Chapter 36
Chapter Thirty-Six
“ C an I get a refill?”
Ignoring the customer, Jody didn’t remove his gaze from Sophie. Another hour, and she would be safe on the mountain.
“Excuse me. I want a refill!”
Sophie cast him a curious glance before breaking off a conversation with Lily and Rachel. Both women worked part-time at the thrift store. Rachel hadn’t worked there for a while as far as he knew.
Rachel was Greer’s sister, which had him wondering if she was working there by chance today, or was she working today because Greer asked her?
He had spent the day on pins and needles, waiting for what the dark star had warned them about to unfold.
“What’s wrong with you today?” Sophie asked, coming up to him. “You’ve been acting weird all day.”
“Have I? I guess my mind has been elsewhere.”
Giving her sensuous smile, he laughed when she gave him an angry glare back.
“Can you get your mind out of the gutter long enough for a refill?”
“I think you might want to do that yourself.”
Sophie turned in the direction of the customer. When her eyes came back to him, he gave her an innocent look.
“I’ll get it,” she said, lips pursed.
“I thought you might. She’s drinking sweet tea.”
“Of course she is.”
It was everything he could do to keep a straight face as Sophie went to the drink station. He loved seeing the spark of jealousy in her each time she saw Chasity.
She had nothing to be jealous about. That man-eating bitch was one of the few single women he hadn’t hooked up with. There was something manipulative about Chasity he couldn’t put his finger on, and he didn’t want to.
Jody watched as Sophie took Chasity her drink. After a few short words that he couldn’t hear, Sophie pivoted and came back with a furious expression on her face.
“Your ex wants your opinion on what she should order.”
“I don’t have any exes. I had hookups.”
His clarifying the situation only made Sophie angrier.
“Just go give her your opinion on what to order. Suggest something she can choke on.”
Inwardly, he was still laughing when he approached Chasity’s table.
“What can I get for you?”
“I was beginning to wonder if you were ignoring me.”
“There aren’t many men who could ignore you.”
“Then why haven’t you taken me up on any of my invitations to come over for dinner?”
“Chasity, when I had hookups in the past, I was very careful about the women I was with. There’s one type of woman who wasn’t worth the price to fuck.”
“What type of woman is that?” Her flirtatious attitude turned chilly.
“A bitch like you. A frostbitten dick isn’t worth the price of fucking you.”
“I’ll take the ticket, and I’ll take my business to King’s.” He wrote out her ticket, and she snatched it out of his hand.
“Personally, I’d go home and cook if I were you. King’s wife won’t be as polite as Sophie.”
The way she looked at him gave him the chills.
Sophie was waiting for Chasity at the register.
Admiring that Sophie was polite to the woman, Jody wrapped his arms around her waist.
“I’m impressed.”
“By what?”
“Your restraint.”
Noticing that Lily and Rachel had checked out while he was talking with Chasity, he took the opportunity to walk to the front of the restaurant and lock the door.
“We have forty-five minutes before I close.” Indignantly, she started busing where Lily and Rachel had been sitting.
“By the time we get everything ready for tomorrow, it will be.”
She didn’t argue.
Pitching in together, they unloaded the dishes that Ginny had put in the dishwasher before she had left for the day, loaded the remaining dirty dishes, mopped, and swept. Sophie was clearing the register when the phone rang.
Jody went to lock the back door while Sophie answered the phone. He came back as Sophie slammed the phone down. His eyebrows rose at the furious way she had ended the call.
“Who was that?”
Sophie looked at him with hurt and anger. “Chasity. She told me she’s pregnant.”
“Why did she call you to tell you she’s pregnant?”
“She thought I should know what kind of person you are. She said when she tried to tell you she was pregnant, you were nasty to her.”
“Was she inferring I was the father?”
“She didn’t infer anything. She came out and said so.”
“Chasity is lying.”
“I have no doubt she is.”
Relief flooded him that she believed him … until he saw her expression was still upset.
“You’re angry at me because she lied about me?”
“I’m angry because I have suckered myself into thinking we could have a future together. First Baylin, and now Chastity. How many women’s anger am I going to be the brunt of because you couldn’t keep your dick in your pants?”
Her gradually escalating voice had him wincing.
“Do you mind lowering your voice? I don’t want Greer coming over here. He’ll make us heat up the grill again. Let’s go home. We can talk about it—” He had to break off what he was saying when the phone rang again.
“If that’s Chastity, let me talk to her,” he growled as she answered the phone.
Jody could tell it wasn’t Chasity when Sophie began talking in a tearful voice.
“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes. Just wait,” she said, hanging the phone up.
“Who was that?”
“My parents.”
Reaching under the counter, she pulled her purse out.
“Go home, Jody. My parents are here. They’re waiting for me at my apartment.”
“I’ll drive you.”
Sophie shook her head at him. “No, I’m going to walk. I need to think.”
“I’m not letting you walk when I can drive you.”
“I’m not giving you an option. Go home. I’m going to stay the night at my apartment. There’s no need coming in tomorrow, either. I won’t need you.”
“You’re ditching me because your parents are here?”
“I’m sure you have better things to do rather than play bus boy for me. I’m not ditching you; I’m taking a break. A break where I can get my head back on straight and decide if I really want a future with you without being influenced by how good you are in bed. I just don’t know how compatible we would be once we grew tired of each other.”
Each word cut him deeply. While he had been falling in love with her, she was regarding their time together as sex. How many women had he told the same thing? The old saying of the shoe being on the other foot played through his mind.
“My parents are waiting.” Brushing past him, she went around the counter to the door without looking at him.
She unlocked the door, and he felt the same stark emotion he could read on her face.
“Listen to me—”
“I need to hurry, Jody. Please, just go.”
Hearing the crack in her voice, he went through the door, waiting for her to turn off the light and lock the door.
“At least let me drive you,” he argued.
“Do I need to go to the police station to get you to leave me alone?”
Jody felt as if he had been smacked in the face. “No, you don’t.”
Walking around her, he went to his truck. When he got inside, he saw Sophie crossing the street. She was only a couple of blocks from her apartment building, but darkness was descending. She wouldn’t make it before it turned pitch dark.
Starting the truck, he rolled the window down, watching Sophie until she turned the corner. After waiting several minutes, he pulled out of the parking lot while looking in the direction she took. Jody could see her when he stopped at the red light. She had a straight shot to her apartment building. Turning the wheels of the truck, he started to edge out of the traffic so he could keep watch over her when a breeze blew in the window, ruffling his hair.
Come home.
Silas’ voice spoke to him through the wind.
Wanting to disregard his order to watch over Sophie, frustrated, he turned the wheels back in the other direction of the main road. Silas would be able to watch Sophie closer than he could unless he wanted to chance Sophie seeing him and calling the police. He was afraid that if she did, soul mate or not, he didn’t know if he could forgive her. He would never harm Sophie, so her thinking she needed protection from him was like a spike through his heart.
The whole drive home was a test of wills to turn back. Silas wouldn’t have called him home unless it was important. He would know, with the sighting of the blood star, he was concerned about Sophie’s safety.
When he turned into the driveways, he wasn’t surprised to find all of his brothers were out, watching the sky. What did shock him was the Porters being there.