Side Hustle: A Small Town Romantic Comedy (Jobs From Hell Book 4)

  Side Hustle

  Jobs From Hell #4

  Marika Ray

  Contents

  Side Hustle

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Epilogue

  Ridin’ Solo - Sneak Peek

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Also by Marika Ray

  SIDE HUSTLE

  Copyright © 2021 by Marika Ray

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  First Edition: January 14, 2021

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

  Ebook ISBN: 978-1-950141-25-8

  Print ISBN: 978-1-950141-26-5

  Side Hustle

  The side-hustling small-town girl finds herself the main obsession when it comes to the mayor’s rich son. Too bad she’s hated him since he humiliated her in high school.

  Hazel Redding

  I’m so poor my side hustle has a side hustle, but what I lack in dollars, I make up for in enthusiasm. My latest gig might be a little embarrassing as a deodorant sniffer, but my mantra is that life is one big party. Especially when I discover gold one day in the hills of my small town. The only downside? The brooding rich boy who broke my heart in high school is the owner of that land, and we’ve had a strict policy of hating each other ever since.

  Rip Bennett

  I have a need to right some wrongs, but that requires coming out of the shadows of my father, the town mayor. Hazel seems like just what I need to bring some sunshine to my life, but will the lure of riches and criminal family members pull us apart? I might have to get my own hustle on to fight for her heart.

  1

  Rip

  Of course she would be here to witness my rock bottom.

  The girl was a pesky fly, and my life was the shit show she was drawn to. No, I take that back, she was more than just an irritation. She was a biting fly, the kind that would buzz around your head repeatedly and then attack, causing pain before flitting off to some other poor soul like she hadn’t just ruined your day. She’d been like that almost my entire life, so I shouldn’t have been surprised she was standing right there, witnessing my darkest moment.

  Hazel Redding.

  Once my friend. Now enemy number one.

  “I hate to break it to you like this, but I think we both know this has been coming for a while now. You understand?” Titus ran a hand through his blond hair, reminding me of some ’80s rock band guy with the way it was growing out all feathered and fluffy with an amazing amount of body. He could have been in a shampoo commercial with height and dimension like that.

  And no, I didn’t understand. For a guy who only ate donuts and coffee for breakfast and lunch, you’d think he wouldn’t have the nutritional profile to grow hair like that. Didn’t a human body actually need protein and vitamins and shit to grow hair and muscle?

  “Rip?” Titus leaned down into my face, making me blink.

  Jesus. I needed to focus.

  “I know you’ve been pretty down lately, so I’ve put this off as long as I could. The B and B opening is next weekend and I really need to be there to get everything ready for opening day. You understand, right?”

  I nodded, though I still didn’t understand. My best friend, the guy I’d known since high school, was moving out of the house we shared and moving in with his girlfriend, Amelia. Made logical sense, I guess. And I’d been expecting it. Kind of. Like one expects some day to grow old and have their back give out when they stand up out of bed, but you just think it’ll be one day way into the future. Until you stand up and your back pops and you’re on your knees in pain, wondering how the hell “someday” got here so quick. Titus moving out was kind of like that. Expected, but not.

  “I’ve been trying to find you a roommate, but I’m coming up empty. I’ll still pay the rent for the next three months until the lease is up, so don’t worry about that.” Titus smiled and put a meaty hand on my shoulder.

  Of course he couldn’t find me a roommate. I wasn’t exactly what you’d call a friendly guy. I dared a glance out of the side of my eye to see where Hazel currently buzzed. She had a huge cardboard box in her hands, lugging it out the door to Titus’s waiting truck while her long dark ponytail swung from side to side. Amelia followed right behind her with an end table from Titus’s bedroom.

  In the back of my brain, I knew we should be helping. Wasn’t fair to leave the heavy lifting to the girls, even if one of them was the most annoying girl on earth, but all I could think about was the fact I was the last man standing. The last guy in our group of friends who hadn’t gotten engaged, married, or attached at the hip to a woman. I was the lone wolf. Without a roommate. Without a pack. Without a fucking clue what I was doing with my life.

  It had only been a few months ago that I’d told Titus I needed a push to get my life going. This empty gaping hole in my chest at the departure of the last person in my life who cared about me sure seemed like the push I’d said I wanted. Hell of a lot more painful than I’d planned on, though. Rubbing my chest, I tried to sort through the conflicting thoughts running through my brain, competing for space.

  “Yeah, sure,” I managed to say, my voice croaking worse than a bullfrog in summer.

  Wow, real eloquent, Bennett.

  Titus’s eyebrows furrowed and I realized my lackluster response was making him feel guilty for leaving me. Feel guilty for being happy with his girlfriend. What a shit friend I’d become for making him feel bad when he should be ecstatic at this life change. I had to do better.

