and sucker punch Nick just for the hell of it, I divert my attention away from him, focusing instead on the clean-cut guy who’s at the counter paying for the takeout order.

Even with only a view of the back of Clean-Cut guy’s head, there’s something vaguely familiar about him. His neatly trimmed dark-blond hair, athletic-build… I feel like I’ve seen him before. He’s not someone I know well, I’m sure of that, but I sense he’s from this town. Hell, if he’s here at Pizza House, he has to be from Harmony Creek. Only, his nice attire doesn’t fit in. A suit and tie on a hot day like today just screams out-of-towner.

But the mystery remains when guy-I-can’t-place never turns around. He slips out a side door with his pizza.

“Someone you know?” Will jerks his thumb toward the guy’s departing form.

I shake my head. “No, I don’t think so.”

At the counter, Nick’s dark eyes widen slightly when he sees me. Unlike with me and the dude at the counter, Nick obviously knows who the f*ck I am. And he surely knows Kay and I are a couple. That juicy tidbit has made its way around this small town too many times to count.

Despite the awkwardness, Nick takes our order with efficiency. He jots down everything on an order pad, then excuses himself to “personally” take the order back to the kitchen.

“I want to make sure they get everything right,” he explains.

“Great, that’s cool,” I snort.

I know Nick just doesn’t want to get stuck making small talk with my brother and me while we wait for the two large pizzas we ordered to bake.