Page 70 of The Best Shot

“When was this?”

“While you were away this last time.”

“I didn’t know,” I said. “He never told anyone. My mother’s been asking me for months to talk to you about hiring him, like I was the one keeping him from eating.”

Hale took that in. “He didn’t tell her.”

“No.” I laughed, because of course he hadn’t. “Why didn’t you hire him?”

“I did,” Hale said. “Gave him a shot. I don’t personally love his energy, but I kept it fair. He wasn’t good at it, Yaz. Not good at the work, and not interested in learning or admitting he needed to learn.”

“Yeah… that tracks.” I swallowed. “I’m sorry about earlier. He shouldn’t have come at you like that.”

“The town slut thing?” He said it lightly.

I glanced at him. “Yeah.”

“I don’t mind being called a slut,” he said. “Always figured men got the short end of that stick, to be honest.”

A laugh slipped out. It felt strange in my chest. A little helpless, but good. “Still. You didn’t deserve it.”

Hale’s brow went up. “Neither do you.”

His face blurred, and I turned toward the valley until it steadied.

“Yasmine,” he said carefully. “You keep apologizing for him like he didn’t just try to gut you in public.”

“I know,” I said, quietly.

He reached across the console and took my hand. His palm was warm.

I thought about my mother in my kitchen. Too busy for family? The look she’d given me when I said I hadn’t talked to Hale yet, all quiet disappointment and unspoken accusation.

And the whole time, Shaun had already tried. Already failed. Already made sure the door was closed, and left me standing in front of it anyway, looking like the one who wouldn’t open it.

“Hey,” Hale said, his thumb brushing once across my knuckles. “You want to go somewhere?”

I turned to him. “Thought we were.”

“Somewhere else. Not the hills you were looking for, but the views aren’t bad.”

He waited with that easy patience of his.

“Yeah,” I said. “Okay.”

He drove us out past Route 9, past the turnoffs I knew by name and into the ones I didn’t. The road narrowed until trees pressed close on both sides, sunlight flickering through the canopy in bright, broken pieces.

I kept quiet and watched the light move. Somewhere in the last few miles, I could breathe again.

A gravel drive appeared through the trees, and Hale turned onto it without ceremony.

21

“I CAN DO EGGS.”

YASMINE

The house came through the trees.