The Rebel - Raleigh Ruebins Page 0,19

about him. He would stop coming into my bar, and I could focus on the things that mattered again.

I’d been independent for the last ten years. There was no reason it was going to stop now. No matter how much my body craved Liam’s.

My brain knew better. And I didn’t make bets I was going to lose.

4

Liam

“Goodness, what are all of those, dear?” Mrs. Bates said as she came over on her walker. I’d only met my elderly neighbor once before, but she walked over after I’d just pulled up onto my dirt driveway.

We both stared into the trunk of my car, which was currently open and displaying a massive haul of potted flowers—red and white and orange all over a bed of hundreds of green leaves. I’d just made a big haul from Copper General.

“Well, they’re actually a bunch of Red Hot Pokers and Naked Man Orchids,” I said. “Some roses, too.”

Mrs. Bates stared at me with her eyes bugging out. Her grey hair was in a messy bun at the top of her head, and she was wearing an old sweater that said I Ran in the Kansas City Marathon!

“Excuse me, potty mouth?” she said, a smile creeping onto her lips, wrinkling up the skin around her eyes.

I smiled. “I mean it,” I said. “That’s what the flowers are called. I admit, I bought them specifically because I liked the names.”

She let out a laugh. “You’re up and at ‘em early this morning,” she said.

“I know. I hate it.”

I’d set no less than five alarms for myself to wake up early, even though I was the furthest thing from a morning person. Since moving to Amberfield I’d been waking up at noon almost every day. I’d promised that today would be different. And now I already had a head start on getting plants for my new little garden by the time it was nine in the morning. It was supposed to be stormy later tonight, so I felt accomplished.

“It’s good to be an early riser,” she said.

“Not when you love sleep as much as I do,” I said. “But I have to be somewhere at noon.”

“Heading to the grocery? I would love to carpool.”

I shook my head. “Going to Red’s Tavern, actually. But I’ll give you a ride into town, no problem, Mrs. Bates.”

It had been a few days since Red and I made the bet about Frozen, and today, we were set to watch the movie at the bar. Red had asked me at least three times if I was okay being in a bar environment around alcohol, but I assured him that I was fine. The bar wouldn’t even be open yet. Apparently Red had a big projector set up in the tavern for their monthly movie viewing nights, and he’d told me to come by before the tavern opened so that we could watch it on “the biggest screen possible” and “do the movie justice.”

It was totally ridiculous. But I was also stupidly giddy about it.

“Oh thank you,” Mrs. Bates said. “I hate to bother you for more, but I came here to ask if you had some extra milk.”

“I actually do have milk inside,” I said. “Let me go grab some for you.”

“Thank you. I’ll watch over your Naked Men. You’re an angel.”

I didn’t know why in the hell everyone kept calling me an angel. It definitely wasn’t true.

I ran in and retrieved a small paper cup of milk for her, lidded it, and headed back out. Back in LA, I’d hidden from my neighbors. I never wanted to talk to anyone on my street, because I knew they probably hated me. I always had parties and sometimes my guests would be loud at night in the yard, though I told them to shut the hell up every time.

It was nice actually interacting with one of my neighbors now. Mrs. Bates was a sweetheart, and she didn’t seem to mind that a heavily tattooed gay man was living next door to her.

I came back out and set the milk cup down in the little tray that was hanging from her walker. My phone buzzed a few times in my pocket and I slid it out, looking at the screen.

>>Colin: Ugh, when are you fucking coming back?

>>Colin: I miss your tight little ass.

>>Colin: You need a good spanking when you’re back in LA.

>>Colin: Also, can you text me the number of that guy who got us coke last year at Inferno?

My jaw clenched as I