Chapter 9
Fifteen minutes into our drive, I regretted my embargo on work talk. This being Colorado, we got the weather out of the way first. After that, we fell into silence—and not a comfortable silence, either. Adam wasn’t much of a talker, but I was, and right now I sure as shit had a lot to say. The problem was my self-imposed work embargo meant I couldn’t say any of it. Instead, I stared out the window.
It would be fair to say I was pouting.
Pouting was a new experience for me. I didn’t keep things bottled up. I preferred to say my piece and move forward. Let it out and let it breathe, as my mom liked to say. Otherwise, all those thoughts and feelings would turn toxic and poison you from the inside out. It was one of the things my dad appreciated most about my mom. She never made him guess what she was thinking. He never had to ask what was wrong.
Of course, when it was me, he called it a temper tantrum.
I wondered if Adam would say the same thing. Probably. An hour ago, he was accusing me of dropping the ball on a job that wasn’t mine to begin with and now look at him. Completely at ease, one arm resting on the console between us, his other hand on the steering wheel, his fingers tapping whatever melody was playing in his head. Hot and unbothered.
Infuriating.
“What?” he asked, glancing at me out of the corner of his eye.
You owe me an apology.
“Nothing,” I bit out.
He shrugged. “Okay, then.”
We snagged a parking spot half a block from Jo’s. I could see Chloe waiting for me out front of the café. I barely waited for Adam to put the truck in park before I unbuckled and sprang out. I started for Chloe, but Adam was quick. With a gentle hand on my hip, he guided me to the inside of the sidewalk and fell into step beside me.
“You’re coming to Jo’s?” I asked. When he had said “thereabouts,” I had figured he meant the feed store.
“For a minute. Could use some caffeine. Not all of us OD’d on sugar this morning.”
“You didn’t have a cookie?”
“Nope.”
I shook my head. “Figures. It’d be hard to keep that whole grumpy cowboy thing going while eating a cookie. You might have lost your scowl.”
“I’m not scowling now, am I?”
He wasn’t, but I wasn’t ready to let go of my attitude yet. “Well, you’re not smiling, either.”
He smirked a little at that. It did something to me, the way one corner of his mouth tucked in. What would it take to turn that little smirk into a real smile? I wanted to tickle him, share a dirty joke, anything to make it bloom.
“James!” Chloe lifted a hand. “I figured we could sit outside since it’s nice. If people see me inside, they assume I’m working and ask me for stuff.” She glanced at Adam and then back to me. “Do we need three chairs?”
“He’s not staying,” I said firmly.
Adam arched an eyebrow. “Why don’t you both sit down, and I’ll get the food? What are you having?”
“A black iced coffee and a turkey sandwich,” I said, fishing a twenty out of my bag to pay for it.
He ignored it. “Chloe?”
“Sparkling water and a BLT, please. Give them my name. I get a discount.” She reached for her wallet, but he shook his head.
“I’ve got it.”
I frowned. “I’m not comfortable with you buying my lunch. You’re my boss. It feels weird.”
“I’m not your boss off Lodestar property, remember?” The glint in his eyes made the words mean things they shouldn’t. I stared back at him wordlessly, my stomach fluttering. “I’ve got it.”
He disappeared inside before I could protest again.
“Huh,” Chloe said.
“What?” I asked as we grabbed a table for two in the sunshine.
She shrugged. “He’s come in at least once a week for as long as I’ve worked here, but he looks different today. Swear to god, I thought he was his brother, Brax, for a minute there. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Adam when he wasn’t frowning.”
I laughed. “Sounds about right. I told him he has Resting Grump Face.”
“My point is that he’s not frowning today. With you.”
“Maybe he got it all out of his system yelling at me this morning,” I muttered.
Her eyes widened. “He yelled at you? What happened?”
I chewed my lip. If Chloe had been one of my girlfriends back home, I would have poured out the whole story. But we didn’t know each other yet. Not really. Realizing I had left her phone number behind, what with all the accidental lip-mashing, I had swung by the café last weekend and we had agreed to meet up today.
I didn’t want to kick off a fledgling friendship by talking shit about someone behind his back. I hadn’t been in Aspen Springs long, but I had taken note of the “Made in Colorado” and “Don’t California My Colorado” bumper stickers. I was an outsider here, unlike Adam. He might be a grump, but at least he wasn’t from California.
“It was nothing,” I said finally. “Just a rough day.”
