Free Too Hot to Handle by Victoria Dahl

without the complication of the lawsuit, it always ended the same for him.
    He couldn’t commit. Women tried to accept that, but eventually they left and made clear that he was an asshole and an immature prick. He was. There was no denying his genes.
    Shane dropped his head. “Next time, let’s do that.”
    Reluctantly he stood and set his empty beer bottle down. “I’d better go. I’ve got an early start tomorrow, but I’ll try to get to Providence in the evening.”
    “Don’t wear yourself out. I feel guilty enough as it is.”
    “It’s not a problem,” he said. And the strange thing was…it wasn’t. His goal was to make sure that Providence was never anything more than its current state: a forgotten ghost town remembered only by a few old-timers. But somehow being out there with Merry was the most relaxing thing he did all day. Knowing she was close by, even when he couldn’t see her…he liked that. He’d like it even more if she came by and bothered him as much as he’d expected her to.
    “I’ll see you tomorrow, Merry.”
    “Night, Shane.”
    He closed the door behind him and waited to hear her lock it. Somehow the world was heavier out here, and the weight only got worse as he walked the few steps to his door.
    Hearing the beep from his answering machine as soon as he stepped in, Shane grabbed the phone in resignation and called his mother.
    “Mom, it’s late,” he said without greeting her. “I have to get up early tomorrow.”
    “I know, hon, but it’s important.”
    “Is everything okay?”
    “Well, you know. As okay as it ever gets. But listen to this new story I found.”
    “Just—” he interrupted, then paused to take a deep breath so he wouldn’t lose his temper with her. “Mom, please. It’s the internet. I’ve explained before that—”
    “Yes, yes. You can’t believe everything you read on the internet. But that doesn’t mean some of it’s not true.”
    He couldn’t argue with that, unfortunately. He couldn’t, but he’d tried plenty of times.
    “Listen! ‘A sixty-five-year-old man whom locals in Guyana call The Gringo is rumored to be an American man who appeared without any identification in 1998, claiming to have no memory of who he was or where he’d come from. The man—’”
    “Dad left years before that.”
    “I know! But what if he’d just been wandering? What if—?”
    “Mom!” he snapped. “Dad left and he didn’t want to be found, end of story. I’m not having this conversation with you anymore.”
    “But, honey, he would never have done that. Never. Not to you boys and not to me.”
    Shane ground his teeth together because he didn’t want to say the cruel things that were piling up in his throat. Dad was having an affair. He had a girlfriend. He bought a trailer and hooked it to his truck and he left with her. He didn’t love you or give a shit about any of us. He wanted a place where we didn’t exist.
    But he choked it down and swallowed hard. “No one ever found his truck or the trailer. If he’d been hurt or suffering from amnesia—of all the ridiculous things I’ve ever heard—someone would’ve reported an abandoned truck to the police.”
    “Or they might have seen a free truck sitting next to the road and stolen it!”
    Shane couldn’t count the number of times they’d had this exact conversation. “It would’ve turned up at some point, Mom.” He sighed. “Someone somewhere would’ve run the VIN at some point, and we would’ve heard. He ran off, he disappeared, he made a new life. And at some point he died, or he’s dead enough according to the state of Wyoming.” He’d been declared dead ten years ago and good riddance to all the ridiculous problems the man had caused with paperwork and taxes and every other damn thing he’d walked away from.
    “But, Shane, just listen to the rest of the—”
    “I’ve got to get up early. Take care.” He hung up, not feeling even a twinge of guilt. He’d done it too many