Chapter 16
“You made it,” Barbara said, opening the door for him. “I was starting to worry.” Bash ducked his head. Other than his manager, few people worried about him.
“There was a situation. I’m sorry I’m late.”
“Pshh. Don’t worry about it. We don’t stand on ceremony around here. Hard to do when the animals and Mother Nature are in charge. But you’re here now. Everyone just sat down. Go join them and I’ll put your pies in the kitchen.” Bash did as he was told and most everyone around the table greeted him warmly, as if Barbara was right and showing up late truly was no big deal. His mother was miffed for days when a dinner guest arrived late.
“You’re late,” Penny hissed as he sat next to her.
“We already determined that.” Bash wouldn’t apologize again. He’d apologized to the hostess. He didn’t need to apologize to a guest.
“Even if you show up late with pies, making everyone wait is rude.” Bash wished she’d stop lecturing and give him the benefit of the doubt.
“I saved you a few,” Harper interrupted, setting a small plate of appetizers near him before he said something he’d regret to Penny.
“You said they were all gone,” Cal said, eyeing the bite-sized finger food. Harper had been at the capitol on Tuesday covering the debates over the proposed lumber and mining changes, so she’d missed the traditional meal. Her absence had made her an easy target for family speculation and gossip. Barbara had wondered if she had a secret boyfriend, but Cal doubted it. “If she does, she isn’t happy about it. I mean, would a happy person write about the Tetons the way she does?”
“Not all relationships are easy or happy, Five,” Alison had said. “But I don’t think she’s seeing anyone seriously. I’d know if she was.”
“Mother’s intuition?” Elspeth asked, and Four had laughed at his sister’s question.
“More like mother’s nosiness,” he said as Alison squirmed and glared at him. “We’ve got access to the security cameras in all the buildings, and she can get a text alert when an apartment’s front door is unlocked.” Penny, Maggie, and Cal had stared at their mother in horror.
“What? They’re rental properties, and I need to know what’s going on.”
“Mom, we all rent from you. Are you spying on us?” Maggie had asked, and Bash had noticed the panicked look she shot Lucas.
“No, I would never spy. It’s just a security precaution. And honestly, I’ve never checked. I’ve got the login, but I’ve never used it. You’re all responsible adults and I trust you. It’s just the other crazy people I’m worried about.” She sounded remorseful.
“I believe her,” Three said. “No need to check on security feeds when Maggie and Penny live across the hall from each other, and Cal’s either Harper’s next-door neighbor or living out here. She’s got you four looking out for each other.” The kids looked at her in disbelief.
“Hey, it’s not just me. Your dad’s been in on it, too.”
Four laughed and held up his hands as if defending himself from further attack. “I’m just following orders. You’re the evil genius in this relationship.”
“I think it’s nice,” Bash said, and the table quieted. “As an only child who sees his grandparents a few times a year and grew up with hands-off parents, the way you look out for each other is admirable.” He’d lifted his water glass in a toast to Alison. “To overprotective mothers.”
Bash popped one of Harper’s honey-drizzled mini tarts into his mouth and wondered if any of the siblings had relayed their discovery to Harper. He knew Cal wouldn’t, but he didn’t know how close the sisters were. Maggie and Penny were tight, but it seemed like the oldest and youngest Buchanan kids didn’t have close allies.
Conversation flowed around him as dishes were passed. Maggie had turned the leftover turkey, stuffing, and roasted vegetables into a casserole. It amazed Bash they had so much to say to each other when they’d just seen each other the other night. And it wasn’t all about Harper’s news from the capital. Bash leaned back in this chair, wishing he’d worn sweatpants like Lucas and Cal had.
“What’s with your hand, Bash?” Three asked from the head of the table. Bash looked at his hand and cringed at the remaining grease. He’d wiped his hands with a wet nap he’d found buried in Rover’s console, but it hadn’t done its job.
“Grease.”
“That explains why Five’s not catching the ball like he used to. You’re supposed to grease the other team’s ball, not your own,” Three joked, and Bash laughed politely, but Cal didn’t join in with everyone else.
“Engine grease,” Bash clarified. “And it takes two to connect. Not everyone is 100 percent all the time.”
Three nodded. “True enough. What’s wrong with your fancy car?”
“Not mine. A teammate’s.”
“Who?” Lucas asked, and Bash was stuck telling them the story.
“Well, it’s a good thing you were there,” Three said. “People ought to be given an intelligence test before they buy a car. If you can’t do the basics, then you’re not fit to own it.” Bash agreed, but his definition of the basics included more than here’s where the gas goes and here’s where to add the wiper fluid.
“Bash, what are you doing after the season?” Barbara asked, sticking him in the conversational hot seat.
