Perfect Kind Of Trouble

34 Daren

“So?” Ellen leans against the doorframe of my guest room and cocks her head.

“So… what?” I ask as I finished making the bed.

Ellen lifts a brow. “Are you going to tell me about this Kayla girl or what?”

I exhale. “You’re really nosey, you know that?”

She smiles. “I do, actually. I think it’s one of my more endearing qualities. So what’s the deal?”

I shrug. “Old Man Turner left us some money, apparently. But the condition was that we had to be handcuffed together if we wanted to retrieve it.”

Ellen laughs. Like full-on throws her head back and laughs at the ceiling. “That’s awesome.”

“Not the word I’d use.”

Her laughter tapers off but she keeps smiling. “Oh come on! James leaves you and Kayla an inheritance but forces you two to be handcuffed together for… how long has it been?”

“Three days.”

“Three days!” She laughs again. Then sighs. “I’m going to miss that ol’ weirdo.”

I smile at the pillowcase as I pull it off the pillow to be washed. “Me too.”

Her voice turns sincere. “How are you doing with… you know, everything?”

There’s no point in pretending like I don’t know what she’s talking about because Ellen knows how to magically wiggle her way into my business and make it her own. And if I’m being honest, I kind of like the way she cares.

I let out a long sigh. “I’m doing okay, actually. But Monique got repossessed.”

She makes a sympathetic noise. “That’s too bad. You weren’t able to sell her, then?”

“Nope. My dad was upside down on the loan. I’m trying to save up for a new car since I don’t know how I’ll get back and forth between all my jobs now.”

She straightens in the doorway. “If you need a place to stay, you can always stay here. You can live here for free if you work here, you know. Now that Pixie’s moving out, her room will be free. And I have a feeling Levi’s room might soon be free as well.”

“I told you already. I’m living with friends.”

“Yeah, and you’re a terrible liar.” She smiles. “Listen, I know you haven’t taken me up on this offer in the past, but you can always live here, Daren.” She looks at me sincerely. “Always.”

Warmth flows into my chest as I look at the sincerity in Ellen’s eyes. I haven’t felt so cared for since Marcella. In a lot of ways, Ellen reminds me of a younger, cooler Marcella. Always in a good mood. Always looking out for me and making me feel wanted and special. Man, I miss Marcella.

I smile at Ellen. “Thanks. But for now, I’m good just working here.”

She nods. “Oh! Speaking of which…” She pulls an envelope from her back pocket and hands it to me. “Here’s your paycheck.”

I take it, puzzled. “Payday isn’t until next week.”

She shrugs. “I got a little ahead of schedule this month. Oh, and there’s some cash in there too from your bar shift last week.”

I peer inside and frown at the cluster of bills within. “I only covered for Angelo for a few hours.”

“Well it seems the ladies—and their wallets—love the charming Daren Ackwood.” She shrugs nonchalantly, but I know it’s mostly an act. There’s no way I made this much cash last weekend.

“Ellen…” I say, both frustrated and relieved.

“Also, I called a repair guy today and he said he could pick up Kayla’s car from the lavender ranch and tow it back to Copper Springs tonight. Where should I tell him to park it?”

I shrug. “Have him drop it off at Latecomers.”

“Okay. Be ready to leave this afternoon, okay?” She turns to leave then pauses. “Hey, Daren?”

I look up.

“I’m not sure what’s going on with you and Kayla, but she had a rough morning. So maybe you should check on her.”

My heart pounds. “Why? What’s wrong? Is she okay?”

“Come downstairs when you’re done and I’ll fill you in,” she says, and disappears down the hallway.

My first instinct is to run around the inn looking for Kayla until she’s in my arms and I know she’s okay. But then I remember how much she probably doesn’t want to see me and I stay put.

I look back down at the envelope and count the cash inside and almost want to run after her and hug her. Typical Ellen. Always taking care of me when I don’t ask for help.

Last year, she found me lying in the middle of Canary Road in the dead of the night. Canary is the back road to get to and from Copper Springs from Willow Inn, and even though Ellen spends every waking minute at her inn, she lives in Copper Springs. She was coming back from buying supplies in town when she saw my wallowing ass and pulled her truck to stop at an angle, blocking the road.

I was drunk and depressed, and didn’t give a damn anymore about, well, anything. Charity had just died two weeks prior and I was partly to blame. She and I had just broken up but ended up attending the same party one weekend. We were always breaking up and getting back together, but this particular breakup had been rough. I was hurt and moping around, so when a random girl at the party started kissing me I didn’t stop her. But Charity saw us and stormed out of the party, completely drunk, and died in a car crash later that night. So I blamed myself for her leaving that party drunk and setting a series of tragedies in motion.

My life was already a mess. My drunk dad had nearly killed Conner two months prior and sent my life spinning into a never-ending pit of debt and shame, so I’d already been on the brink of a mental breakdown before Charity’s death. But after…

Like I said, I didn’t give a damn.

I’m not sure if I was really trying to kill myself or not, but I certainly didn’t care either way, which is just as bad. I remember lying in the road with a pair of headlights shining on me, irritated that someone had found me and dared to interrupt the pity party I was trying to have in the street.

Ellen stood over me, looking down at my pathetic existence with an arched eyebrow. Her striking good looks caught me off guard for a moment as I gazed up at her. She was wearing a flowy white shirt and had her dark hair loose around her face. She looked like an angel.

I knew she was Pixie’s aunt, but Ellen and I had never spoken before.

“Did you fall?” she asked me, glancing around to see where I had come from. Honestly, I didn’t even know.

I shook my head, which was heavy with alcohol and heartbreak.

She glanced me over. “Are you sober?”

I shook my swimming head again.

Her long hair slipped over her shoulder as she tilted her head and stared into me with her hazel eyes. Her voice softened. “Do you want some company?”

I started to shake my head again, but it was too heavy and I was too exhausted to lie.

Wordlessly, she lay down beside me in the road and looked up. I remember thinking it odd that this grown woman who barely knew me was willing to sprawl out on the dirty road for my benefit, but I was too hammered to ponder her reasons.

She knew about Charity because Pixie and Charity were best friends. And she knew about my dad because his transgressions had been breaking news around town for the past few months. But she didn’t speak a word about either.

We stayed shoulder-to-shoulder for several silent minutes. Just us and the headlights of her truck.

“It’s a beautiful night,” she said after a while, staring up at the sky. “The stars are lovely.”

I stared up at the darkness and all I saw were the things I had lost. My mom. Marcella. Charity. “I don’t see them.”

She slowly nodded. “You will.”

We stayed in that road for who knows how long before I finally pulled myself up with a groan, brushing off the dust and cursing the fog in my head.

“Come on,” she said, helping me to my feet. “It looks like you need a ride home.”

I snorted. In my head, I said, What home? But aloud I think it came out as, “Whamo,” as I stumbled into her.

“Okay.” She caught me and tossed one of my arms over her shoulder so she could guide me to her truck. “I think I have just the place for you to sober up.”

I don’t remember much after that. The next morning I woke up in the clean-smelling sheets of one of Willow Inn’s guest room beds, still wearing my dirty clothes from the night before. I smelled like hell. I looked like hell. But for the first time in several weeks, I didn’t feel like hell.

Later that day, Ellen offered me a job as her stock boy so she wouldn’t have to drive back and forth from Copper Springs to Willow Inn as often. At first, I declined. But she got pretty demanding and, honestly, I needed the money. She offered me free room and board as well, but my prideful ass wasn’t ready to accept total defeat in my own independence yet. But I took the job. It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. One of the few.