Page 13 of With Spite

Dad worked his ass off, but not because he wanted to make better for his family. Because he couldn’t stand being around Mom all the time.

I didn’t blame him.

Mom was hard to be around even when she was at her best.

When she was at her worst?

A soft knock came at the door that separated my butcher shop from The Mercantile.

Knowing that it was for sure not Mom—Mom would’ve pounded on the locked door—Harvey went to open it.

“Hey,” a soft voice that did things to my dick said. “I was asked to come over here and ask you boys for some help with unloading a truck?”

“Tell our mother that I’m not here and that Hux is cutting into a cow. She’ll have to unload it herself.”

“Oh, okay. I’ll do that.”

The door closed, and then Harvey said, “Ten bucks says that Mom makes the new girl do it.”

I grinned. “She’s in for a surprise working there.”

And why did I feel bad that the new girl, who was getting paid, would have to learn how to drive a forklift? I should feel happy. Excited, even. Mostly because I was free.

But, still, that weird feeling inside of me that felt a whole lot like caring was sitting like a rock in my stomach.

Five

Thou shalt not stress over the opinion of an evil bitch.

—Bernice’s secret thoughts

Bernice

“I’m sorry, what?”

“You’ll have to learn how to run the forklift and get it done.” Vera pointed at the 18-wheeler driver and said, “He should have a list of the product. Compare it with our list as you take it off. If there’s anything missing, that’s on you.”

When I still hesitated, she said, “It’s not that hard.”

If it’s not that hard, then why aren’t you doing it?

“I’m not comfortable with doing this,” I pointed out. “If I mess something up, that’ll be on me. And this also wasn’t in the job description.”

Vera looked at me like I was a major disappointment.

“Listen, this was part of the job description when I hired you,” she pointed out. “I said ‘lift over fifty pounds and be able to handle heavy equipment.’”

“When you said ‘be able to handle heavy equipment,’ I thought you meant ‘be able to lift heavy things.’ Not drive heavy equipment! Can you see how that would be confusing?”

“No,” she said with a resolve that made me realize that she wasn’t going to budge on this.

Great.

Fucking great.

I gritted my teeth and wondered how the hell I was going to do this job.

I mean, seriously, who just threw a person to the wolves on their first day? And she couldn’t come out and at least show me which one was the freakin’ forklift?