  “Seriously, buddy. I’m happy for you two. I’ve been meaning to shake things up anyway, so this just moves up my timeline.” I tried a smile on for size, and based on the way Titus’s frown didn’t break even for a second, I wasn’t very convincing.

  “Hey, beefcakes! How about y’all lift some heavy stuff, huh?” Hazel’s chipper voice rang out in the almost empty living room, her animated wink telling us she was joking around. I grimaced back at her.

  Needing to avoid looking at her pretty face at all costs, I glanced around the room and tried to forget about her. Who would have thought most of the furniture in here was actually Titus’s? I had a bed, a fridge, one recliner, and an ancient truck outside. Shit. I didn’t even have a TV. That was the long and short list of my possessions at the ripe old age of twenty-nine.

  “Huh. I always thought I’d have my life together by now,” I murmured to no one in particular.

  Good thing, because no one was listening. Hazel bent down to lift another box, her nose scrunched up in concentration. Titus had left my side to grab Amelia’s ass while she squealed and ran away, tossing curses over her shoulder. This moment was eerily similar to my entire life. If Hazel was the pesky biting fly, I was the wallpaper. Forever condemned to watch everyone else have a life while I remained ignored and useless.

  Fuck. Me.

  “Leave a message and I’ll consider getting back to you. Beep.”

  Bain’s voicemail message was as friendly as you’d expect from a prison warden.

  “Hey, man. It’s Rip. Just calling to see how things are. Call me later.”

  I hung up and stared at my phone like it might have the answers I was searching for. I’d left messages for Charlie, Jayden, and now Bain. Not one of them had answered or called back. My left eyelid started to twitch again. I jammed the palm of my hand against my eye socket and paced my empty living room. Titus had finished moving out hours ago and I was still here trying to figure out what to do with my life. If I sniffed just right, I could still smell Hazel’s perfume wafting in the air. It was sickly sweet and fucking irritating. Why’d she have to put so much on? Why’d she have to be the one to help Amelia and Titus today? Literally anyone else would have been better.

  My pacing led me to the fridge where I contemplated the leftover six-pack of beer we’d cracked at the end of moving Titus out. Drinking alone didn’t really sound all that healthy, though. If I started that, I’d probably never come back out of the pit of despair and self-loathing I found myself rapidly sliding into.

  I had an itch just below my skin and I couldn’t get to it. It was driving me insane.

  Tipping my head back to the worn-out ceiling, I yelped like some sort of injured animal. Yep. I yelled nothing at no one all by myself in my house. I was officially losing my mind.

  Fuck this shit.

  I spun, grabbed my keys, and hightailed it out to my tank of a truck. I needed a chan
ge of scenery. A lungful of fresh air. A glance at the full moon. Maybe some communing with nature would spark something to life inside my bored, restless soul.

  Driving without seeing where you’re going probably wasn’t my best idea, but I found myself parking just behind the Hill Hotel in the downtown area. The place had started to look a little shabby around the edges lately. Probably because Amelia didn’t work there anymore and she’d singlehandedly run that place for years while the owner sat back and enjoyed his steady income. But it wasn’t the hotel I was interested in. It was the plot of land directly behind it.

  The second I slammed the truck door behind me, it went dark all around, leaving only the faint glow from the moon to help me find my way. Gravel crunched under my feet. An owl hooted from somewhere in the tall trees. This land had been in my family for generations. A hilly ten acres no one seemed to care about. Even my opportunity-grabbing father hadn’t seen fit to put a business on this plot of land seeing how it was set back from the main road and hilly enough to cause issues putting a building on it.

  One day it would be mine. Well, if my father ever remembered I existed and transferred it to me out of the last speck of goodness in his heart. I probably had a fifty-fifty chance of this land being mine on paper. In my soul, this land had always been mine. The first time I ran here after my father yelled at me so loudly his face turned purple, I’d found solace in the whisper of the pine needles swaying above my head. Ever since, I’d been coming here to find peace. If this parcel of land couldn’t fix me tonight, nothing ever would.

  I kept climbing, over rocks and under low-hanging tree branches and around fallen logs. I wanted to be deep into the acreage before I sat down and let my senses take over the racing thoughts in my brain. My nose needed to smell pine trees and dirt. My hands needed to toss a random rock back and forth. My skin needed the soothing brush of a wind that held no judgement.

  The perfect spot appeared, bathed in a stream of light from the moon, and I sat, taking my first deep breath all day. I was weird. I knew this. Accepted it. But it still hurt to feel so disconnected from everyone else. I didn’t blame them, due to the aforementioned weirdness, but I also yearned to be accepted and needed and wanted. I’d just always felt different. When everyone got loud and talkative, I got quiet and observed. When everyone smiled and cheered, I frowned, not understanding why everyone was so damn happy. I was a dark shade of gray in a technicolor world.

