“Hi, Luna Luna. What are you doing here?” His question was directed at my daughter, but his eyes were trained on me.
“We’re gonna get a job!” she enthused.
“You are, huh?” Hank’s lips were curved up in a half-smile that had my heart and hormones doing backflips.
“I saw the sign outside, I didn’t know…I had no idea that you were…that you’d be…” I looked away from him because I was scared that I might spontaneously combust from the heat that his hotness was radiating.
When I looked over at Billy, I saw his eyes were bouncing between Hank and me, as he wore an amused smirk. “So you three know each other?”
“Mr. Hank lives with us,” Luna chirped.
“Next door,” I quickly clarified. “We just moved into my grandfather’s house. Bernard Thompson.”
“Bernie’s your granddaddy?” Billy appeared amused at that discovery.
“He is,” I confirmed.
“Really?” Billy’s eyes widened. “I didn’t know he had people.”
“I, um, actually never met him.” I wasn’t sure why I was embarrassed about that fact. It wasn’t my fault that my father wanted nothing to do with his family. I’d begged my parents to meet my grandparents, just like I’d begged them to have Ashley. I suppose if I was going to have one of my wishes granted, I was glad I got Ashley.
“Wow! Old man Thompson’s place, huh? How’s it lookin’? No one’s lived there for, well damn, how long?” Billy asked Hank.
“About five years,” Hank replied as he set Luna back down on the ground.
It didn’t escape my attention that even when Luna was on the floor she stayed glued to his side. She was forming quite an attachment to Mr. Hank. Normally, I was wary of strangers. But for some reason, one that I couldn’t explain, I wasn’t with Hank. I trusted him. Something that didn’t normally come easy for me.
And that scared me even more than my over the top hormonal explosion when I’d seen him last night which had scared me more than coming home to find my furniture cut into pieces and my TV broken.
“Well, if I can just get that application or…”
“Are you in a rush?” Billy asked as he reached behind the counter and pulled out a slip of paper.
“Um…no, I was just, we were just going to the grocery store.”
“And the trolley,” Luna piped in.
“Right, and the trolley.” I pointed at my daughter.
“Well, if you have the time, I could interview you now,” Billy suggested.
“Oh, um…” I looked down at what I was wearing. Faded blue jeans with holes in the knee and a tank-top weren’t exactly the professional image I wanted to present, but I didn’t want to miss the opportunity for gainful employment.
“Do you want to help me fix a pigpen, Luna?” Hank asked.
“A pigpen?” Luna’s eyes lit up.
“Yep, Kevin Bacon’s pen needs fixin’. If it’s alright with your mama, I could use an assistant.”
I had a million questions swirling in my head.
Why there was a pigpen at a bar?
How was Hank connected to this place?
How was it possible that he looked even sexier today than he had last night?
The last one wasn’t quite as relevant as the first two.
“Please, Momma!” Luna begged, her hands folded in a prayer sign. “Please.”
A phone rang and Billy grabbed his cell phone. “I’ll just be a minute and then we can talk.”
Billy answered the phone and walked to the end of the bar.
“Please, please, please Momma!” Luna continued to plead.
“It’s just out back.” Hank motioned to a glass garage door that looked out on an outdoor patio.
I took a step to the right and saw that there was, in fact, a pen. And inside the pen there was what looked like a pig.
“Um…sure. I mean, yes, thank you.” I knew that he’d only offered so that I could interview in peace.
Hank grinned once more at me before taking Luna’s hand and the two walked down the hallway. Luna was talking a mile a minute as I watched, their backs retreating, hand in hand, I felt an ache in my chest.
It was absolutely one of the most precious sights I’d ever seen. I knew that I was being ridiculous. But I’d never had a close relationship with my father.
He’d wanted a boy and made no secret of that fact. My father was a figure in my life, a presence, but not someone I felt close to. He wasn’t someone I talked to. He spoke to me when he was giving orders; what time we were leaving, what chores needed to be done, telling me to do my homework. Or if something I’d done wasn’t up to his standard he’d let me know and there’d be consequences, usually in the form of losing privileges like TV or the phone, being grounded, or having to do extra chores.
But he’d never asked me to fix a pigpen with him. He’d never asked me to fix anything. I was just starting to tear up when I noticed that on the bartop there was a newspaper with a picture of Hank, Billy and another man.
The headline read: A New Generation Challenging “The Comfort Curse”
I was about to pick it up and read it when Billy got off the call and started walking toward me, so I set it down.
“Did you want a water or anything?” he asked.
“No, I’m good.”
He motioned for us to sit down at a high top. I was just settling in and preparing myself to answer questions about my past employment when he sat across from me and said, “So, you’re the one.”
“The one?” I repeated, wondering if this was part of the interview process.
“The one to put a smile on Hank Comfort’s face.”
CHAPTER 7
Hank
Skylar brushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear, exposing the delicate slope of her neck and the sight made my mouth water as I held the door open and we exited the bar. “Thanks for walking us out.”
“No problem.”
“And thanks, again, for watching her.” She motioned to Luna who had run in front of us across the parking lot.
“Anytime.” I wasn’t just saying that. I really liked spending time with the kid. She was funny and sweet, and she didn’t look at me like I was Hank Comfort.
All my life, people had known who I was and they’d judged me for it. When I was a baby they’d talked because I was a boy and would carry on the Comfort curse. As I got older, they talked because my mama wasn’t exactly June Cleaver and Pops sure as hell wasn’t Ward Cleaver.
After Mama was gone, people just looked at me with pity or judgment. Sure, I was no angel. But I was a kid. Lookin’ back at all the pressures and responsibility I’d been carrying after I lost my mom, it was surprising I only ended up putting one person in the ICU. And he’d had it comin’.
“And thanks for the job,” Skylar smiled widely.
“That was all Billy.” I had no problem taking credit where credit was due, but other than having a vision or a premonition of Skylar tending bar, I’d had nothing to do with her getting hired. Well, not directly anyway. I wouldn’t put it past my brother to hire her just so he could sit back and watch the show. He seemed to find the situation pretty damn amusing.