“Hm.” Her eyes darted to where he stood at the counter, waiting for our food and drinks to be ready. “Things not going so well with your new boss? You mean you didn’t take one look at each other and fall right into each other’s arms? Oh, wait.” Overcome with her own joke, she laughed so hard she snorted.
“Stop that right now,” I hissed. “He’s coming back.”
“Hate to break it to you, but he already knows how y’all met. He was there for it.” She giggled. “Especially his mouth.”
“Stop talking,” I muttered frantically. Why did the one friend I had in this town have to be the same barista who had witnessed my humiliation? “Not another word.”
I jumped to my feet to open the door for him, since his hands were full, took the cardboard tray of drinks, and set it down on our table. After he set the food on the table, I handed his cup of coffee back to him. “Here you go.”
“Thanks.” He took a sip. “I’ll be back for you in thirty minutes.” He touched the brim of his hat. “Ladies.”
We watched him go because that ass wasn’t something to look away from.
Disgruntled, I poked my straw into my iced coffee with a little more force than necessary. “Damn it. Why’d he have to be all nice and gentlemanly? Now I definitely can’t bitch about him behind his back.”
Chloe snickered as she popped open her can of sparkling water. “That’s not a gentleman. That’s a cowboy. Completely different breed of animal.” She grinned at me. “You know what they say, a cowboy in the streets, a beast in the sheets.”
I nearly choked on my drink. “That’s not how the saying goes.”
“Well, it should be. Look at that man and tell me he couldn’t throw a woman around and make her enjoy it.” She let out a dreamy sigh. “Those thighs. Like tree trunks.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “You cannot have a crush on my grumpy boss, Chloe. I will not allow it.” I growled when she laughed. “Ugh, he makes me want to stab something.”
“I like to stab things,” a soft, sweet voice said from behind us, making us both nearly jump out of our skins in shock.
“Jesus Christ, woman. You about gave me a heart attack.” Chloe pressed her hand to her chest, her eyes wide. “Who the hell are you?”
The woman frowned and pushed her glasses up on her nose. Her tidy bun of dark blonde hair and ankle-length prairie skirt gave her an old-fashioned vibe. She didn’t look like someone who enjoyed stabbing.
“You know who I am, Chloe. I’m Hannah Bell. The librarian?” When Chloe still looked baffled, Hannah shook her head. “I’ve come here nearly every day for the past three years. Usually I sit in that corner right there.” She had something sharp and shiny pinched between her thumb and forefinger, and she used it to jab the air in the direction of the cozy chair by the fireplace inside. It was a needle, I realized. A long blue thread dangled from it and disappeared into the heap of fabric in her lap.
“Oh,” Chloe said, looking doubtful. “Right. Of course.”
Hannah’s rueful expression suggested she didn’t believe Chloe’s epiphany for even a second. “It’s all right. I have a way of fading into the background.”
“I only moved here a week ago,” I offered. “I haven’t been to the library yet.”
Hannah scooched her chair closer to us. “I’m starting a sewing circle at the library. Saturday mornings at ten.” Her bright blue eyes were wide and hopeful behind her glasses. “Everyone is welcome. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Sewing wasn’t exactly my idea of fun. It required sitting still and the only time I liked to sit still was on horseback—technically, the horse was moving for both of us. But I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, either. Chloe and I shared a look.
“You get to stab things,” Hannah pushed. “It’s great for stress relief.”
“I don’t know how to sew,” Chloe said.
“That’s okay! I’m there to teach you. Look at this.” She held up the fabric in her lap to show us the embroidery. Bright, cheerful flowers formed a message between their petals: fuck the patriarchy. “It’s going to be a pillow.”
We burst out laughing.
“We’re in,” I said.
“Hey!” Chloe protested.
“Why not?” I grinned wickedly. “Maybe I can embroider Adam’s face. That might be fun to stab.”
“Great.” Hannah pushed to her feet with a swish of her skirt and started gathering her things. I had the feeling she was making a quick exit before we could change our minds. “I’ll see you at the library Saturday at ten.”
When she was gone, Chloe stared at me like I’d lost my mind. “Her first words to us were literally I like to stab things.”
“She seems nice!” I protested.
“She seems weird.”
“Okay, maybe that’s true. But it’s hard making friends as an adult, and that pillow she was making was awesome. This could be fun.”
“Okay,” Chloe relented. “But if she’s secretly a murderer, I’m tripping you and saving myself.”