Short End

Seeing the hurt on Stacy's face, Eric inwardly cringes. Staring down at his coffee again, he sighs. "Yeah..." 

Sensing the sudden awkwardness in the air, Sparky clears his throat and stands. "I, um... I gotta go see Mick about that auction tomorrow." 

Eric remains silent until Sparky had left, when he finally looks over at Stacy again. Biting his lip, he nods. "There's a couple runs I signed on to do since my truck's ready again. I... leave on Monday and... the first run will probably take me 'bout two weeks. The other one's not quite as long though." He knew he should have told her sooner... not because she needed to know, but out of simple courtesy and respect. But... he'd put it off...

Being pulled down into Chad's lap, Rosalyn shrieks in surprise. Grabbing on to him though, a giggle escapes as she's kissed. "You turkey..." She gives his shoulder a teasing whack. "It may be better, but we're not going to get any work done this way." 

She wriggles down further into his lap. "Not that I care..." Grinning, she snakes an arm up around his neck and pulls him down again, this time initiating a passionate kiss. Drawing back just a little, her eyes sparkle. "I feel like even a pile of weeds is a mountain of treasure when you're here... Am I crazy?" 

With food being offered, Clay sits up and slides off the table to sit in a chair instead, setting the icepack aside for now. Eying the food, his stomach insists that no matter how simple it was, the food looked fantastic. 

"Thanks..." He slouches in his seat and very carefully unwraps the sandwich. His tone had quieted some. "I like most anything." He manages a wry grin. "And anything I don't like, I've learned to eat anyway, if it's what I can afford." 

As he takes a bite of the sandwich his stomach automatically growls with anticipation. Looking up at Misty again, he squints a little, his sore eye not wanting to focus. But what he did see was that he was quite fortunate to be here with people willing to be nice, like she was. 

"I appreciate all you've done for me... Things haven't exactly been easy lately. Seems like at every turn, I find the short end of the stick." He takes another bite of the sandwich, trying not to eat as fast he was tempted to. "Rick's 'bout the only person I'd trust to care enough to help me." He shrugs. "Guess I've accepted the fact that the world's turned its back on me, including the rest of my family. Getting beat up is just icing on the cake."