Lost in You: Petal, Georgia, Book 2 (5 page)

“Lots of food here. Thanks.” He tipped his head. He liked that she’d handled the order, that she’d figured he’d be so hungry. Though he wasn’t a fan of the idea that they didn’t let him pay.

“I figured you’d be hungry. Tim can put away like four sandwiches when he’s been out on calls all morning. It’s meatloaf-sandwich day.” She shrugged as she unwrapped a plain ham sandwich on thick-cut white bread. “This is okay, right?” She meant giving it to Buck.

Joe laughed. “He’s a garbage disposal. Considering what I routinely have to make him stop eating, a ham sandwich is a good deal.”

She grinned, breaking it into a few pieces and handing them Buck’s way. He groaned and then devoured the food.

“I like to pay my own way.”

She looked up from her potato salad. “What?”

“They wouldn’t let me pay. When I picked the food up.”

“William has baked for them for nine years. We trade haircuts and the like for food.” She shrugged. “You can pay me back with other services. If you like.”

An image of just exactly what she could exchange with him burned through him like a fever.

“It’s a small town, Joe. That’s how things work. Have you been gone so long you forgot? These sandwiches aren’t a handout.”

The thing about Beth is that she had the ability to put him in his place without making him feel chastised. And, he realized, he’d pushed a button he hadn’t meant to.

“I’m sorry if I made you feel that way. You’ve built something here with your sisters. Hell, so have William and Tim. Nathan. All of you Murphys have dug in and made something of yourselves. You did something nice and I was a jerk.”

She sighed, absently petting Buck, who shot him a baleful look. “We’ve all got our issues. Apology accepted.”

“I feel like an asshole.”

“You can take me to dinner next time. Make it up to me.”

“We’ve talked about this already.”

“You’ve blathered on and on about how I’m William’s sister, and I’ve already told you that doesn’t matter. Not in the way you keep insisting it does.” She studied him carefully and licked her bottom lip.

At his reaction, which was a startled sort of groan, she smiled. “You should know your resistance will only make your surrender all the sweeter.”

Chapter Four

Nathan strolled right into her apartment like she didn’t have a front door. “My, did we forget our manners?”

He put a six-pack on her counter and gave her a look. “You should lock it. You’re a woman living alone.”

“I just walked in from work about two minutes ago. My hands were full. But you’re right. If for no other reason than to keep the riffraff out.” She eyed him.

He sighed so she decided to poke at him for kicks.

“Do you need me to give you the talk? You know if you put your thingy in her she could get pregnant with your baby type people, right?”

He appeared horrified and then dissolved into laughter. “God, you’re gross.”

“Nathan, if you think it’s gross to put your thingy in Lily, you probably need a whole ’nother kind of talk.”

He punched her arm. “Quiet, you. I wanted to thank you.”

She smiled up at him. “For what?”

“You’ve been really good to Lily. You know, with all the planning for the wedding and stuff. She’s got a lot on her plate and her own family isn’t much use.”

“Sit. Crack one open.” She knew he needed to vent about Lily’s mother and that he’d never do it to Lily, who was already conflicted about the situation.

“You know me so well.”

“And I love you anyway.” She winked and poured some chips into a bowl, pushing it his way. He slid a beer hers and she clinked it against his. “What’s she done now?”

“She’s probably not going to come to the wedding. Lily is heartbroken, though you know she’s trying to pretend she isn’t.”

Lily’s mother had gone to rehab after her drinking and mental-health situation had gotten so bad she’d neglected her teenage son, and Lily had given up her life to come back to Petal to take care of things. Chris, her brother, was back on the straight and narrow once again, thriving in school. Lily’s mother had opted to go from rehab to a sober living house that was nearly four hours away.

Beth took a deep breath, wanting to make him feel listened to, but also saying what needed being said. “She’s going to be far better able to live her life when she does come home. That’s the biggest thing she can do for Lily and Chris both.” She took a sip of her beer. “That said? I think it’s shitty she won’t even come out for the wedding. It’s one day. An important day for a woman who gave her whole life up to come back here to do her mother’s job.”

He grumbled. “It makes her sad. I hate that. I can’t protect her from that kind of sadness.”

Her brother had lost Lily a decade before by being a dumbass. Since she’d come back into his life and he’d won her over, he’d been very protective of her. She knew it hurt him as much seeing Lily hurt and not being able to help as it hurt Lily that her mother was MIA.

“She knows you love her. That’s the important thing.”

He rolled his eyes and she rapped his hand with a nearby pen. “Don’t you roll your eyes at me. Lily needs that love. She needs to know you’re there for her. And you are. That means everything to her. Her mother? Well, look, Nathan, she could be a drunk like our father and never do a damned thing. Would you rather that? She’s trying. In her own way, she’s trying to get better and come home. The recovery process takes time. She’s got a lot of shit to get over.”

“What about the shit Lily has to shovel while she’s gone?”

“She couldn’t handle it. Right? That’s just reality. She’s trying. Which took a lot of guts. Give her credit. I know you hate it that it’s left Lily with that burden. But in the end, her mother is trying to get herself together so that when she comes back, she can handle that burden again without breaking. She’s got to be afraid, you know? She was a mess when she went to rehab. For a woman who had as much control as Lily’s mom, facing that had to be a huge thing.”

“Don’t take her side.” He frowned, but she knew he heard her. Knew she was right.

“I’m always on your side. You know that. I know you’re upset. I know you want to protect Lily, and I’m all for it given how Lily is my best friend and all. And I know you came here so you didn’t spill all this in Lily’s way because she already feels enough angst, guilt and anger about it.”

“You’re pretty smart.”

She shrugged. “We can’t all be school teachers. But I get by.”

“I hear you’ve set your cap for Joe Harris.”