  “Jesus Christ. Get over yourself, asshole,” I said out loud.

  I picked up a rough pebble and rolled it around in my hand before tossing it back down. The wind picked up and I sucked in a deep breath through my nose to get that hit of pine. Instead, all I got was a hit of that sickly sweet perfume of Hazel’s. That shit was probably sticking to my clothes just to torture me and remind me of her existence.

  My eyelid started twitching again, so I flopped back onto the bed of pine needles and tried harder to focus on my surroundings. Thinking of Hazel would only make me angry. I closed my eyes and focused on my breath. Charlie was always telling me to use my diaphragm to breathe, which was weird as hell because I had no idea where my diaphragm was located, but it always seemed to work. I’d just gotten my eye to quit twitching when I heard a giggle.

  A feminine giggle.

  Who the hell’s on my land?

  I shot straight up to my feet and moved toward the sound, ears tuned to every little thing around me. There it was again, off to my left, a little higher up the hill. I crouched low and crept as close as I could, catching sight of something on the other side of a fallen tree trunk.

  “Hey!” I shouted, standing tall and what I hoped looked imposing.

  The person screamed and then spun around before disappearing behind the log. I skirted to the left and carefully hopped over the log to find a girl in the middle of a really good version of playing dead in the dirt and pine needles. Then, in a flash of motion, her leg shot out, popping me in the back of the knees. I went down hard, catching myself with my hands before I could fall on my face.

  This wasn’t going well.

  The girl scrambled to her feet and assumed an impressive crouch with hands extended like she intended to karate chop me to death. My gaze moved up her arms to her face. And my heart stopped beating entirely.

  “Hazel?”

  You gotta be fucking kidding me.

  I couldn’t escape her. Even on my own land in the middle of nowhere, here she was to annoy the crap out of me.

  She frowned, but didn’t drop her small hands from their ready position. “Rip?”

  I stood up and then immediately bent over with my hands on my knees. Holy shit, this was funny as hell. Laughter didn’t hit me often, but when it did, I couldn’t stop it from tumbling out. But true to form, even my laugh was quiet.

  “Oh, no. Did I hurt you?” Hazel rushed over and patted my back awkwardly.

  Her concern made me laugh harder, the only sound coming out a pressure-controlled wheeze. If I didn’t watch it, that pressure would come out in other ways. Sometimes Titus and I would laugh so hard I’d snort my drink out my nose. Always awkward when we were at a bar or restaurant. Sometimes I’d fart, which was equally awkward. One time I even popped a blood vessel in my eye from laughing too hard.

  See? I was weird with a capital W.

  “I’m…good,” I managed to say between wheezes.

  “Here.” Hazel grabbed my arms with surprising force considering how small she was. “Put your hands on your head. I think you’re hyperventilating.”

  I stood upright as she tried to wrangle my arms above my head when she couldn’t even reach above my shoulders if she jumped. She ended up poking me in the eye and getting my watch stuck in her hair.

  “Wait!” She yanked at her hair, probably ripping the strands straight out of her scalp. “Are you laughing?”

  Of course, the indignation on her face sent me into another fit of laughter, the grin splitting my face and the wheeze joining the breeze that came through the trees.

  “Oh, you little asshelmet. I thought you were some psycho killer here to skin me alive, and then when I knew it was you, I thought you might still kill me because you’re, you know, you. And now instead of having a medical emergency, you’re just laughing at me?”

  She jammed her hands on her hips, looking exactly how I pictured her in my head: angry and a little scary. I held my hands out, seeing a couple long hairs hanging from my watch like they were waving the white flag of surrender.

  “Easy, killer. I’m not here to skin you because, ew, Hazel. That’s disgusting and makes me worried about what goes on in your brain. I won’t even ask about the asshelmet reference. I don’t want to know. But I do want to know what you’re doing here in the first place.”

  She lifted her pert little nose in the air and sniffed. “I won’t hear one word of negativity from you, Rip Bennett. I’m here because I felt this pull.” She held her hands out in the space between us, her fingers gnarled up like an old witch pulling an unsuspecting child toward her.

  “A pull?”

  “Yes. A pull. Something in this area just called out to me and I had to come find out what it was.” Her hands dropped and her face cleared into her typical bright-as-sunshine smile.

  I scratched the back of my head. Here I was thinking I was weird, but Hazel was probably weirder. Certifiable, even.

  “Oookaayy. And did you find what it was?”

  Her grin dropped. “No. I was just getting a feel for it when you scared the daylights out of me.”