Coming Home - M.J. O'Shea Page 0,2

he was sitting on the pier with the contents of his locker in a plastic bag.

After that, he’d tried to find another job, really he had, but apparently the market for guys with few real skills who’d spent the last fourteen years relying on their looks had finally dried up.

And then there was the eviction notice.

Tally wanted to groan just thinking about it. It had been exactly one week, five hours, and twenty-three minutes since he’d gotten fired that he came home to the last in a long line of shitty apartments only to find his stuff piled out in the hallway and a glaring final eviction notice tacked to his door. Like he had the damn money to pay his rent.

That notice had landed him broke, newly homeless, and with the exception of his mother who refused to speak to him and one grandmother who he hadn’t seen in nearly fifteen years, he was completely and utterly alone.

So he’d made an extremely humiliating call to the long lost grandmother, the kind of call that no thirty-two year old man should ever have to make, and he hit the road—back to the town where he’d once been a god but was now something like the sludge that collected in the ditch on the side of the road.

If he’d had a different choice, other than perhaps a park bench and a tarp or selling his ass for dinner, he’d have never chosen to go back to a place where his family’s name was practically a cussword.

But that’s where he was going. Back to Rock Bay, Washington, small town USA. South and West of Seattle—almost in Oregon, almost charming, almost quaint and picturesque, but somehow missing the mark every single time. Home sweet home.

He’d ruled the town once, a bit less than benevolently, but left under a cloud of shame years before, vowing to never return.

Didn’t quite work out that way, did it?

Well, they were going to have to put up with his presence again. At least until he got his shit together enough to leave—and this time for good.

Tally slowed when he noticed the faint lights of town gleaming wetly through the rain. He unconsciously let up on the gas a little more every time one of the distant landmarks grew clearer.

And then he was there — pulling onto Old Main, the street that ran through the center of Rock Bay. The prodigal son returns.

He felt like he was on the walk of shame to top all walks of shame. Even though there was no one out, Tally felt people’s eyes on him, boring under his skin. He could feel them judging him for his past and the sins of his family. He wanted to turn back, run like blazing hell—he would have if he’d had any other choice. He didn’t.

Welcome back to Rock Bay— home of everyone who doesn’t have any other goddamned choice.

“You seriously need to get laid.”

Lex sputtered, droplets of chocolate flavored merlot decorating his once pale blue polo. He’d been lounging in his best friend Amy’s living room after their usual Saturday night dinner and video game stand-off.

She’d lit a fire to warm the still-crisp early spring evening. The flames smelled green like new cedar and apple wood and they gleamed off of her rich burgundy leather furniture and the shiny white molding she’d installed the spring before.

The whole night had been peaceful and relaxing. Almost. Lex had wondered how much longer it would be before she started bugging him about finding a guy. She usually didn’t last more than a week or two. Apparently those two weeks had passed. Lex poked her in the side causing her to flinch and nearly spill her own wine.

“Like you can talk, Ames. I can’t even remember your last girlfriend.” Amy made a bratty face at him from under her mane of sandy brown streaked waves and he snorted into his wine again. “Better be careful. You know what your mom always said about making faces.”

“Yeah, yeah, it’ll stay like that forever. Besides, I don’t need a girlfriend. I have you.”

Lex rolled his eyes. “I am not your girlfriend.”

“Can you be my boyfriend?”

“I only think that works if you have a straight boyfriend too.” He grinned, anticipating her reaction.

“Eww. Gross.”

“Exactly. Which is why I said you needed a girlfriend.”

Amy cocked her head to the side. “Wait, you didn’t say I needed a girlfriend. I said you needed to get laid. Nice attempt at misdirection Alexis.”

“Bite me, Amelia.”

The insult was tempered