Chapter 23 – Sunshine
TWENTY-THREE
SUNSHINE
“Oh, my God!” I shouted, as I stopped in front of the new wanted poster, which still had my professional picture featured.
Wanted: Sunshine Calloway to not allow Tag Durham to distract her from her mission of saving the Swinging D.
Tag stood next to me and chuckled.
“This is not funny!” I insisted. “I’ve been on this stupid poster for over a week now. It’s like they know everything that’s happening. Even between us.”
“About that, darlin. Your brothers have big mouths. Your sisters have big mouths. People in this town practically live for gossip, so you had no shot of not making the Wanted Sign.”
“It’s nobody’s business what we do,” I muttered.
“Well, whoever runs this board for the town thinks it’s their business,” Tag said. “At one point, I was sure it was my pop. That man can gossip like a grandma on a front stoop, but this last one went up after he left for Florida.”
“And no one has thought to put a camera up somewhere to catch the person doing it?”
Tag shrugged. “I’m pretty sure no one wants to know. It’d spoil everyone’s fun.”
I frowned and Tag leaned in to kiss my cheek. “Go have your girl time. I need to pick up some supplies from the goods store.”
I nodded. “You don’t have to wait for me. Harmony can take me back to the Lodge.”
He nodded, but his smile was gone. I didn’t like that.
“What?” I prompted.
But he shook his head. “Nothing, darlin. When I’m done, I’ll come find you, but if you’re all still chatting, I’ll leave you to it.”
My mom, my sisters and I were meeting up for coffee this afternoon. Mom had basically demanded that we spend as much family time together as we possibly could before I left. So, I needed to make the effort to get into town every other day.
I told her I could make it today, but I needed to bring my laptop.
Things were coming to a conclusion. Either I was going to be right, or I was going to be wrong, but at least I would know the answer to that in the next twenty-four hours.
Which meant I’d probably be back in New York twenty-four hours after that. There’d been no more phone calls from Jared, but I didn’t know if that was good news or bad news.
Ida and Irma Strunk, the constantly battling bed and breakfast sisters, stepped into my path.
For sisters, they honestly couldn’t be more different.
Ida looked like a seventy-year old woman and had since she was forty.
Her wardrobe was shades of black and blue with accents of cat hair and disapproval.
Irma wore funky bright pink glasses and linen overalls. She smelled like the excellent scones she made and there was no cat hair to be found.
“Hey, I hear you’re giving financial advice,” Ida said.
“Uh.”
“Don’t deny it,” Irma said. “We heard it from the Darryl’s.”
“I heard it from the Darryl’s” Ida corrected her sister. “And I told you.”
Irma rolled her eyes. “Will you stop? We’re trying to get some real money advice.”
“Stop telling me what to do. I’m the older sister,” Ida said. “You can relate, can’t you, Sunshine?”
“I can-”
“Sunshine’s not the older sister anymore,” Irma said, elbowing her sister. “Technically, she’s a younger sister to most of the McGraws. Haven’t you been following all the news?”
“I follow all the news. Like how she’s shacking up with Tag Durham,” Ida said, with rich disapproval.
Irma, on the other hand, looked delighted by my sex life. “Let me tell you, if I was forty years younger, heck, twenty years younger, I’d try to get me a piece of that.”
“Ms. Strunk!”
“It’s the truth,” Irma said, clearly unashamed. “So, are you going to help us, or what?”
“Maybe she would have if you hadn’t threatened to steal her boyfriend,” Ida admonished her sister.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I interjected. “Tag and I are friends.”
“Friends with benefits,” Irma said, again elbowing her sister.
“Look, ladies,” I said, needing to extract myself from this conversation. “I’ll help you. You can get my number from the Darryls. Just text me with any questions you have and I’ll do my best to steer you in the right direction. Does that work?”
Irma nodded and Ida rubbed her hands together. “We’re going to get rich,” Ida said. “Wait until you see all the improvements I’m going to make when I get all that money. I’m going to put your B&B out of business.”
“In your dreams. I’m going to get an espresso machine and have an espresso bar,” Irma said, as the two ladies walked away.
I shook my head and made my way back to the café.
When I opened the door, I saw that my sisters were already there at our table in the back. I stepped to the counter and the teenager standing behind it.
“Just a coffee, Marion,” I said, to Amity’s teenage employee.
“Sure thing, Ms. Calloway,” she said, as she pulled a pot off a warmer. “Any news on whether your crypto plan is working or not?”
“Soon, I hope,” I said.
“We’re all rooting for you,” she offered.
“Thank you,” I said, as I took the cup she offered. I put my laptop bag on the table and all of them shut up and turned to me with wide eyes.
