Bent (2 page)

Micah couldn't remember the last time he'd been so relieved to see a work-week come to a close. It seemed like nothing was going right. There were material delays on one project and a nit-picking building inspector at a property they had hoped to get the occupancy permit for by the close of business. Add to that summer employees who had decided they didn't need to focus on their work since they'd be leaving in less than two weeks and it was a bad week.

He pulled his Ford extended cab into the parking lot behind The Oasis and walked in to enjoy a cold beer before heading home for the night. He told himself he could only stay for one. He had to wake up early to see Caleb off to the Bryant family's annual camping trip, and Micah had to work all weekend.

"Hey, Ashley," he greeted the bartender as he walked in the back door. Taking his seat on the far side of the bar, Micah scanned the crowd to see who was already settling in for the night. There was a time when he would have been considered one of the regulars, spending hours drowning his problems in a bottle of Jack but since they'd moved in with Gran, he'd been forced to give up the habit. She had no problem helping with Caleb but she drew a hard line at Micah going out drinking after the night he'd passed out on her front porch. 

The late August heat was sweltering and Jim, the owner of The Oasis, didn't see the point in turning down the central air until later in the day when there were more people in the bar. Normally, Ashley would lean against one of the beer coolers and chat for a while but tonight she was busy stocking. Jim had brought in a band from Madison and they expected it to be one of the busiest weekends of the summer.

Micah turned his attention to the outside beer garden. A few of his friends and former classmates were involved in a heated debate over college football. Micah joined them. The stress of the day eased with some good-natured smack talking over which teams were going to perform this fall. Austin, who was certain Notre Dame was going all the way this year, bought another round for everyone. Micah told himself that had to be the last one. Too much to do and an early morning ahead of him.

As the bar started to fill, there was a contagious air of excitement that made Micah wish he could go back to being carefree and without responsibility. He tried to think back to the last time he'd been able to go out just to have a good time and couldn't remember how long it had been. He let Austin know that he had to go home to take care of some things but he'd be back.

He needed to convince Gran that one night out with friends didn't mean he was falling back into old habits. Even though he'd hated the way she mothered him at times, he knew she was doing it for his own good. And once he stopped going out all the time, he realized that life wasn't quite so miserable when he was sober.

Driving to the farm, he thought of his classmates who were sitting at The Oasis on this particular Friday night. So many of them seemed to have life figured out. They were happily married, their kids were with sitters or at the grandparents' houses for the weekend. Within the hodgepodge of former classmates who were at the bar, there was a bank executive, two doctors, a professor and a several small business owners. Sure, he had the construction company but that was the only thing that was going the way Micah had planned. He sure as hell never planned on being a single father living with his friend's grandmother.

He shook the thoughts from his head as he turned down the long gravel drive. He might not have the life he planned on but he knew that he couldn't wish life had been different. If things happened differently, he wouldn't have Caleb and there was no way he'd trade the kid in for anything.

Caleb had almost everything packed and ready to go by the time Micah got home.

"Dad, it's the fourth time I've gone on this trip. I think I know what I'm doing by now." The sarcasm dripped off Caleb's words. Micah watched his son flop onto the couch to read. It amazed him to see how much he was growing. His baby face was starting to square, his shoulders seemed broader and there was no doubt the boy was getting taller. Micah made a mental note to try to get Caleb to cut his unkempt dark hair before school started. It was usually a battle that Micah didn't fight too much but the hair was starting to look like a rag mop thrown on Caleb's head. Micah briefly tried to strike up a conversation about what Caleb was looking forward to about the trip, but he was shot down. With a sigh, Micah got up from the recliner and headed outside.

As expected, Gran Turner was sitting on the front porch. It didn't matter how hot the days were, Gran always sat in her rocker on the porch after dinner with a steaming cup of tea. She'd told Micah that before Pop Turner had passed, they'd retire to the porch every night and watch Carly, their granddaughter, playing in the front yard.

"Hey Gran. Do you mind keeping an eye on Caleb tonight? I was thinking about heading back down to The Oasis for a bit." He cringed as the words came out of his mouth. He watched her body language to see if she was winding up for a lecture. He hoped she was able to see that he'd come a long way in the nearly four years they'd lived with her and this wasn't going to become a regular occurrence.

"Boy, what makes you think you need to be down there tonight?" She looked at him through narrow eyes, showing her disapproval of him going to the bar while his son was home.

Micah shrugged, "I stopped in after work and there were a bunch of guys from school there. Figured it'd be nice to catch up with them." He knew there would be other nights but something told him tonight was the night he needed to be there.

Gran took a long drink of her tea and let out a sigh. "I suppose that won't be a problem," she said with her gaze still fixed in the distance. "But you're not going to start making this a habit again."

Micah bolted into the house, not wanting to give Gran time to change her mind. Getting dressed in his most comfortable jeans, black t-shirt and cowboy boots, knowing that his friends were waiting for him made him feel like he was sixteen again. It wasn't long after that when everything had changed and his nights were no longer about spending time with people whose company he enjoyed.

Once he was ready, he bounded down the main staircase to check on Caleb one last time. At twelve years old, his son was starting to show the same independent spirit Micah knew he'd had at that age. It wasn't nearly as endearing on his son as he'd thought it had been when he was young. Without looking up from his book, Caleb waved his father away.

Knowing that everything at home was taken care of, Micah went to let Gran know he was leaving for the night. She nodded in approval when she looked at Micah's choice of outfits for the night. "You clean up good."

