Then there’s my mom who claims she doesn’t need me, but she and Morris are getting older. They’re not going to be around forever, and I don’t even have a clue about their financial situation or their plans. So I’ll put the outside world on hold for a bit and take care of my own for a change. Something which, I can finally admit, requires me to have a paying job to avoid being a complete bum.
Which reminds me again of my painfully uncomfortable call with Leah this afternoon.
It was, hands down, the strangest interview I’ve ever had. I don’t even remember how the conversation started, but I know it involved exchanging awkward pleasantries before I bit the bullet and got to the reason for my call.
I almost choked on my words. “Listen, Leah. I know I have no right, and I swear to you I have no expectations.”
“Milo—” she tried to interject, but if I didn’t say my piece, I was going to crawl right out of my skin. It took me six months to make that call.
“Let me finish. As I said, I’m back in town and I’m staying here for at least a year or two before I can go anywhere. And I need a job. Believe me, I’ve applied everywhere else, but this town has a long memory. I’m not a dumb kid anymore, and I’d like to apply for a position. But, like I said, I have no expectations, and lord knows you don’t owe me anything.”
Fuck. I should have just gotten a job stocking groceries or thrown my application in at the marina—although those folks used to know me too. Hey, the state park must have jobs to fill. Diving isn’t the only thing I can do. I remembered then why I despised asking anyone for anything. It felt like I was spiking a fever and developing hypothermia at the same time.
Her smooth voice interrupted my self-flagellation. “I assume you’ve been keeping up to date with your licenses and logbook.”
I didn’t dare breathe any more than necessary to keep me alive. “Absolutely. Been diving since I left, working with one outfit or another. Pretty much traveled half the world.”
“Damn, now you’re making me jealous.” The lilt of her tone sparked old memories, and the tension in my shoulders loosened the tiniest bit.
“Some of it defies description. I swear, Leah, it’s another galaxy down there.” A silence settled but it wasn’t awkward.
I heard her sigh. Us dive junkies are all the same. “I’ve got a part-time instructor position if everything checks out. Purely pool-based and recreational instruction,” she clarified, telling me I’d be teaching nothing but basics to newbies in a swimming pool.
“I’ll take it.” I didn’t care if it was teaching snorkeling to five-year-olds in a kiddie pool. It was one step closer to peace.
“Not so fast.”
My heart began to plummet. I swallowed hard. “Okay.”
“I’m willing to put the past in the past, Milo, but that means I have to treat you like any other new employee. You’d be on probation for the first month, and, to keep everything transparent, you need to know I may never have an open-water gig for you. I’ve got a good crew who have all earned their positions. That said, I feel fairly confident you could go full-time off-water during the season, but again, I can’t make any promises.”
I’d have been lying if I said I wasn’t a bit deflated at that, but it was something. And something is almost always preferable to nothing.
“I understand. And I appreciate you giving me another shot, Leah. Not everybody would do that.”
“Well, I always did have trouble saying no to you.”
That had me scratching my head because it wasn’t how I remembered things at all. But hell, I’d have agreed with just about anything she said if it meant I didn’t have to stock groceries or shovel shit. I finally had a job teaching diving.
So why wasn’t that fat-ass monkey off my back?
“Three lamb specials, compliments of the chef.” I catch the waitress in my peripheral vision making her way behind the bar, and my spine straightens like a piece of rebar. I’d recognize that voice anywhere. And, sure enough, my ears haven’t deceived me. Although my eyes threaten to because I expect to see long wavy hair falling over delicate shoulders and coming to rest on the best set of breasts I’ve seen in years. It should all be topped off with make-up just this side of seductive and probably a mini skirt revealing long legs that make a man’s mind go places it’s hard to return from.
I swear, I have to look twice, but she still hasn’t lifted her eyes from her tray. It’s Jill all right, but her hair is pulled back in some complicated braid things, and she’s got an ultra-conservative lace number tied up to her chin, highlighting a face with only a touch of lip gloss and maybe a swipe of mascara. She looks younger than Felicity in her flower and lace dress and fresh face as she comes toward us and finally sets the tray down.
“Oh, and Camille asked me to tell whichever one of you is Brandon that she—Oh, Jesus Christ!”
Ted visibly jumps in his seat while Jill clutches her neck and tries catching her breath as a flush of pink washes over her face.
I wondered how long that would take. Luckily the tray is resting mostly on the bar, so our dinners are probably out of danger.
Ted and Bran fall all over themselves in response to Jill’s panicked reaction. “It’s okay. I’m Bran. You must be the new girl.” My buddy assumes a tone I’ve only heard him use with small children and zoo animals while Ted tries helping with the tray and repeatedly apologizing for his very existence.
I’m waiting for her to start in with an insult or maybe even hurl her body over the bar and finish me off with a tackle to the ground, but she just stands there like she’s paralyzed. I decide to go for civil, or somewhere in that neighborhood. We are in public, after all. “Brandon, maybe you should apologize for scaring the young lady with your ugly face,” I suggest.
Bran narrows his eyes and volleys them between Jill and me a few times. “What’s going on here?”
“Bran, Ted, meet Jill. Jill, this is Bran and Ted.” I know I should still be pissed at her, but sometime during the course of the longest day in recent memory, this morning’s episode lost its impact. Felicity is happy, I’ve finally got a job, and I don’t have to share my house with anyone. And, besides, it’s hard maintaining a good fury at someone who looks about fifteen and just brought you a lamb dinner that promises to impress on a scale akin to a naked woman.
Jill sets both hands on the bar deliberately and takes another breath before shaking her head and coughing out a laugh that’s two parts honey and one part the devil himself.
“Hello, Bran and Ted. Nice to meet you.” The guys nod confused hellos, and then Jill’s eyes flash to Bran again. “Wait. You’re Bran? Wow, I mean… this is a surprise.”
“How do you…?” Bran’s still got the look of someone trying to wrap their brain around the end of Planet of the Apes, and then a lightbulb switches on. “Wait a minute. You’re Jill? As in, summer-break Jill?”
“Uh…” Jill’s peering at Bran like she’s preparing to ask a lot of inconvenient questions. I’ve had enough drama for one day, so it’s time to nip this thing in the bud.
I throw out the first words that come to mind. “I didn’t know you worked here.” Dammit. I should have figured that out the minute I saw her talking to Rayna outside the kitchen last week. I’m losing my edge, that’s for damn sure. “You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?”