Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Mom doesn’t know any of that. She’s hearing about Ben’s past from Roy, who’s colored it to be something much more sinister than it was so he can manipulate her into being worried for her own most valued possession. Namely me, her daughter.
“Thank you for your concern, but my jewelry’s fine, Roy,” Mom clips out, not playing into Roy’s game.
Go, Mom!
She really is amazing, though I have no doubt my phone’s gonna ring as soon as she gets Roy out the front door, when she calls demanding an explanation.
“You’re sure?” Roy follows up. “Wonder if maybe other people in Maple Creek have lost items? Might have to get my dad involved if there’s been an outbreak of robberies in the last week or so.”
He’s outright threatening Ben.
Okay, maybe not outright, but it’s clear enough without him declaring that he can get Team Roy people to lie for him and claim “missing items,” which the sheriff’s department will of course pin on the tourist in town with a record of theft.
I hear Mom’s recliner squeak as she rocks back and forth. Dad’s been saying he’ll fix it for years, and the WD-40 is in the garage, but he never does. Secretly, I think he likes hearing Mom rock. It’s a sign she’s sitting down, not running around doing stuff for everyone else.
“Roy, can I give you a little advice from an old lady?” she says, her voice hard and cold as a diamond. She doesn’t wait for him to agree but fiercely barrels on. “A man lives and dies by his reputation. It belongs to him and no one else. He has to create it, foster it, and stand by it with pride. And your dad’s reputation, as a man and as sheriff, isn’t something you should throw around lightly, because it has less than a hill of beans to do with yours. The sooner you figure that out, the better off you’ll be. You’d do well to focus on your own reputation without using your father or threatening others.”
Those rose-colored glasses my parents have been seeing Roy through? Gone. Roy’s just massively overplayed his hand with my mom, and she’s a force to be reckoned with.
“Ahem.” Roy clears his throat. “I just meant, if anything happens, a criminal would obviously be the first suspect. Hope should know that because I’d hate for her to get caught up in things and get hurt. You’ll tell her?”
“Oh, don’t you worry. I’ll be real sure to tell Hope you stopped by.” Mom makes it sound like Roy will wish she’d kept her mouth shut by the time she’s done telling me, but there’s no need. I’ve heard it all.
I heard the way Roy talks about Ben. About me. About himself, like he’s somehow important even though he’s an average guy, with a boring job and a shitty personality, who’s treated me poorly for far too long.
The front door opens and closes. Trusting that Roy’s gone, I step into the living room.
“How much of that did you hear?” Mom asks from by the front door, where she likely escorted Roy out. She doesn’t seem surprised in the slightest to see me.
I shrug. “Enough. Heard the threats against Ben and me.”
Mom looks at the front window like she can see Roy pulling away through the closed blinds. “Has he always been like that? How did we not see?”
She sounds sad, and mad at herself.
I go to her, hug her tightly, and confess, “I never gave him a reason to show you that side. I only saw it recently, when I started questioning things.”
I feel her nodding as she apologizes anyway. “I’m sorry. I should’ve known.”
Pulling back from the hug, I correct her, “I didn’t want you to. I did my best to make it seem perfect, even if it meant Roy walked all over me.”
“You can lie down for people to walk on you, and some of them will still complain you’re not flat enough. Be bumpy as a speed bump, Hope.” She boops me on the nose to emphasize her point.
A bark of laughter escapes my chest because I did not expect that from her. “Where’d you hear that? A fortune cookie?”
She laughs too. “Saw it on Facebook. One of those me-mes.” There’s a glint in her eye, and I laugh harder, realizing she’s intentionally mispronouncing meme to lighten the situation because she follows it up with a hard question. “What about the things Roy said about Ben? How much of that’s true?” She peers at me, her laughter gone as she frowns so hard the lines by her mouth turn into parentheses.
I grimace. “More than you’ll like, but Roy made it sound worse than it was. Sit down and I’ll explain what I know.”
To Mom’s credit, she does, and so I do, telling her the rough details of what Ben shared.