Giovanni snapped, spinning around and pointing a finger right in his face. “I’m not—” His words cut off as he reeled in his fury. “Forget it.”
Finn’s eyes narrowed. “Careful, cuz.”
Giovanni shoved past him and stalked toward the benches where he’d left his cleats.
“You wanna tell me what’s going on?”
“Just another day in paradise.”
Finn grabbed his shoulder, jerking him back hard. “Enough. How about you tell me what your issue is and we start there?”
“I don’t have an issue.”
“Try again.”
His frustration spiked until the pressure burst out of him in a sigh. “Everything’s a mess. My comedy sucks. I hate climbing trees. And Erin’s run off to some town I’ve never heard of!”
Finn cocked his head. “Erin left?”
Giovanni threw up his arms. “She’s been gone for two days.”
His cousin chuckled. “Okay, well, that’s two days, Giovanni. Sometimes people need to get away.”
“It’s not like that. I know her. She’s all over the place. The other night…” He couldn’t go there. Not with Finn.
Finn read something in his eyes and said, “She puts up walls.”
“Yeah.” That was the understatement of the year.
“Do you love her?”
He looked at his cousin, wondering what answer he hoped to hear. “I’m crazy about her.”
“She’s never going to be like other girls, Giovanni.”
“I prefer her that way.” He liked having her all to himself. “I want her to have friends, but I don’t care if she doesn’t. I just want to make her happy.”
“Well, are you—making her happy?”
“I’m trying.”
Finn sighed. “You can’t take off in the middle of a shift like that.”
“I hate this job, Finn. I hate the cold weather. I hate the weight of work boots on my feet. And I hate climbing trees.”
“Then why are you here?”
“I don’t know!”
There was so much pressure from his dad to take over his portion of the family business, but he’d never be like Ryan or Finn. He just didn’t care about it the way they did.
“I’ve got four brothers,” Finn said. “Not all of them joined the family business and that’s okay. It’s not for everyone. I mean, have you ever watched Colin try to climb a tree? He’s not rescuing any stranded kittens anytime soon.”
Giovanni laughed. “He can’t be any worse than me.”
“You’re pretty rough. But you can do things that half those guys can’t do. You’re selling out seats and getting up in front of hundreds of people and making them laugh. I could never do that.”
“They’re not laughing so much anymore.”
“It’s the material, not the comedian. Trust me. You’re funny, Giovanni. You don’t have to put on an act. You just have to get out there and be yourself.”
Erin had said something along the same lines, but he wasn’t sure people would enjoy stories about his boring family life. There was so much competition. He thought he had to deliver something edgy and dark. But maybe he was better off talking about day-to-day life. He could do a whole hour on his family’s Sunday dinners alone.
“Look,” Finn continued, “If you need the work, the job’s yours. But you have to be present. People depend on you, and someone could get hurt if your head’s elsewhere. But if you want to leave, I won’t take it personally.”
He couldn’t leave without a better option. “I’ll stay until I figure something else out.”
Finn nodded. “Good. Now get your ass back up in that tree because you can’t leave it the way you did.”
CHAPTER 24
“And what was that zip code again?” Erin jotted down the number. “Thank you. I’ll be sure to check the website. Take care.”
She ended the phone call and typed the web address into the search bar. It was nice to be in a town that got something better than mediocre cell and internet service. For the past two days, she’d been working from a small cubical at the Clifton Heights’s library.
The town was cute, boasting much of the same small-town charm she’d discovered when she drove through Ryder Creek. But nothing held the nostalgia she linked to Jasper Falls.
She’d always thought she hated her town and it held nothing but bad memories. But the further she drove the more she accepted that those memories would come with her wherever she decided to go.
Even her house didn’t bother her as much since she ripped up the carpets and painted the walls. She hardly felt her father’s presence there anymore, but it seemed silly to keep a house with a master bedroom she couldn’t enter.
Well, she could enter it, but spending more than a few seconds in that room always gave her the chills.
She found the webpage she was looking for and hit print. When she went to the front desk, the librarian, Wendy, smiled at her.
“Another one?”
“I’ll pay for the paper and ink,” Erin said, placing a ten on the counter.
Wendy waved the money away. “You’re on quite a roll.”