Which sucked because he really didn’t like being associated with me three-quarters of the time.
It always cracked me up when someone asked if I was Murphy Archer, II’s daughter.
Like I said, it was the eyes.
There weren’t many in the area that had them.
“When my asshole son remarried, he was ‘fixed,’” Murphy started. “Melody Archer wanted a baby, though, and she got one. My son got himself a vasectomy reversal, had a baby, and then they named her Rockett.”
Zach’s eyes widened. “You’re shitting me.”
“Not shitting you at all,” Murphy drawled. “That was what got Crockett kicked out of the house. When they brought Rockett home and introduced her, Crockett finally learned what kind of douchebag her stepmother was, and what kind of a spineless wimp her father was. She threw a wall-eyed fit of her own—the Archer family is really good at throwing those, FYI—and they kicked her out the very next second. Danny was already out of the house at the time going to school at a community college. But they paid for an apartment for him. When he found out, he called her to have her live with him, but then the asshole parentals said that if any of the siblings helped her, then they were going to cut them off. Which meant I stepped in to help. I bought her that house next door to them. Best fuckin’ thing I ever did.”
Zach’s eyes came to me, and he shook his head. “Your parents sound like douchebags.”
“My mom wasn’t,” I admitted. “She was really sweet. When she died of ovarian cancer while my parents were going through their divorce, I had no idea how awful my dad was. Then he didn’t show up to her funeral and made me walk to it. Murphy was in jail at the time, so I couldn’t get him to take me. Danny, Nora, and I all walked. It was… yeah. Let’s just say that my dad’s been proving that he’s an all-out asshole for a really long time.”
Why was I giving him my life story?
I mean, he wasn’t walking away, and he was engaging in the conversation. But who wanted to hear about how awful someone’s parents were?
Which then embarrassed me to no end.
And when I get embarrassed, I close up.
Tightly.
Which was why, in the next second, I all but stopped talking and left Murphy and Zach to fend for themselves while I got the grill fired up and made everyone a couple of grilled cheese and turkey sandwiches.
Only after I was done, and everyone had their food, did I walk into the break room and find the ice cold Dr. Pepper that I saved only for emergencies.
Sure, I had some in the coolers in the main store, but this one was special.
This one was the one that I gave up six years ago when, after losing my Olympic dreams, I’d gone on a bender that included unhealthy eating, gaining a ton of weight, and ultimately eating myself to death.
Now, six years later, I was way better than I was at that point in my life.
I was once again at a healthy weight, but I was still struggling with my healthy mind.
My dad and stepmom just had a way of poisoning my every day.
And the anger shouldn’t hit me as hard as it did all those months ago when I’d officially ‘given up’ on my father.
But it did.
It still hurt.
Which fucking sucked.
I had my hand around the drink, was just about to twist the top off, when I heard my grandfather’s words pierce my fog of indignation.
Today, when Rockett had come over, she’d been pissed that I’d refused to take her to the mall—as if I had a choice on leaving my business or not.
When I’d told her no, she’d gotten pissed and had all but knocked a display of chips over in her anger.
When I’d called her a selfish brat, she’d gotten even more pissed and thrown more stuff.
It was only after I’d threatened to call the cops on her that she’d left with a promise ‘to tell Dad how much of a bitch I was.’
Well, what the fuck ever.
I didn’t care anymore.
I could continue to be that bitch to him.
I mean, he’d called me one all my life. I might as well live up to the expectations, right?
“She’s the nicest, most giving kid you’ll ever meet,” Murphy said, talking about me. “She’s out of hamburger patties because she didn’t get the chance to run by the store after that asshole’s tantrum. So she went home and got her Thanksgiving turkey and carved it all up. That’s what we’ll have tomorrow since it’s Saturday and our normal supplier isn’t open tomorrow.”
I rolled my eyes.
It wasn’t like my Thanksgiving turkey would even do anything.
I mean, my sister, Nora, spent the holidays with her husband’s family. Danny would have a new wife and their family to spend theirs with. Murphy went to the Waffle Corner to spend his Thanksgiving with his veteran friends.
What exactly would I do?
Nada.
“Doesn’t look much like a kid.” Zach’s words came quiet, but I still heard them.
I sighed and put the Dr. Pepper back.
I wouldn’t need it today after all. Especially when Zach spoke like that.
Sadly, when I came out, Zach was gone.
But I did have a twenty-dollar bill on my counter for the food I’d made him.
I also had half my store cleaned up, the broken display shelf taken to the dumpster that I would’ve never been able to get on my own, and a handwritten note.
One from Zach that said, ‘Thanks for lunch. Had a bad day myself.’
CHAPTER 4
Me: Little Caesars is hot and ready.
Danny: is it good?
Me: It’s hot and ready.
-Text exchange between Danny and Crockett
CROCKETT
“I’m telling you,” I said for the fourth time. “She’s going to do something. Seriously, she can’t help it.”
“It’s my wedding, Crockett,” my brother, Danny, said. “She won’t do anything.”
“Listen, Dan the Man,” I said as severely as I could. “She’s going to do something.”
“Then make it so she can’t,” Six suggested. Why Six was at my brother’s house, in the middle of the day, when I hadn’t brought her, was beyond me. But that was my best friend for you.
“By doing what?” I asked. “Putting a muzzle on her?”
“Sure.” She shrugged. “If that’s what it takes.”
I rolled my eyes.
“What you need is a badass man. You know she’s scared of really badass looking men,” Belinda, my soon to be sister-in-law, said. “You know any of those?”
One immediately came to mind. One that was, by far, the most badass and scariest man I’d ever met.
One that only spared me a glance and that was it, every single time he came into my store, since blurting out my full life story.
Which was a lot since he lived close. He bought his ‘essentials’ there once a week—milk, eggs, cheese, lunch meat and bread—and then came by randomly as well to get himself coffee, drinks, or a snack.
Every other week he treated himself to a burger and fries.
And every other week I began counting down to the second when I could see him longer for a few minutes at a time, until the next time that he came for a burger.