Chapter 2 #2
“I did get a job.” My siblings worried about me. They were all happily paired off and doing great while I was unemployed, and thanks to my oldest brother, I wasn’t homeless. Technically, I was renting from him, but he gave me a good rate. He claimed he didn’t, but I knew better.
I was fine. Just…bored? Uninterested? As a ranch manager, I had a lot of animals to keep alive and healthy, and that included the cowboys working under me.
These days, it was just me, and well, that wasn’t very stimulating.
But two careers hadn’t worked out, and I wasn’t in the mood to watch another one fizzle out and die.
Alder took a slow sip. “You want me to guess what you’ll be doing? A birthday clown? Singing telegrams? Underwater basket weaver?”
“You know I can’t sing, and I don’t like jobs where I might get laid off every winter. Water freezes in the cold.”
“So, birthday clown?”
“I believe the kids just call me Uncle Jasper.”
He chuckled because, yeah, I was the quintessential fun uncle.
I was single with no kids, not for lack of trying in my younger days.
Years ago, my life had been on track toward marriage and the rest. I’d had a well-paying corporate job until I’d gotten laid off.
She left not long after. Turned out the whole for better or worse thing wasn’t worth it for her.
I wasn’t worth it. While I worked for the Knights, I’d given up trying to meet a woman who’d become a partner. Made the loneliness easier.
“I’ll be out at Bishop’s Landing,” I said, “doing handiwork.”
His dark brows ticked up. “That sounds…temporary. I heard they just changed ownership.”
“I ran into the new owner yesterday.” To say the least. I didn’t say the new owner had big brown eyes and curly dark hair.
I didn’t say that I had gotten the ashes of the recently departed on me, nor did I mention that I had watched Sheridan scatter the rest in the park where her mom used to love to hang out.
I’d been there for her during a really hard time.
I certainly didn’t tell him that yesterday was the first time I had felt like I had purpose. First, to cheer up the pretty but distraught woman who mourned her mom. Two, to help her fulfill her dream and prove her siblings wrong.
“She’s a Bishop too, right?” he asked. “The owner.”
“One of them, yeah. Sheridan Bishop. She remembers Lily.”
Those dark brows arched higher. “She’s that young?”
“What’d you think she was? Our parents’ age?”
He shrugged. “I guess the parents always seemed old to me as a kid.”
“Nope, she’s only a little younger than me.” I took a drink of my strong coffee. I got used to drinking it any way the cowboys made it. This cup could be filled with battery acid, and it wouldn’t faze me.
Alder’s gaze stayed glued to me. “And suddenly you’re switching careers to handyman?”
Defensiveness prickled over the back of my neck. “I’ve changed before.”
“Sure have.” He pulled out his phone and tapped into it. He narrowed his eyes and then flipped it around to show me the screen. A smiling Sheridan faced me from the profile window of some social media account. “That her?”
“Yes,” I said between gritted teeth, resisting the urge to grab it from him and study all I could about her.
“She’s changed her work status to ‘it’s complicated,’ and lists ‘not yet known’ as her place to live.”
“Snoop.”
“Yep. Daisy’s going to love this.”
“Your wife comes off placid, but she loves gossip.” I enjoyed gossiping with her.
“As long as she’s not involved in it, she’ll listen to it all day. So will our sisters.”
I shot him a warning glare. “Don’t you dare.”
“What?” he asked innocently. “I’m just telling them the good news. You got a new job.”
“Then they’re going to go out there to eat and be nosy.” What if Sheridan got upset and realized she didn’t need me around?
“They’d be supporting a local business.”
I couldn’t deny that Sheridan and Bishop’s Landing probably needed the customers. “Tell them to order appetizers and a dessert too.”
His grin spread wide. “Oh, it’s a plan.”
Now I felt bad for Sheridan. She had her own siblings waiting for her to fail. Mine were going to swoop in and make her feel like a sideshow. But their money was green, the resort had good food, and I had a lot of siblings. They would tell people and be excited and word would spread.
Sheridan needed it.
Bishop’s Landing too.
“When do you start?”
“I’ll meet Sheridan tomorrow, make a priority list, and figure out the supplies I’ll need.
” A part of my conversation with her yesterday burned a hole through my gut.
“She mentioned that she’d love access to the dock.
She’d make a path from there to the restaurant and catch all the water traffic that they normally miss because everyone has to wait until they’re done on the water or do it before that. ”
Alder nodded, then froze. “But she can’t.”
“Nope. Because it can’t be sold yet.”
He tipped his head, studying me. “Not unless—”
“Not this time.”
He waited for me to continue. It sucked to say it out loud.
I could help the woman. I could make a big part of her life better when it came to the resort.
But she wanted to prove herself, and having me carry her across the threshold wouldn’t solve that.
Besides, we hardly knew each other. It wasn’t fair to either of us.
I drew in a deep breath. “She’s gotta have this win on her own. Her family’s like we were with Lily, making her feel like she can’t do anything right and every decision is a bad one.”
Understanding filled his eyes, but there was a question there too. “It’s okay if you don’t want to make that jump.”
“It’s not that.”
“It’s not?” he prodded gently.
“It’s not about her.” My ex-fiancée had long been out of my life.
He gave me a you sure about that? look.
Defensiveness crept up my neck. “It’s been years.”
“And you haven’t had one girlfriend since.”
Nope. Definitely no fiancée since then either, and that suited me just fine.
“I’ve been working, and that’s what I’m going to go do tomorrow.
Work. Besides, Sheridan’s a mess.” Acid chewed up my throat throwing her under the bus like that.
But if it worked to get Alder off the topic of my ex-fiancée, I’d suffer a little heartburn.
“A mess, huh? Sure.” Apparently, his bullshit radar had been honed as the CEO of the refinery outside of town.
Since he wouldn’t drop it, I’d give him a huge dose of the truth. “She ran into me. Literally. She spilled her mama’s ashes on me.”
He blinked, but didn’t otherwise react. It was like he was waiting for me to tell him I was kidding.
“To be honest,” I continued, enjoying his growing horror, “Sheridan said it wasn’t all of her mother. The ashes were split between the siblings.”
Alder made a choking noise and then shot back his coffee like it was mixed with hard liquor instead of steamed milk. He smacked his lips. “Damn, Jasper. That’s…unusual.”
I barked out a laugh. “Sure is. She’s floundering. Going from being a real estate agent to a resort owner? Right after her mom died? No. I’m not interested. If not for my sake, then for hers.”
“Makes sense.”
Relieved the subject was dropped, I was left with a sour taste in my mouth that ruined the entire cup of coffee.