She groaned. “God, this town! What’s it to you?”

“Oh ho! It’s my sister sniffing around a guy with a questionable reputation, that’s what it is to me. You don’t need that kind of trouble. He’s more man than you can handle, Beth.”

She laughed then. “You don’t know anything about me. Not that way. If you think I’d go after some jerk like Dad, you’re out of your damned fool mind. He’s not that way. He’s a nice guy. He came back here to help his family out. He was in the army. He rescued a dog. Hardly the work of Satan’s minion.”

He tipped his bottle. “If you say so. You have good judgment. Mostly. But if he hurts you, I’m gonna kick the shit out of him.”

She grinned, but refrained from mentioning that Joe was like four inches taller and a solid wall of muscle. It was the thought that counted. “You’re so nice to me sometimes.”

“I like to keep you guessing. What do you have to eat other than chips?”

“Nothing. I was just going to eat chips for dinner. Then I had hating-myself-for-eating-chips-for-dinner on the schedule after that.”

“Girls. Come on. I’ll take you to dinner. Lily and Chris may meet up with us in a bit. She took him to get shoes and shorts for gym class too.”

“Why aren’t you over at Tate’s looking pitiful?”

He laughed as she grabbed her purse. “She’s not feeling well. William and Cindy took the kids for a while. Matt is spoiling her for a few hours with a quiet house and the air conditioner blasting. That and I wanted a beer and a chat with my favorite little sister.”

She grinned. “Nice one.”

Her apartment wasn’t too far from their favorite go-to Mexican place. More chips, giant margaritas, the best tacos ever and, as they entered, it was dark and heavenly cool.

“Thank God. I thought I was going to melt. My swamp cooler is ancient and it costs a million dollars to run.”

“Days like this I think about my plan to get Lily to agree to buy a house of our own so we can have a pool. She doesn’t want to do anything like that at her mom’s place.”

“It’s her house anyway.” Which was true. The house Lily grew up in was left to her in a trust. It had been a pretty cool thing because her father tried to pressure her mother into signing it over so he and his new and pregnant wife could sell it! Lily told them the news, told them to back off, and Beth had laughed and laughed.

“Yeah, and you know as well as I do, she’ll never displace her mother.”

Lily was a good-hearted person. She loved her family, and as much as Nathan was mad right then on her behalf, he wouldn’t have loved her as much if she didn’t have the same dedication to family as he did.

Lily’s mother needed a home to return to. And so Lily would make sure that happened, no matter what.

The server led them to a rickety little table near the back windows and they sat. She didn’t need a menu, but she did like what she saw coming in the door. She waved.

Joe Harris looked up, startled, and then smiled when he saw her and Nathan.

“Be nice or I will kick you in the goolies,” she said under her breath to her brother.

“Hey. Nathan, it’s good to see you. I wanted to thank you for the wedding invitation.”

Nathan indicated the empty chair. “You should join us if you’re not meeting anyone.”

Joe sat. “Thanks.”

Nathan nodded. “As for the invite? No problem. Just get us a good present.”

Joe laughed, and Beth wanted to hug her brother tight for being so sweet.

“Hey, Beth.”

She smiled, her belly filled with butterflies.

“Hey yourself, Joe.”

Nathan grunted. “What are you up to? Back here in town I mean.”

They paused long enough to order and then got back to talking.

“I took over the car-repair shop. I figure Polly Chase will keep me in business if no one else comes in.”

Polly Chase was notorious for her horrible driving.

Joe kept on. “Everyone ends up back here. Funny, you leave thinking
thank God
! And then you miss it the whole time you’re gone.”

Joe Harris had a sweet side. Beth liked that.

Nathan nodded, agreeing. “I don’t know that I got to that point for a few years. But by the time I was finishing up with my master’s degree, I was ready to come back.”

“I finished my BA a year ago. Took me a million years felt like. I don’t know how you stuck it out through grad school.”

Nathan looked up from his plate. “I don’t know how you stuck it out through Iraq.”

Joe’s good humor disappeared for a brief time. He shrugged. “I nearly didn’t.”

Nathan made a sound and Beth knew he regretted his comment. “I’m sorry, man. I meant to joke. But some things aren’t funny.”

Joe waved it off. “If you don’t laugh you cry, right?”

She wondered what the story was but didn’t press. She had the feeling it was bad. She knew it had been for so many of the soldiers who’d returned home. And for the families of those who hadn’t.

“What did you do there? In the army I mean.” She tried not to inhale her food and scare him off, but she was hungry.

“I was a mechanic. It was a good thing. I didn’t think so at first.” He laughed. “I didn’t have any skills. Well, not any that would have given me a job instead of time in the state pen.”

Nathan looked to her with a smirk.

“How long have you been back?”

“Two years. I knew I’d come to Petal eventually. I landed in Dallas a while. Worked in a friend’s shop where I filled out my training with cars and trucks. Why did you decide to be a teacher?”

Beth watched as Nathan and Joe talked. Nathan was an interesting man with a big giant heart. He liked Joe. She could totally tell. It was more than the fact that they’d known each other when they were young. It made her feel more comfortable around Joe, and in the end, it would help her plan as well. Nathan was a good judge of character.

“The whole time we were coming up, there were times when I really just wanted to throw in the towel. Shit was bad at home. I didn’t have the time for homework when we were trying to survive.” Nathan ate for a while before he continued. “But those times when it wasn’t Tate kicking my butt all the way to school, it was a teacher who reached out. Who cut me some slack, or who gave me a book that inspired me, who pushed me hard to do my best. I wanted to be that for other kids.”

Beth loved that story. Nathan, for all his jokes and that gorgeous face, was a person who wanted to give back. It pleased her to no end that he was such a great role model and such a repudiation of the people who had given them life and abused and neglected them.