Chapter Eleven
Evie
I drag in a deep breath and take a sip of cocoa while I wait for my brother.
He’s notoriously late for everything so I try not to panic, though every part of me is panicking.
I don’t know what to say or how to say it.
I should’ve thought about some of it last night.
Instead, I was messing around in the bookstore with the hottest guy in Rugged Mountain.
We fell asleep somewhere between the sci-fi and self-help sections.
I’m not sure what kind of omen that is, but I’m ignoring it.
Thankfully we woke up this morning before Marley came in.
“Hey.” Tess meets me at the side table, her face bright and eyes wide as though she’s in the best mood ever, though when is Tess not in the best mood ever? “How’d last night go? I’m a little disappointed you’re not still tangled with him somewhere.”
“Well, it went pretty good.” I grin wide as though I’ve been filled with actual sunshine.
“Okay,” she slides into the booth opposite me, the bakery box of pies in her hand, “I paid for him. You owe me more than that.”
“Fair,” I say, taking another sip of the hot liquid, “but I’m a lady, and a lady doesn’t talk about those kinds of things.”
Tess’s jaw drops. “Girl… I did not think you had it in you! Look at you!” She claps her hands quietly as though she’s proud of my accomplishments.
“Well, turns out… I do have it in me.” I sigh with playful confidence. “I think he might be staying for a while too. We talked about it last night.”
“Oh damn. You’ve got magic pussy.”
“Magic pussy?” I laugh. “Yeah, I guess I do.”
She nods and smiles brightly. “I’m liking this new you.
You guys can thank me at your wedding. Right now, I have to get these pies back to the bookstore for a pie tasting contest I’m hosting for the book club.
” She slides out from the booth, pie boxes in hand as the scent of cherry and apple surround us.
“I’ll stop by later if I get a chance, but today I might be a little busy with the new man… ya know what I mean?” I grin again, somehow wider than before.
“You’re going to be annoying, aren’t you?”
“Oh, yes,” I grin, “I absolutely am.”
She straightens and twists her hair to the side, her eyes on the door as it rings. “Oh, hey, Cole.”
I narrow my gaze at her change of speech, at the change in her body language.
“What?” She shrugs. “Your brother’s hot.” She says the words low enough that he doesn’t hear them, but I do, and I have no idea what that’s about.
“Enjoy the pie with your super horny book club peeps.”
“Will do.” She grins, though it’s not aimed at me. It’s aimed at Cole.
I wonder how long she’s had a crush on him.
“Hey, little sis.” He slides into the booth in front of me and nods toward the waitress as though telling her he’d like a cup of coffee. It’s funny how everyone communicates in places like this. A nodding head can mean so much, but here, every waitress knows exactly what that means.
“Hey,” I say more somberly than I’d planned, mostly because I don’t know where to go from here or how to have a proper conversation about what I need to say.
“How’s your bodyguard?”
I swallow hard, stirring my spoon in circles, watching the whipped cream melt. “He’s not my bodyguard, Cole. He’s a bou—”
“I know who he is. Mom called, and I put two and two together after that weird encounter yesterday. The guy sticks out like a sore thumb.”
“You do too.”
He laughs under his breath and fidgets with the pack of sugar on the table.
“You should turn yourself in, Cole. I’ll go with you. I’ll explain how this is all my fault, and we can—”
“This isn’t your fault. This was me losing my shit. That’s all. I need to take accountability. I know that. I already talked to the fire chief. I’ve done enough years over there that he’s going to vouch for me.”
“Why’d you run in the first place? We could’ve figured this out.”
“I didn’t trust that I wouldn’t make it worse.” He shrugs as the waitress sets a steaming cup of coffee between us. “I’ve been angry for a long time. I need to figure that out. Maybe the best place to do that is jail.”
I don’t know how to respond. I don’t want to see my brother in jail. I want him here with us.
“We could hold off until after Christmas,” Nick’s voice booms in behind us.
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to intrude. I told Evie I’d stop by this morning, and well, bad timing.
” He reaches his hand out for Cole’s, and Cole takes it before Nick slides into the booth beside me.
These tables aren’t built as generously as the ones at the bar, and it shows in the way Nick has to contort to sit.
“I don’t want to delay the inevitable,” Cole says, sipping his steaming coffee.
“Well,” Nick tilts his head to the side, “the courts aren’t going to move much until after the new year, so you’d just be sitting in jail.
That, and I’m not ready to leave yet. That means we could hold off until after Christmas.
I know some guys that owe me favors. I’m not promising anything, and you’d still need to steer clear of the guy’s family, but if you don’t run, I don’t chase.
” Nick scrubs his hand down over his beard.
“I need you to agree to meet back here on January 2, though.”
A dish clanks against the counter in the back kitchen as the jukebox plays an old Christmas tune.
Cole sits straighter and tilts his head to the side as though he’s thinking over his options.
“Tess did ask me to help out with her book club, and I’m sure the fire department could use some volunteers this time of year.
I don’t think Chief will give me trouble if I’m just helping out. ”
I roll my eyes. “Of course Tess asked you to help with the book club. Are you taking your shirt off ‘cause when she says, ‘book club,’ she really means strip club.” I take a sip of cocoa and hold back my laughter.
“It’s for a good cause, right?” Cole grins. “If the bookstore can get people back for something regular like a book club, maybe they’ll sell more books.”
I nod in agreement as I lean back in the red vinyl booth, staring out into the snowy scene on Main Street.
I didn’t see any of this coming. Not Nick, not my brother coming home, not the un-invite to my sister’s wedding, but somehow, everything feels right.
Cole wants to come home for good, the bookstore has more hope than it did before, and I’m snuggled beside a giant in a booth again.
A giant that I’m bringing home tonight and the night after that.
Right now, that’s all the promise I need, but I have a feeling forever isn’t far away.