“I’m not sure, but hopefully I have plenty of time to figure it out.”
“If the team keeps playing like you have been and it stays relatively injury-free”—Four pointed at Lucas—“you’ll have lots of time.” Lucas was battling repeated hand injuries, which were hard to hide, unlike Bash’s shoulder and hip issues. Luckily, it was his non-throwing arm, and the acupuncture treatments helped. Injuries were part of the job, but this was Bash’s first season where everything seemed to hurt all the time. Two more years of hurting like this, knowing he only had VV Pub to look forward to, was depressing as hell.
“I’m actually envious of Cal and Lucas knowing what they’re doing when the season ends.”
“You’re welcome to join them out here,” Three said.
“I have a few options open to me, but none of them are in Cascade City.”
“Well, if things fall through, Lucas can always use a shit-shoveling partner,” Three said. Lucas planned to help Cal at the ranch when Barbara and Three went on vacation, and then when they returned, he’d stay and help while Cal went to Scotland to visit family and learn more about making whiskey and running a distillery.
Four leaned back in his chair and patted his stomach. “Excellent dinner, Maggie-girl. What’s for dessert?”
“Nothing until the table is cleared and the dishwasher’s running,” Barbara said, pushing back from the table. Bash stood with her, but she motioned him to sit, saying, “Not you or Lucas. You’re guests. Stay put and stay out of the way.” She winked as everyone stood but him, Cal, and Three.
“Lucas and I need to check on something outside,” Maggie said, grabbing his hand and pulling him toward the door.
“Five dollars says she comes back with hay in her hair,” Elspeth said and Four cringed like an overprotective father.
“Only a fool would take that bet,” Harper said as she stacked the empty plates on her side of the table. Penny took his plate.
“Silverware?” he asked, holding up his fork. At home, they would have cleared them, but he didn’t know what farm protocol was.
“Your choice.” They hadn’t spoken during the meal, but Bash had felt her withdraw each time he’d opened his mouth. He placed his dirty silverware on top of his plate as she took his and then her grandfather’s plate. Bash felt like he’d failed some sort of test as he stared at Three’s reserved silverware.
Cal poured them each a small glass of whiskey, and Bash listened as they evaluated his latest batch. Cal used the same still his great-great-grandfather had brought with him from Scotland. Bash knew little about whiskey, but it sounded like the Buchanans did, and they all had an opinion on what Cal needed to do differently with his next batch.
Bash watched Penny as she cleared the table. Her movements were economical and efficient and she was hot as hell in her snug jeans and coral-colored sweater. Even when she was unrightfully mad at him, he second-guessed his celibacy rule. It wouldn’t take much for him to break it with her, and it irritated him. His reaction to her was unfounded. Penny wasn’t the smartest, funniest, or prettiest woman he’d ever hung out with, but she was the kindest, at least to everyone else.
She was patient with customers, listening to them and never rushing them, even when they weren’t talking about books but yabbering away about inconsequential stuff. She accepted and then delivered packages for the other businesses in Marketplace if they were closed. Penny volunteered at the animal rescue shelter, walking the dogs and cleaning out the pens once a week. She mended books at the library once a month, which baffled him. They were her competitors.
But with him? She could be impatient, demanding, and doubtful. Her disbelief in him only made him want to prove her wrong. That he wasn’t the King of the Jackasses. It was maddening how much he cared about her opinion. They were from different worlds with different goals, and he shouldn’t have this powerful urge to erase the boundaries that separated them: her prejudice against his hometown; her desire to never leave Cascade City; her contentment in working for her aunt when she obviously had the skills to do something better.
Penny played it small and safe, but he needed someone by his side who played big and bold. Someone he could lean on. Penny could be that person if she wanted to. He needed her to be that person. When he was with her, his brain calmed. The ideas spinning in his head like an army of hamsters running in their wheels slowed. And when he touched her, they stopped. She’ll be the death of me.
“Try some.” Cal held his tumbler toward her when she came in from the kitchen. Penny tossed it back in one eye-watering swallow.
“It’s wet,” she said, grabbing the empty breadbasket and using it to gather the miscellaneous salt and pepper sets scattered around the table. “And strong, but if you pour me a little more, I promise to sip it during dessert.” She patted Cal’s shoulder as she passed.
Three held his tumbler toward Cal for a refill and looked at Bash. “You ever work on a tractor?”
“I’ve only seen one in pictures or at a distance,” he admitted.
“That’s a shame. We got an old one Five and I have been nursing along, but it’s about gone. It was Thistlestone’s first. You’re welcome to take a look and poke around anytime.”
“I might take you up on that.”
“Why is there a small dent in the bathroom ceiling?” Penny asked as she exited the bathroom tucked under the stairs.
