Chapter 6
Chapter Six
AVERY
B y the time Sterling pulled up with Emily and Jerry, I was more than ready to get out of my place for a while and focus on something else. I let Dave know I’d be back later and headed out to the parking lot.
Jerry started to unfold himself from the front seat, saying he’d sit in back with Emily, but I took one look at the length of his legs and shook my head. “I’m good. You sit up front. Your knees will be in your chin otherwise,” I said as I slid into the back seat.
Forrest, Sterling’s fiancé, was the CFO of the Inn at Sawyers Bend. More often than not, he was in a button-down and tie, pretty formal for our neck of the woods. I don’t know what I’d expected of his mother, but the pixie sitting beside me with hot pink streaks in her gray hair had not been it.
She gave me a bright smile. “Avery, I had some of your beer last night and it is fantastic. A friend of mine’s daughter is a brewer in Portland.
” We fell into a conversation about the brewery the daughter worked for, a place I recognized, and the ride to the craft fair flashed by.
Sterling slowed when we got there as a man in an orange vest waved us to the gravel parking lot beside the Convention Center.
Beside me, Emily rubbed her hands together, her eyes wide with glee.
“This is going to be fun.” I looked around with fresh eyes and realized it really would be, especially for Emily.
We were spoiled by all the artists and craftspeople in this area of the country.
After a while, we came to expect it—the beautiful wares and art available all around us; the regular craft fairs bringing in more artists, more opportunity to surround ourselves with lovely things.
I forgot sometimes not everybody lived with amazing potters and weavers and jewelers, and painters right next door.
As soon as we were inside the vast building, as Sterling had predicted, Emily and Jerry peeled off and disappeared into the crowd. We didn’t bother to follow. They were on a mission. And so were we.
“Everyone’s scattered all over the place,” Sterling said. “I guess the better to browse. We’re going to have to cover a lot of ground.”
“I’m not in a rush,” I said. “Just keep me from shopping.”
Sterling laughed. “I’ll try, but you know—same. My room’s already full.”
“You have Forrest’s house,” I suggested.
She bit her lip and then shook her head; “No, we left it furnished for the renter.”
“But eventually you two are going to move in, right?” I asked as we walked down the first aisle, scanning for a jeweler whose work matched the necklace.
“Eventually, yeah, I mean, after the will terms are up and we’re allowed to move out of Heartstone Manor. I love his house. It’s so cool. With so much wood, it blends into the trees. But it’s bright and open too. He has good taste,” she said with a smug smile.
“Obviously, because he picked you,” I said, nudging her with my shoulder.
Sterling flashed me a radiant smile. I loved my littlest sister, always had, even when she’d been a hot mess of self-destruction.
But I adored seeing her like this, happy and in love, sober, and working her ass off on a coding career of all things.
To be honest, I didn’t really understand what it was she was learning.
She’d tried to explain it, especially her new cybersecurity interests, but it all went right over my head.
She was working with some of the tech guys at Sinclair Security, the company our brother Griffen and Quinn’s husband Hawk used to work for.
They were serious. Uber high-end security to the stars kind of thing, and they’d offered her a kind of internship. I knew it was a big deal.
Her confidence had taken a boost as she settled into pursuing her career goals, but it was Forrest who’d put that blissful look in her eyes.
Sterling was happily in love, and I had to admit I had the tiniest twinge of envy.
For a moment with Matt, I’d hoped—but I’d never loved him.
Been attracted to him, yeah. Appreciated his expertise and everything I could learn from him, but we hadn’t had that connection, that spark beyond the hormones of it. Not like? —
I cut that thought off before I could finish it.
The only man I’d sparked with lately was one I wasn’t touching with a ten-foot pole.
West was hot, sure. He’d always been hot.
I’d picked up on that when I hit puberty and noticed that boys were good for something other than hunting frogs and playing in the woods.
But West was eight years older than me. Back then, I’d looked, maybe imagined a time or two, but absolutely nothing more than that.
My older brothers and their friends had felt like surrogate parents more than regular people when I was a teenager.
I’d appreciated West’s thick, dark hair and the broad shoulders he’d had even back then.
He was tough and didn’t take any bullshit, but he’d also been kind, which a lot of my brother’s friends hadn’t been.