Great. They’d been talking about me.
“Harmony says you spent the night at Tag’s cabin. Again. What’s going on there Sunshine?”
“Harmony has a big mouth,” I muttered, as I sat and took a sip of my coffee.
“I do not have a big mouth, I have an appropriately sized one,” she insisted. “And for the record, I told Ethan to tell Carter to stop bugging you about it. ”
“He’s really taking on the role of older brother,” I said. “It’s ridiculous.”
“That’s Carter,” Amity said. “He feels like he’s responsible for the entire family now. I don’t know how he does it all. Especially raising the kids without Lilly.”
“He doesn’t have help?” I asked.
“Mrs. Walker has been helping as much as she can,” Mom said. “But she’s not getting any younger and those kids…” Mom trailed off and Amity, Bliss and Harmony all took long sips of their drinks.
“What’s the matter with the kids?” I asked. I hadn’t even met them. Which seemed odd since they were my nieces and nephew, so I should get to know them. But, I’d been distracted and they were at school all day. Decision made, I decided I would take a trip out to Carter’s house before I left.
Bliss snorted. “Look, no one wants to talk shit on kids who lost their mom so early, but the reality is they are…what’s the word I’m looking for Harms?”
Harmony didn’t have to think about it. “Monsters?”
“Monsters,” Bliss agreed.
“They’re challenging,” Mom said, trying to be more polite. “But, he’s going to have to do something soon, because rumor has it Mrs. Walker is ready to retire to Florida.”
I thought about Pop and his bad condo plumbing. “Why does everyone retire to Florida?”
Bliss laughed. “You’re here in the beginning of summer, Sis. You forget what winter is like in the Gulch.”
“I remember winter,” I said, smugly. “That’s when no one gave me shit for being inside all the time, because we didn’t have a choice.”
“I’d like to get back to the subject we started with. What’s really happening with you and Tag?” Mom asked me.
“Yes, please do tell us everything,” Amity said, resting her chin on her folded hands and blinking her long eyelashes at me.
I shifted in my seat, uncomfortable with the topic and the attention. “Nothing’s happening. We’re having fun. That’s all.”
That was a lie. One I’d been telling myself now for days.
After the storm, and all the angry sex, he’d gone back to work, but I had stayed in his cabin working.
Then I went through his kitchen cabinets and fridge, only to find Pop’s tastes were as limited as Tag had suggested.
So, I’d borrowed his truck to head into town, stocked up on some provisions, and made him a dinner that wasn’t franks and beans and he’d thanked me with more orgasms.
Then I’d spent the night. Again. A third time in a row.
Which meant I definitely should not tonight. Three wasn’t a habit, but it was the start of a habit, and I was going to have to go back to sleeping alone, which really sucked because sleeping with Tag…was just better.
“What is that beeping sound?” Mom asked.
I reached into the back pocket of my jeans and pulled out my phone.
“I programmed an alert if there’s any significant movement in the Asian markets,” I told her, as I checked the screen. “Shit.”
“Shit, bad?” Amity asked, nervously.
“Shit, it’s not doing what I want it to, but no, not exactly bad.”
“The fate of the town rests in the squiggly lines on Sun’s phone,” Bliss laughed. “ I love it! ”
“Relax,” I told them. “But I should get back to the ranch in case I need to make any corrective moves.”
“You brought your laptop,” Mom said.
“I can’t do what I need to do here, Mom,” I said. The idea of making massive trades in a café called The Last Meal was too much even for me.
“I’ll take you back,” Harmony said. “I had the morning shift at the store, so I’m free for the afternoon. Hoping for a little something extra when Ethan gets home.”
“Is that what the kids are calling it these days?” I drawled.
“Don’t be jealous that I have a fabulous lover for a husband,” Harmony said.
“Gross,” Bliss coughed into her fist.
I didn’t feel the need to comment that I had my own fabulous lover, so I was not jealous.
We said our goodbyes and I followed Harmony out of the café to her truck, which was parked out front.
Thankfully, she’d left the animals at home so I didn’t have to worry about Bruce sitting on my lap.
I was just about to hop into the passenger seat when I heard someone shout at us from across the street.
“Kaitlyn!”
It didn’t even register that someone was calling my name.
“Kaitlyn!”
“Sun, I think that man is talking to you,” Harmony said, over the hood of the truck.
I turned around to see Jared Evanstone looking both ways for nonexistent traffic before jogging across the street in my direction. I could hear the clicking of his expensive loafers on the pavement.
“Who is he?” Harmony asked, coming around the truck to stand beside me. “And is he for real wearing a three piece suit?”