“I forgot to duck,” Lucas said, hovering over the pies with Bash and Cal. He didn’t have any hay in his hair, but Maggie looked a little flush.
“Are you planning to cut your sad-looking pies soon, or should I take one of Maggie’s cupcakes?” Cal asked Bash. He frowned, holding the knife in his hand and staring at the pies. They weren’t the most attractive, but Penny had seen worse.
“You mean another one,” Maggie said, joining them. “You’ve got some frosting on the corner of your mouth, and I’m missing a carrot cupcake.”
“Maggie, would you like a piece?” Bash asked as he carefully cut each pie into six pieces.
“Did you make them?”
“I did.”
“Then I would love a piece, thank you.” It didn’t surprise Penny that he was meticulous as he served her sister, but it did when he asked if she also wanted a slice of the French silk pie Elspeth had brought. “I’ll sneak a few bites from Lucas’s piece.”
“Not really sneaking if you tell me, but sure, I’ll share,” Lucas said as Bash added a slice of each pie on his plate.
“This way you’ll have room for cupcakes, too,” Maggie said, and Lucas followed her out of the kitchen, looking like he’d happily follow her off a cliff. Penny busied herself with rehanging the kitchen towels on the oven’s handle and straightening the various odds and ends Nanna had on the counter while keeping a close eye on the dessert line. She needed to apologize to Bash, but she wouldn’t do it in front of an audience. He seemed comfortable talking and serving everyone. He was good with people, but she didn’t know how to convince him of that.
“What would you like?” he asked her as her parents walked away.
“I’d like to turn back time and not equate your lateness with rudeness. You were helping someone, and that’s a great reason to be late. And just now? You served everyone before yourself. That’s not what a rude person does. I apologize and I was wrong.”
“If it makes you feel any better, I hadn’t intended to serve everyone, but Barbara thrust the pie server into my hand, and I didn’t have a choice.”
“Some men have greatness thrust on them, but you got the pie server.”
“Something like that.” He pointed back and forth between the pies, and Penny pointed to the pumpkin. Her preference was French silk, but she wanted to make amends. Eating crow and eating his pie would be the same thing. “Did you get everything set up?”
“The store looks great. I just have the ceiling decorations to do.”
“What are those?” Bash asked, and she told him about the oversized glittery snowflakes and the colorful ornaments they hung from the ceiling. “After the holidays, the ornaments come down, but the snowflakes stay up until the end of February.”
“Wait until I’m back.”
“What?”
“I’ll hang the ceiling stuff. I’m taller and ladders can be dangerous,” he said. He’s joking, right?
“I’ve been doing it for years.”
“That’s no excuse to be stupid. Three hundred people die each year from falling off a ladder and most of them from a height of less than ten feet.” Of all the ridiculous things to come out of his mouth over the last few months, this took the cake. How dare he tell her what she could and couldn’t do? And if his lordship thought she was going to obey, he was delusional, too. Her store. Her decorations. Her rules.
Before she could start her verbal assault, he stepped closer and put his finger on her lips. “Do you really want to argue with me and make me worry when we’re leaving for an away game tomorrow? It’s an important game, and I need my full concentration. I know how upset you’ll be with yourself if we lose because my concentration was shot.” His warm breath fanned across her face.
“That sounds like blackmail.”
“No, facts. If I know you’re on the ladder, I’ll worry. And you’ll feel guilty about causing me emotional anguish, and then you’ll beat yourself up about it. Staying off the ladder is the best thing for both of us.”
“And I think the best thing is for both of us to join the others.” Penny wouldn’t agree to his silly demand or argue about something he had no say in. It was sweet that he was concerned about her safety, but she didn’t need his protection. They were kind-of-sort-of dating, but that didn’t give him the right to pull out his caveman card. And the way he’d manipulated her empathy against her was worse than this Me Tarzan. You Jane routine. The nerve!
She stabbed at her pie, disappointed to find it palatable. Why does he bring out the shrew in me? Does my inability to read Bash allow him to have a clear view of me? Does my witchiness mask my bitchiness from others? Penny stewed on this as she sipped her whiskey, frowning and moving it toward Grandad. It was too smoky for her, but she knew he’d finish it.
“I’m going to leave now. If you leave before Cal, maybe you could stop at the house on your way home? Give me a kiss for good luck?” Penny heard the yearning in his question. She was still peeved over his ladder demand and how well he knew her, but she wasn’t mad enough to stay away. They were temporary, with an end-of-season expiration date, and she needed to get her fill of him before their time was up.
She shrugged, not wanting to appear too eager. “I guess. Since you’ll be gone for a few days. Leave the side door unlocked.”