Sins & Needles(24)

Speaking of the devil, I could hear him puttering around in the kitchen and could smell the bacon frying in its own fat. My stomach growled and I rolled over into the fetal position. I’d spent $120 last night in the name of the game which left me only $80 to start a new life somewhere. My options looked bleak.

Soon my hunger won out over my pity party and I threw on some clothes and shuffled into the kitchen. Uncle Jim was scooping a batch of baked beans onto a plate and pursed his lips as soon as he saw me.

“Thought this would get you up,” he said, handing me the plate and a fork. “You came home late last night.”

I had to smile at his parent-like interrogation and slid onto the bar stool. “Oh, it wasn’t that late. I hope you weren’t waiting up for me.”

From the way he shrugged I could tell he was. He slid into the seat next to me and started pouring an obscene amount of hot sauce on his eggs. I chose Worcester sauce instead and drizzled it all over my plate.

“So how was it?”

I sighed. “It was really nice, actually. But I don’t think it went too well on his end.”

“No?”

“I don’t know. He just dropped me off. No kiss goodnight, no plans for the next days.”

He chuckled as he delicately sliced his eggs with a knife. “You mean you wait for the men to kiss you, Ellie? Boy, I thought your mother raised you differently.”

“Well, we know she barely raised me at all.”

He looked at me sharply then said softly, “She did the best she could. You were her number one priority.”

“Until…”

“Until…she made a mistake.”

“Sounds like you’re the one who’s coming around, Uncle Jim. Whatever happened to forever punishing us?”

“You’re here, aren’t you?”

I speared a few beans with my fork and ate them before my appetite totally disappeared. “Not for long.”

We sat in silence for a while, drinking our coffees and staring out the kitchen window at the sunny palm groves outside. When I lived up north for a bit, I often thought back to California and wondered how people could ever be sad in such constant sunshine. But the truth is, sadness and anger aren’t vampiric. If you let them, they’ll follow you around the world, sunshine and stakes be damned.

“I’m sorry your date didn’t go well,” he finally said after clearing his throat. “It’s probably for the best. There’s been some rumors about that boy anyway and you don’t want to get roped up in that.”

Now that caught my attention. “Rumors? Still?”

He let out a deep breath and shrugged, putting his elbows on the table. “I don’t know. I remember that boy being all queer and funny when you were young but now it’s something else. He hangs out with…bad people.”

I twisted in my seat and looked him square in the face. “I’m bad people.”

“Not like you, Ellie. I mean bad people. City people. I like to pretend that you have morals somewhere in your skinny little chest. These people don’t.”

I narrowed my eyes in thought. “How do you know all of this?”

“I hear things. It’s a small town still, people talk. Got nothing better to do. And it’s probably nothing, maybe he just knows some of the people his daddy arrests. But if you want to give something a reason, maybe it’s best that he broke things off like that. You don’t need to get dragged into anything.”

“I don’t think Camden is like that,” I mused. Then again, I didn’t really know Camden anymore.

“Maybe not,” he said, collecting our plates and taking them to the sink. “I’m just trying to make you feel better. Guess it didn’t work.”

I shot him a smile of gratitude and offered to do the dishes. When he refused, I then excused myself. I went up to my room, shut the door, and started Googling the crap out of Camden McQueen on my phone.

I found nothing. Well, nothing “bad.” Just things that reiterated what he’d already told me. He was a talented tattoo artist, he really was on Kat Von D’s reality TV show, and his shop in LA did quite well. Other than that, there was nothing. Only a few pictures that made me feel all quivery inside.

Ugh.

I sat on the bed and hugged my knees and tried to think. I didn’t have many options. Since I was already in Palm Valley, I could go back into town and do some serious job hunting. Maybe get a gig at a bar or something like that since the barista thing wasn’t going to happen.

I perked up a bit. Maybe I could get a legitimately great job. And maybe if I did, Uncle Jim would let me stay a bit longer, seeing that I was serious. But then I’d be stuck in Palm Valley, in the same town as Camden, and things could get pretty awkward. I mean, it’s not like things ended on bad terms but…well, I usually left when places and people got weird.