Hosed (Happy Cat #1)(10)

“I assume you want the chicken sandwich,” Jace says from behind me. He’s dialed down the bitter, but his voice still makes me flinch as I shift my attention his way. “And a side of fries, as usual,” he continues.

I frown. “Am I that predictable?”

Jace sighs through his nose in response, making me frown harder.

“No, thank you,” I say, rolling my shoulders back. Here I am wishing for something more, but sticking to old patterns and habits too. “I’ll have the buffalo wing salad with ranch instead of blue cheese dressing and an order of fried okra on the side.”

“The okra’s not in yet,” Jace says flatly. “But I’ve got fried squash blossoms. They’re good.”

“I’ll take those. And cobbler for dessert, whatever’s freshest.” I point a finger his way as inspiration strikes. “Two orders, please. Send the first order over now. To the brunette at table three.”

Brows shooting up, Jace glances over my shoulder. “Ruthie May?”

I frown. “No. The other brunette. The cute one who’s not old enough to be my mother.”

His brows creep even higher, and the prickly-ass attitude disappears completely. “Cassie Sunderwell?” Jace whistles low, shifting his attention back to me. “Trying to mend fences?”

“What? Why? You mean because of the fire? There wasn’t any water damage. And even if there had been, that’s hardly my fault.”

“No, I don’t mean the fire,” Jace says in a tone that implies I must have already had a few too many. “I mean she hates you. Or she hated you in high school, anyway.”

My frown becomes a full-fledged scowl. “What? No, she didn’t. Cassie and I were friends.”

Jace snorts.

“We were,” I insist. “We had English together.”

Our English project was the highlight of the last semester of my senior year. I looked forward to the afternoons we spent rehearsing our scene from Romeo and Juliet every day, a bright spot in my busy studying, working, keeping-a-younger-sibling-from-killing-himself-until-my-parents-got-home life.

Until we were cast opposite each other, I’d assumed Cassie was shy—she didn’t speak up much in class—but that wasn’t the case at all. She was smart and confident and, once she opened up a little, really funny.

God, she made me laugh. And kissing her was weirdly nice too, even though it was just pretend for the play and she seemed so young back then it was hard to believe she was actually sixteen. With her hair always in a ponytail, big glasses, and oversized clothing, she looked about twelve.

At eighteen, that’d made me a little uncomfortable about our mini make-out scene, but still…there was something there. Something that made me sad when the scene was over, even though we got an A.

“You might’ve had English together, but you didn’t have anything else together,” my brother tells me.

He’s not making any sense. “We got close,” I insist quietly. “We did a project together my senior year. She was so smart they put her in senior English when she was only a sophomore, remember?”

My brother rolls his eyes. “Yes, I remember. I was a sophomore then too, dude. My friends knew her friends and I was there at the softball end-of-season keg party when she got drunk and told everyone who would listen that she hated Ryan O’Dell like festering wart-boils.”

I wince. “Festering wart-boils?”

“No one likes festering wart-boils.”

“Clearly.” My shoulders slump. “Shit.”

“Yeah,” Jace says, his expression softening. “But whatever. Who cares? Everyone knows the Sunderwell girls are a little out there.”

“Do they?” I ask, my jaw going tight. “Don’t you ever get tired of what ‘everyone in this town’ knows? Don’t you ever just want to jump out of the damned Happy Cat mentality and think for yourself?”

Jace’s gaze darkens again, but he doesn’t respond right away. His focus slides to the table behind me, lingering for a long moment, before coming back to rest on my face. “I’ll get the cobbler, but you take it over to her yourself. Look into her eyes while you do it and be honest with yourself about what you see. That’s part of the trouble with this town too, you know.”

“What’s that?” I ask, shocked to get this many words in a row out of Jace, especially when he’s in a foul mood.

“What ‘everyone knows.’” His lips twist in a smirk. “The person in the mirror is part of that too, isn’t it? People in this town like to tell you who you are. Makes thinking for yourself harder than it sounds.”

I nod slowly, impressed. And hopeful. Maybe my little brother isn’t going to stay chained to a woman who treats him like shit for the rest of his life. Maybe he’s going to break out of the mold this town poured him into the day he got arrested for racing dirt bikes through the golf course freshman year and forge a new path for himself.

Reaching out, I clap a hand on his shoulder. “I’m proud of you.”

Jace rolls his eyes. “You want the cobbler or not?”

I glance over my shoulder to see Cassie laughing with her co-workers, her eyes dancing in a free, easy way they didn’t when we were alone together this morning, and my chest tightens.