Beard Up(13)

Then there was the sex offender.

Though, she wasn't actually one. At the age of eighteen, she'd had a boyfriend who was sixteen. The parents had found out about their relationship and had her arrested for statutory rape of their son. They had a really fancy lawyer, and she didn't have money for an attorney, a good one or otherwise. So, she had to use a state appointed lawyer who didn't give one flying fuck about her since she wasn't paying. The young girl had been charged with statutory rape and would be forever labeled as a sex offender. Though, she was really far down the block, and I didn't see her all that often because she worked nights.

The person on my right was an older man who'd lost his entire family during Hurricane Katrina, and barely ever came out of his house unless he absolutely had to.

Then you had me.

Everyone knew my story.

And I'd thought that, at the time, Josh had fit on this street, too. But I'd been wrong, and I had a sneaking suspicion that he wasn't really a widower, either.

A man who was in mourning didn't latch onto his neighbor and not let go.

"You're distracted today," Lynn said. "Do you need help with anything?"

My eyes flicked to Lynn's, and I shook my head automatically.

"No," I grimaced. "I'm okay."

Second lie in five minutes. Good going, Morrison.

"You know, if you ever have a problem, you can come to me, right?" Lynn pushed.

I looked away, not able to handle the fierce protectiveness in Lynn's dark green eyes. Green eyes that looked so much like Tunnel's that it sometimes hurt.

Greatly.

I think that was why I'd first latched onto Lynn as I did. He'd reminded me of Tunnel.

No, not really outwardly.

Where Lynn was a tall drink of water, Tunnel was more of a shot of whiskey straight to the soul. He'd affect you faster and harder than anything else would.

Lynn was tall, muscular, but built more like a runner whereas Tunnel was tall, really muscular, and built more like a football player. Though, he didn't have a thick neck and too many bulging muscles. He was more of a running back rather than a lineman.

Lynn had brown hair that was bordering on silver, whereas Tunnel had curly dirty blonde hair that he shaved off because he hated his curls. I'd, of course, adored them. I'd love when they started to get long enough to curl.


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But Tunnel and Lynn's eyes, they were so similar to each other's that it was almost uncanny. I'd never met anyone with their eye color, and the minute that Tunnel died I'd met Lynn. Yeah, it was no wonder that I'd latched on and didn't let go.

"Yeah, I know," I nodded. "I'm nervous. Really nervous. I've never worked anywhere else."

Conversation went sort of back to normal after that. We talked about how Lynn's job was going–he's a broker of some kind. We spoke about how Sienna was doing at school-terrible. We spoke about where his job was taking him to next month-South Louisiana. And we spoke about what my plans were once I got down to Uncertain. This, I still had no clue about, but I at least had an apartment to stay at thanks to the hospital hiring me.

Later, as Lynn was leaving, I halted him at the door.

"I'll be back in a month or so … and then, I'd really love to talk to you some more. You seem kind of sad," I told him, studying his face.

All the animation quickly slid off of his face.

"Sure thing, darlin'," he grinned, pasting on his playful smile. "That sounds good."

I watched him walk down the driveway, and then cross the street into his yard, before closing the door.

And only then did I go look at the messages.

There were four.

All of them from him.

Son of a bitch.

Who is that?

Why is he there?

Call me immediately.

I'm coming over.

I closed my eyes as my belly started to revolt.

Then I walked to the front door again, locked it up tight, and ignored the door when he did finally come over. I just prayed that he didn't see me packing.





***


Lynn

"She's moving."

"She's what?" Ghost asked semi-irately.

"She's moving. She's packed her car up and she's leaving. In the morning, as a matter of fact. Going down to Uncertain, Texas where she has a nursing contract with a hospital down there for the next month."

"Why is she moving?" Ghost asked. "That doesn't make sense."

"No," I agreed. "Not unless that little peckerhead is still bothering her. I saw her glance at her phone, and the disgust on her face was enough to make me wanna laugh when she read whomever texted her. It was that asshat Josh. I know it."