He shook his head as he leaned in to give the old woman a kiss on the cheek. For as much as they went back and forth, he had to admit she was a blessing to his life. "Thanks Gran."

Almost to the truck, he stopped in his tracks when he heard Gran call his name. "Say hi to Julia Sanders for me!" Micah swore he heard Gran cackle as the rickety screen door slammed behind her. Why was she telling him to say hello to someone he hadn't seen in almost thirteen years?

Chapter Two

He loved her to pieces, but the old woman was obviously losing her marbles. The last he'd heard, Julia was living in Nashville playing real housewife to her perfect little husband.

The back lot was filled by the time Micah got back to the bar so he parked at the end of the block and walked up Main Street. Squeezing his way through a pack of cowboy wannabes, Micah flagged down Ashley, ordering a beer and a shot of Jack Daniels. The pool tables had been pushed to the side to make room for a makeshift dance floor and the band was starting to set up in the corner. The Oasis wasn't equipped to handle live music, especially a band with a loyal following, but the owner was doing whatever he could to get business to stay in town rather than drive into Madison for entertainment.

Micah stopped to say hi to a few classmates and told them he'd meet them in the basement for a game of pool on the old table later in the evening. He planned to do his best to stay out of the main bar. The time he'd spent here after Karen left made him want to avoid the drunken antics he knew would begin within the hour.

Austin and Lizzie were still on the deck where he'd left them earlier in the evening. A few more from the regular gang had shown up and Lizzie was lobbying hard to get more volunteers for the all-class reunion the following weekend. He ducked out of sight, not wanting to get roped into anything. He had picked up a side job and wanted to spend part of the weekend with Caleb. There was no time for reliving their "glory days" or playing bouncer in the beer garden.

As Micah stepped through the doorway, hoping to push his way towards the basement, he froze realizing that Gran Turner was fully lucid. He could never forget the low, earthy laugh he heard coming from just inside the door.

Julia was glad she'd let Annie talk her into a night out. She could barely move without someone stopping to ask her how she'd been and what brought her back to town. Apparently, everyone remembered the times she'd proclaimed she would never come back to Brooklyn once she got out. Her resolve had only strengthened when she'd been dumped the week before she left for college. And again when she started to get calls from friends telling her that the rumor mill was buzzing with the truth about why her relationship had failed.

Julia grabbed a table between the dart boards and jukebox when a group of middle-aged businessmen stood to leave. The only saving grace to the location was that with live music it was unlikely that she'd have to listen to drunks trying to remember the name of their favorite, typically annoying, songs as they tried to operate the jukebox. That left stray darts as the only danger to the location. She was willing to risk it since tables were a hard thing to come by in the packed bar.

Smoothing her silky black tank top, she sat on the high stool. While she was normally self-confident, she worried about the pounds she'd put on since school. Cattiness and shallow judgments were two things she remembered well from when she was younger and she knew it was unlikely that not everyone lost those personality traits after high school.

Annie came back with two amaretto sours and sat across from her. "Kinda crazy, huh," she said as she looked around the crowd.

"Yeah, you could say that," Julia agreed.

She hoped the full bar was a sign that the band getting ready to take the stage wasn't going to be as bad as some that she remembered playing the festival when she was a teen. Brooklyn was far enough from the city that there weren't many bands that were willing to come down for the night. Or, more likely, there weren't many event organizers willing to pay the kind of money the better bands demanded.

The women started looking around the bar, rating the butts of the guys in their tight jeans and cowboy boots. There were definitely a good number of quality backsides in the bar, even if none of them had a clue what it really meant to be a cowboy. Julia couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes. The time she'd spent in Nashville taught her that most of the people who dressed the part wouldn't be able to tell you the difference between a bull and a bronc if put on the spot. The clothes might say cowboy, but underneath, she was fairly certain every one of them screamed self-absorbed city boy. When Annie made a particularly crude comment about what she'd like to do to one of the cowboys, Julia cackled.

Once the band took the stage, Julia was truly impressed. This wasn't some small town band that would never go anywhere. They were talented enough to hang with the best of the bands trying to break into the big time in Nashville. The lead singer was a knock-out with her nearly black pixie cut, bright green eyes and legs that went on forever. And once she opened her mouth to belt out a Martina McBride cover, Julia was in awe.

Lizzie Reyes hugged Julia and rambled about how great it was that she was back in town. Within minutes, Lizzie was asking both of them to think about helping out with the reunion. Julia explained that there was far too much work to be done at the house and she didn't know if she'd be able to make it to the reunion much less commit to work it. If she was going to keep her move to town temporary, she couldn't put herself into any more situations that allowed her to romanticize Brooklyn when she knew it was improbable that she would ever be content here in the long term.

Not a minute later, there was a tap on Julia's shoulder. As she turned to see who was next up in the welcoming committee, she saw a smirk on Annie's face. When her gaze met the dark eyes looking down at her, she thought she might lose her dinner.

"Heard a rumor you were back in town." Micah glared at Annie making Julia wonder what had happened in the time she'd been gone.

If there was one person Julia hoped to avoid tonight, it was Micah. It was hard enough driving through town, trying to not think about all of the places they'd been together. Seeing him standing in front of her was too much to handle. "I suppose since I'm sitting here, you heard right," she snipped. She turned back to Annie, who didn't seem to share Julia's disdain for the latest visitor. "Did you know he was going to be here?"

Annie stifled a laugh, "Nope."

How could Annie think this was funny? She was there through the break-up. She knew how much pain Micah had caused her.