Tinsel (Lark Cove #4)(18)

“What did you do at home?” she asked.

“Took another bartending job.” I busied myself by filling a glass with some ice and soda as I spoke, hoping it would keep me calm. “Worked there until I decided it was time for another change.”

“What kind of change?”

“Location mostly. My uncle Xavier had been living here for years, so I called him up to see if I could crash with him until I figured out what I wanted to do.”

“But you stayed?”

I nodded. “I stayed.”

I had planned to make Lark Cove just a temporary home base until I found a town where real estate was on the rise. I hadn’t considered staying here for the long term. But then I’d started watching the housing and rental markets in Kalispell out of sheer curiosity.

They were perfect for a guy like me.

This area had a heavy influence of out-of-state money, which brought growth and development to this corner of the world. There were other places in the country I could have gone, towns expanding so fast it made your head spin. But why leave when opportunity was just thirty minutes away?

Buying in Montana wasn’t as risky as the oil-boom towns in North Dakota that could dry up at a moment’s notice. My money went further here than it would in California or Florida.

And the truth was, I liked it here. The cost of living was damn cheap, and for a guy with no higher education, I made good money working at the bar.

“How’d you end up working here?” Sofia asked.

I shrugged. “Thea and Jackson were looking for some help, and it was a no-brainer.”

Because of Xavier’s relationship with Thea and Jackson, the pair had hired me based on his referral alone. The fact that I’d known how to serve a drink had been a bonus.

They’d been the only ones happy about my move.

Five years later, my family was still upset I’d left the reservation. The fact that I’d moved in with Xavier, my dad’s older brother who had also left the reservation behind when he was young, had been like pouring salt on an open wound.

My family didn’t understand my ambition. They didn’t see the end goal where I retired early and had the flexibility to travel the world. To them, there was no better place than amongst our people.

It wasn’t like I didn’t value my heritage. It had always been an important part of me, which was another reason I hadn’t moved out of Montana. I admired my culture, my family traditions. But I wanted more. I wanted freedom.

And freedom cost money. A lot of money.

I wanted to explore a Mayan ruin and tour the Colosseum in Rome. I wanted to walk along the Great Wall of China and snorkel in the Caribbean. I could spend months just exploring my own country, seeing as much of America as possible.

I didn’t want to live in the same neighborhood where I’d been born. I didn’t want to go to work with the same guys I’d met in grade school. I didn’t want to marry a woman just because she had an acceptable genealogy and could ensure our children had the appropriate blood quantum.

I wanted to live the life of my choosing.

Right now, that meant working here in Lark Cove, biding my time and forcing myself to keep that wanderlust in check so I didn’t spend my savings on frivolous travel before it was the right time.

That was the plan.

The only person in my family who’d bought into it was Xavier.

“I owe my uncle a lot.” I took the gun and refilled Sofia’s water. “He set me up when I moved here. Helped me get this job. He even sold me his house when he and Hazel got married. Have you ever met him?”

She nodded. “Just once. He and Hazel spent Christmas Eve with us one year when all of us Kendricks came to Montana. It was the year they got married, I think. Two years ago?”

“Sounds about right.”

That was the Christmas Hazel and Xavier had invited me to join them at the Kendricks’ place. Instead, I’d driven home to spend it with my family. When I’d arrived, I’d found my ex-girlfriend sitting at the dinner table between my two sisters. They’d tried to pair me up with her again, spending the entire night talking about how great we’d been as a couple.

After a few hours, I’d had enough of the not-so-subtle hints to return home, get married and have a dozen kids to carry on the family line. I’d left, taking the icy roads back to Lark Cove in the middle of the night.

I’d toasted Christmas at midnight, alone on the dark and empty highway. Then I’d celebrated the holiday by gutting the basement bathroom in my house.

When I’d told Xavier about the unrelenting pressure from my family, he’d gotten furious and called my father. That argument had been the last time they’d spoken, to my knowledge. I wasn’t sure if they’d ever speak again.

Hazel had been so fired up that she’d made it a requirement to spend all holidays at their cottage. My name had been on gifts under the Christmas tree ever since.

“So what else?” Sofia reached into the tray and plucked out another lime.

“What else what?”

“What else about you? What do you like to do for fun?”

Fun? I was too busy working and managing my investments for fun. Thea had told me once that the Kendricks had made their fortune in real estate. If I was even a fraction as successful in my ventures as they were in theirs, I’d call it a win.