Why would they be? The rest of us were kids and, by their definition, annoying.
Even with years of familiarity, I’d never grown used to West’s good looks.
Maybe because he was so much older, and our paths didn’t cross often.
I stayed out of trouble, and Griffen had been gone from Sawyers Bend for years.
There’d been no reason to see West. It was weird to know someone my whole life and not really know them well, but that’s how it was with Weston Garfield.
That didn’t mean I’d lost my appreciation for his charms. Those shoulders were even broader.
Whatever workout he did had left him with some pretty spectacular muscles.
But he was still my oldest brother’s best friend, and the police chief of Sawyers Bend. He was also bossy as hell and overly responsible. Definitely not my type. I mean, I like responsible, but...
“Are you brooding over the break-in?” Sterling asked as we turned down another aisle.
I stiffened, afraid my little sister could read my mind.
I debated lying. I wasn’t sure I wanted to talk about any of this.
But lying and deception were my father’s way, and he was gone.
If I couldn’t be honest with my little sister…
I shrugged. “Not about the break-in exactly, though it freaks me out that somebody knew I had that file and went to all the trouble to get in and take it.”
“Ave, you’re there alone a lot.” She slid me a sidelong glance, concern darkening her eyes.
“Yeah, and I know Hawk has the place wired, but apparently not enough to keep someone from breaking in,” I said. I should have listened to him when he said I needed more cameras. But it had bugged me to think about being watched. I suppose I needed to get over that.
“Yeah. You should have heard him this morning. I know he didn’t call you because he said he wasn’t going to.
” She gave an adorable imitation of Hawk’s growl.
“‘ I don’t give a shit what Avery thinks. I’m going out there and locking that place down.
Nobody’s getting in again.’ He was pissed,” Sterling said in a regular voice.
“The idea that you could have been there, working late—” She shivered.
“I have a feeling whoever broke in knew I wasn’t there,” I said, “but yeah.”
I’d had the same thought earlier. What if I had been there?
I knew some self-defense, but it was a terrifying thought, and it made me feel vulnerable.
I hated feeling vulnerable. Hawk would take care of making sure it didn’t happen again, but maybe the violation was bugging me more than I was ready to admit.
“You don’t have to worry,” Sterling said. “Hawk is going to fix it.”
“I know,” I agreed. “‘I was just...” I wrinkled my nose, trying to think of how to say what had been on my mind without starting something I wasn’t prepared to finish.
“West is mad, too,” Sterling said quietly with a sparkle in her eye. “I overheard him talking to Hawk. He’s really bossy. Like, hot bossy.”
Before Sterling could say anything else about West’s bossiness, I distracted her. “He’s pissed at me for having that file. He’s pissed at all three of us.”
“Yeah, Hawk yelled at me. And Quinn.” Sterling shook her head. “If I didn’t know he loved her to pieces, I might have worried. Because he was furious. ‘None of you should be doing enough investigating to have a file, for fuck’s sake,’” she said in Hawk’s voice.
“Has he heard you imitate him?” I asked, smiling at her. “I’m not sure if he’d be pissed or die laughing.”
“Quinn has,” Sterling said with a giggle. “She thought it was funny.”
“I bet. I think I’m glad West yelled at me instead of Hawk, but honestly, I’m not sure which of them is scarier when they’re angry.”
Sterling nodded in agreement. “Anyway, West is pretty bossy, but he’s also West.” She wiggled her eyebrows at me, and I knew she wasn’t going to drop it.
“He’s too old for me,” I said. It was a weak excuse, and Sterling knew it .
Sterling’s eyebrows pulled together as she thought about that, her eyes scanning the aisle ahead of us.
We passed one booth that had a gorgeous array of lampwork beads, and I thought of Scarlett, my twin brother Tenn’s wife.
She was a glass artist who did lampwork, making jewelry and small sculptures.
She’d displayed at a craft fair already this season, but she’d given this one a pass, saying she didn’t have enough time to keep up with inventory for the shops in the area that carried her work and stock another booth.
A good problem to have. She was hoping to have enough for a booth here next year.
Based on what I was seeing, she’d do a lot of business if she did.
“He’s not too old for you, but I know what you mean. I love him, but he’s—” Sterling looked up to the ceiling as she searched for the right word. “Rigid.”
I smirked, and she laughed.