Page 11 of With Spite

“Was going to stay in Bozeman, but my favorite niece was sick,” he answered. “Guess I’ll go get some work done early. Maybe I’ll get out at a decent hour tonight.”

Before Heidi could say goodbye, Hux was gone.

I watched him go, then felt my cheeks flush when I turned around and saw Heidi watching me.

“Whatever you do, don’t sleep with my brother. He’s the love ’em and leave ’em type.”

I nodded. “Duly noted.”

Four

Fucking hamburger, help me.

—Hux’s secret thoughts

Hux

“You’re such an ass,” Harvey said as he leaned on my clean butchering table. “You knew her name.”

I shrugged.

It was good to set the boundaries now.

I didn’t want her to like me.

First, she was a club brother’s sister.

Second, she had trouble written all over her.

That and the fact that trouble and I were best friends. I tried to stay away from my vices if I could help it.

Third, and most importantly, I broke anything that I came into contact with.

I didn’t do the dating life anymore. I didn’t do nice and sweet. I did rough, raw, and didn’t exchange names.

“What are you working on today?” he asked.

I opened up the walk-in freezer and said, “Cow.”

When I was in high school, I’d taken all the meat processing classes that were available to me. When I was done with school, I went into the Marines and didn’t look back at Sawtooth until five years ago when I’d been forced to medically retire thanks to some hearing issues.

With no Marines to keep me company and refusing to work with my mother more than very, very part-time, I decided to go the meat processing route.

Stupidly, I agreed to attach my shop to the back of The Mercantile.

Now I had my mother running over every other hour asking for “a quick spot of help.”

Most of the time I said no.

I mean, it wasn’t exactly easy to get unclothed all the way, go do whatever bullshit job she needed help with, then come back and get re-dressed.

“What’s with that face?” Harvey asked.

I slid the cow out using the chain system above my head, then got it hooked up where I wanted it before fishing out my best knife.

“Just thinking about how many interruptions I’m going to have from Mom today,” I grumbled.

Harvey sighed. “Wish I’d have thought twice about you building so close beforehand. Never thought about how much she’d take your nearness to her advantage.”